Birth flower for October 22
Waratah
Meaning: beauty seen from afar
The genus name Telopea comes from Greek for seen from afar, a nod to the bright red heads glowing in the bush. Each head is a dome of over a hundred small flowers ringed by red bracts. It is the floral emblem of New South Wales, Aboriginal people sipped its nectar, and after bushfires it resprouts from a woody base underground.