What is Australia's most amazing wildflower? Vote now

This tiny semi-aquatic plant has a pretty flower on a long stalk. But what makes it special is hidden just under the water.

The blue bladderwort (Utricularia caerulea) is found in swampy areas from Brisbane and tropical north Australia down to Perth, as well as across South-East Asia.

Its superpower comes in the form of tiny floating "bladders" that actively trap insects such as water beetles. When the insect touches the outside of the bladder, it opens and expands, sucking in water and the insect in a matter of milliseconds. 

The trapped insect will eventually die and its nutrients are absorbed by the plant. Once the plant has finished its meal, the trap resets itself and expels any excess waste. 

This active trapping mechanism is an unusual strategy among carnivorous plants, most of which use a more passive method to catch prey. As Cadel Boyce, botanist at Cairns Botanic Garden, says: 

Despite being called the blue bladderwort, the flowers can also be white, purple or yellow. 

Impressed by the blue bladderwort? Vote for it here.

These striking candle-like flowers emit a sweet fragrance at night.

Creamy candles (Stackhousia monogyna) are found in dry open woodlands, alpine areas, coastal heath and grasslands in WA, QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS and SA.

Also known as the bush candle, this low-growing herb produces masses of candle-like flowers on long stems. The flowers are tubes made up of tiny creamy-white flowers that look like little stars.  

"They're quite striking when you see them in a dry grassy forest," says Aimee Bliss, a conservation ecologist with Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

The sweet scent they produce is especially strong at night and is likely designed to attract night-time pollinators, such as moths. 

Are you drawn to the sweet scent of the night candle? Vote for it here. 

With soft star-shaped flowers and grey-green foliage, these iconic wildflowers bloom en masse within a year of two of bushfire and are a symbol of hope.

Different species of flannel flowers (Actinotus) are found on the east and west coast of Australia in coastal heath, scrub and open forests, as well as inland areas, such as Alice Springs.

The soft, woolly petals are actually modified leaves, and the flower head is made up of numerous tiny, individual florets. 

But the real magic is in flannel flower seeds, which can survive for decades before they're "awoken" by bushfire smoke. 

Primed by the smoke signal, the seeds remain in a second dormancy state until it rains. Then they collectively bloom from the ashes like a floral phoenix.

"There's been instances where we haven't seen it for decades, and then there'll be the perfect timing with fire and water and it will just erupt from the ground," says Dani Hamilton of Kings Park and Botanic Gardens in Perth.

Cathy Offord, head of Australian Plant Bank research at the Australian Botanic Gardens, says post-fire blooms will last for between three to 15 years. 

Fun fact: flannel flowers might look a daisy but they’re actually in the same family as carrots and parsley, and they have a carroty smell when you cut them.  

Do you have a soft spot for the flannel flower? Vote for it here.

This orchid could do a TED talk on deception. To humans it looks like a duck. But to male insects it looks and smells like a potential mate.

Flying duck orchids (Caleana) are found in woodlands and heath in all states and territories except the Northern Territory. 

While it looks like a duck in flight to the human eye, that's just coincidental, says Katharina Nargar, a senior research scientist at the Australian Tropical Herbarium.

"It's got no vested interest in looking like a duck," Dr Nargar says.

And the male insect isn't only deceived; he also gets detained. When a male pollinator lands on the flower it snaps into a "closed" position and traps it. 

Eventually, when the male insect is thoroughly doused in pollen, it's released and flies off to attempt to mate with another flower, thus facilitating pollination.

There are around 17 species of flying duck orchids and they all have a different pollinator insect that they deliberately deceive.

Does the flying duck orchid deserve to fly into first place?  Vote for it here.

With showy, feathery flowers this plant does not look especially tough, but it definitely is!

Mulla mulla (Ptilotus) can be found in arid and semi-arid environments across Australia. 

This plant is a harsh-environment specialist, thriving in poor soil and extreme heat.

"In the Pilbara it's just everywhere. This species’ ability to repopulate in arid environments demonstrates its phenomenal resilience. It's an absolute desert survivor," says Dani Hamilton, a technical officer at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens.

It also flowers en mass after rain and after bushfires.

The blooms come in a range of sizes and colours — pink, purple and white — and have a wide range of common names, including pussy tail, lamb's tail and showy foxtail. 

The name mulla mulla derives from an Indigenous name, and the species has cultural significance for many desert communities.

Do you love a good survivor story? Vote for the mulla mulla here.

This small dandelion-like plant with a nodding yellow flower is culturally important. Its root was a significant year-round staple food for Indigenous people in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania.

Murnong or yam daisy (Microseris) were prolific at colonisation, with many early accounts referring to the dominance of the yellow flowers on plains in Victoria and New South Wales.

The murnong crop was managed by Indigenous people with fire and partial harvesting, and was one of their main sources of nutrition. 

"It's a nutritional powerhouse, and it was easily accessible," says Barkandji woman, researcher and artist Zena Zada Cumpston.

Ms Cumpston says traditionally, the roots were often baked in earth mounds.

"We know that women collected it every day and it was something we ate every day. And when it's slow roasted, it has something in it called inulin, that actually helps you to regulate your blood sugars."

Colonisation and the introduction of hard-hoofed animals such as sheep and cows led to a massive decline in murnong.

"It's one of those plants that I feel like if there was any plant that we could bring back successfully, that would be the one that I would really hope for because it is so nutritionally valuable." 

While murnong is very similar in appearance to a dandelion, its flower has a characteristic nodding or drooping head, and the leaves have small barbs. The flowers can be spotted in spring.

Think the murnong is pretty amazing? Vote for it here

This iconic flower can survive extremely cold weather.

Richea scoparia is found only in Tasmania at elevations above 700 metres

"They're tough, you know, they're survivors. They live in these really gnarly environments," says Aimee Bliss, a conservation ecologist with Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

The flowers appear prolifically in early- to mid-summer in a range of colours. And they have an unusual adaption to the cold: their petals are fused together to form a protective cap called a calyptra over the plant's reproductive parts. 

This cap protects the developing flower from the harsh conditions, but eventually it needs to be removed so the plant can be pollinated. 

Encouraged by the sweet nectar within it, snow skinks and birds often assist with this process — and the nectar earns the flower one of its common names, the honey bush.

"The snow skink eats off the cap on the reproductive areas to feed on the nectar, which then exposes the reproductive parts. [This] allows insects to come in and pollinate the flowers during summer," Ms Bliss says.

Richea scoparia is also known as a bushwalker's nightmare because of its hard, spiky leaves that can make walking in Tasmania difficult.

"It's something that makes Tassie bush feel really different to everywhere else," Ms Bliss says.

Is this cool plant your favourite?  Vote for it here.

These profusely flowering plants use a clever traffic-light style signalling system to communicate with pollinators. 

Calytrix species (commonly known as star flowers) can be found in coastal dunes, granite outcrops, rocky ridges and woodlands across Australia — but Western Australia is a hotspot.

Their star-shaped flowers range in colour from dark pink to yellow, and they bloom profusely, according to Dani Hamilton, technical officer at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens.

With so many blooms on display, the flowers have an ingenious system to ensure insects don't waste their time visiting an already pollinated flower.

The flower stamens — the male reproductive organs in the centre of the flower — change from yellow to red to signal less availability of nectar. 

Yellow is much clearer to bees and some other insects (and occasionally birds).

This means insects will focus on visiting unpollinated flowers. 

Once pollinated, the flower develops awns — almost like whiskers — that come out the top of the fruit and stay with the seed.

Think the calytrix is the star? Vote for it here.

These pretty flowers have one of the fastest-known plant movements: a catapult-like trigger that hits a visiting insect with pollen.

Triggerplants (Stylidium) are found across Australia in a range of habitats including on sand plains, rocky hills, escarpments, granite outcrops and swampy areas.

Australia has more than 300 species — with 100 recognised and described just in the past 30 years. 

The flowers come in a dazzling assortment of shapes, sizes and colours, and are often adorned with hair and appendages.

But most impressive is the trigger mechanism: a floral column made up of the fused male and female reproductive parts that rises above the flower. When an insect probes the flower, this column is released incredibly quickly — in 15–30 milliseconds — harmlessly covering the insect in pollen.

This pollen will be "picked up" when the insect visits another flower of the same species and gets hit again in the exact same spot.

"What makes them truly extraordinary is that different triggerplant species can place pollen on different insects in different spots," says Juliet Wege, principal research scientist at the Western Australian Herbarium.

After being triggered, the column resets to its original position and can fire many more times. 

Do you think the triggerplant punches above its weight? Vote for it here.

Which orchid relies completely on its fungal partner for nutrients? And lives underground, with only its flowers allowed to penetrate the top layer of soil? 

The underground orchid (Rhizanthella) hides in undisturbed forest leaf litter and is found only in Australia, specifically WA, QLD and NSW. 

Like most orchids, it has a fungal partner. But the underground orchid is the only known subterranean plant that relies completely on that partner for nutrients because it does not photosynthesise. 

"To completely start depending on a partner and completely go underground ... we would expect that this is an evolutionary dead end to become so dependent on another organism," says Katharina Nargar, a senior research scientist at the Australian Tropical Herbarium.

The underground orchid evolved around 32 million years ago, with the split between east and west coast species occurring about 9 million years ago. 

"Knowing how old this lineage is, and what amount of time it survived under harsh climatic conditions in Australia over the past 30 million years ... they are very hardy, so that's very impressive," Dr Nargar says.

The underground orchid never develops green leaves. Its stem is ghostly white, and its tiny red fleshy flowers — which look like the inspiration for the demogorgan in Stranger Things — only reach the soil surface so pollination can take place.  

"The underground orchid has an extreme lifestyle," Dr Nargar says.

Do you think the underground orchid is the best? Vote for it here.