The photo today shows a thicket of scrambling coral-fern in the Wombat Forest, where more than 20 species of ferns are known.

Surprisingly, this thicket grows near the top of a rise, where it has probably found a damp spot where it can survive dry summers. There is overhead light shade from eucalypts.

Scrambling coral-fern is a lighter green colour than many other local ferns, and even more so in open situations where the fronds are bleached to a yellower green.

Its fronds have dark wiry stems that are forked, forked again, then again and again. The smaller segments are linear, with tiny "leaflets" on each side.

It is a strong-growing fern, usually found in less-shaded places than many other ferns. It is able to withstand full sun for at least part of the day.

Its usual habitat in the Ballarat district is damp forest, where soils are rarely dry. Large thickets of scrambling coral-fern can be so tangled as to be impenetrable.

Locally, it is known mostly from the Wombat Forest, but it also grows in a few spots at Enfield and Creswick and a few other places. Some of these situations are rather open, without much shade.

The botanical name for scrambling coral-fern is Gleichenia microphylla.

The family of brown butterflies contains 29 species in Victoria. Some of the smaller members of the group have the attractive name of xenicas, and it was one of these recently observed at Mt Cole.

This was the silver xenica, attracting attention because of its very orange colour and its small size.

Although patterned somewhat like a male common brown butterfly, it was much smaller and brighter. Its wingspan is just 29mm, compared to a male common brown at 56 mm.

The underside of the wing has silvery-white markings and three prominent eye-like spots.

The silver xenica's caterpillars feed on tussock-grasses and weeping grass, both of which are common at Mt Cole. Another local xenica butterfly is the ringed xenica, found in damp grassy bushland gullies.

Such habitat is not particularly common or extensive in the Ballarat district, so the ringed xenica is similarly restricted, although it is not rare.

On the edge of Ballarat and throughout local forests we have the marbled xenica, very much like a slightly smaller male common brown.

It is fairly common in the Ballarat district from summer to autumn, often found along bush tracks.

What is this pink-flowering plant growing along a drain in Creswick? It looks a bit like a weed. J.H., Ballarat.

This is slender knotweed, an attractive native summer-growing perennial plant often found in damp places such as swamp-edges, creeks, lagoons and dams.

It often grows to knee-high or more, with spreading, often drooping stems. It is weak-stemmed, rather than woody.

Although it is a perennial plant, it dies back in winter and is seldom noticed until its attractive sprays of small pink flowers appear in summer.

It is widespread and common in suitable spots in the Ballarat district and across southern Victoria, and can be found growing in full sun through to full shade. It also grows in other parts of the world.

The plant is known to botanists as Persicaria decipiens, and it is in the dock family. Its seeds are eaten by waterbirds.