Blackmans Gap

Back home in Central Queensland, there is a wonderful little swimming hole at a place called Blackmans Gap, on the other side of the range behind Miriam Vale. It is a great little spot, with waterfalls, as well as some cool plants and animals.

I am unsure as to how to describe the vegetation there. At best it would be a subtropical rainforest, due to the large amount of hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), but I didn't see any Brachychiton which is another indicative genus of subtropical rainforest. There weren't a lot of vines, mostly just Smilax and Jasminum. Overall leaf size I guess would be notophyll (7cm-12.5cm), but there was great variation in this. Callistemon, Melaleuca, and Syzygium were common around the banks as well as in the actual bed. Emergents were mainly Araucaria and Elaeocarpus obovatus, as well as some especially large Melaleuca. The ground layer was very rocky, but composed mainly of Gahnia, Lomandra, Dianella, and small ferns in some places. The shrub layer is also quite poor, possibly due to flooding. There were no sort of 'in-between' shrubs, either large ones strong enough to resist the flood, or pioneers such as Homolanthus and Lantana.
Near the carpark area, it opens up into more of a marshy boggy wet sclerophyll, with Hibiscus divaricartus and large emergent Eucalyptus. In places on the range, the vegetation is more typical rainforest, with more vines and a larger average leaf size,as well as some Cyathea and Alpinia. For the most part, the range is a wet sclerophyll reminiscent of the ecotones of North Queensland. Emergent eucalypts dominate, with a shrub layer of an unknown Banksia, Astrotricha, and large Asteraceae, as well as some very nice Cycadaceae specimens. Again, the ground layer is mainly Dianella and Lomandra from what I saw as we drove past.

But there is still plenty of more cool stuff that I did actually get photos of!

Plenty of Ajuga australis around

Lobelia purpurascens too

Above is the main swimming hole. Sort of looks like a volcanic cone that the creek has split in two and shoved apart. Cool stuff.

The picture above it doesn't show it well, but I am standing on top of the rock to the right in that first pic of the swimming hole, and the other half of the 'cone' in the pic above this one is opposite the creek.

Also quite a lot of Casuarina

Basket fern (Drynaria) was everywhere as well

My favourite little spot along the creek is up at the waterfalls, where a small bowl in the rock has filled with sand and leaf litter around the roots of a hoop pine. This little bowl is absolutely chock a block with sundews (Drosera spatulata) and some coral fern (Dichranopteris linearis). The fern wasn't looking as healthy as it was in previous years, so I hope it pulls through. There was another thingy in there that I wasn't sure if it was a hoop pine seedling or a Lycopodiella.
The sundews are actually all along the creek in the undisturbed wet patches, but this little bowl is where you are always guaranteed to see them.

Lycopod or hoop pine? Probably a pine.

Dichranopteris linearis. It could also be Sticherus flabellatus.The grey wormy things are the old rhizomes.

The pools between the waterfalls are also really cool. Plenty of purple spotted gudgeons (Mogurnda aspersa), freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium), jungle perch (Kuhlia rupestris) as well as plenty of other things I can't remember.

More basket fern...

Plectranthus I think

And it just wouldn't be an adventure if I didn't find some herps. Luckily, there is one that infests Blackmans Gap, and if you go there without seeing one, there would be cause for concern.
It is of course, the ubiquitous water skink, Eulamprus quoyii. And they like to pose.

And a lace monitor too, Varanus varius. Was pretty happy I saw it.

So yes, plenty of cool things at Blackmans Gap, and plenty more cool things that I didn't get pictures of, so I will definitely be going back.

BZ3260 Daintree Pt 3 - Canopy Crane and Imogen Beach

Our last day was no less exciting and interesting than the previous day, even if it was marred by the fact that we had to leave. But hey, canopy crane!
The best thing about staying at the CSIRO station is that we get to use the canopy crane. Not for actual scientific reasons, just touristy reasons.

Going up!

Should have changed the exposure on the camera

Normambia normambii, the palm, is another Queensland endemic

A flowering Licuala palm

The ospreys nesting on the end of the jib weren't too happy about us using the crane

After everyone had a spin in the crane, it was time to head on back to Cairns, with a brief stop at Imogen Beach to check out beach rainforest.

A lovely day for a beach outing

A veritable sea of Crinum pedunculatum

Dendrobium discolor about to open flowers

Itty bitty tassel fern at head height

The thin ropey tassels are the reproductive structures, strobili

A dead 4 o'clock moth, Dysphania numana

After Imogen Beach, it was time to head back to PK's to grab some last minute supplies (ice cream, sausage rolls etc) before heading off to Little Cooper Creek.
Little Cooper Creek is a really special place in the Daintree. The Daintree is already a haven of Queensland of endemics, but Cooper Creek is the endemicity hotspot within the Daintree. One arm drains from a nutrient poor granitic valley, while another drains from a more nutrient rich basaltic origin. This has created a unique floristic array along the creek, with some species only being found at Cooper Creek.

The ulysses butterflies (Papilio ulysses) were out in full force at PK's

 I have always had a strange fascination with this species, as well as the cairns birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion). When I was young we went to Cairns on a holiday and went to a butterfly farm, where Mum and Dad bought two glass fronted mounts of a ulysses and a cairns birdwing. To this day, they sit on top of our tv cabinet. I remember always wanting to take them down and look at them because they were so bright and shiny and the way they reflected the light was really cool. Seeing them in the wild is even better. There is nothing like being in the Wet Tropics and seeing two of the most symbolic species of the region flitting past like a giant electric coloured scrap of paper. So cool. The Cairns students were less then thrilled, as they are common as mud and they see them everyday. Boo.... 

A nice carpet of Selaginella longipinna at Little Cooper Creek

Dat dichotomy doe

Bulbophyllum baileyi AGAIN

Baby Dendrobium I think

Idiospermum seedling

The orange/brown mass behind the undergrowth in the pic above is a Syzygium glenum, a Cooper Creek endemic. There are only 24 individuals in the wild here. Crazy stuff. Another Cooper Creek endemic I didn't get a pic of is Xanthostemon formosum. A really cool plant, the flowers have little purple windows in them. This Xanthostemon is a rheophyte, meaning it grows amongst boulders in fast flowing waters. Cool stuff.

And then it was time to go home.
That's a wrap, folks.