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.