Drop-Bears and Drop-Kicks: Mt Stuart

Mt Stuart is the large granitic mountain behind Townsville. Most of the land on the slopes is held by the Army, but a road, lookout, and nature reserve at the summit are accessable to the public. In my opinion, the view and trails are way better than Castle Hill, but I think people are put off because they think it is too far away.

There are heaps of cool plant communities on Mt Stuart. Open cabbage gum (Eucalyptus platyphylla) woodlands dominate the slopes, but small pockets of vine thicket and rainforest line the creeks. The western slope is poorly drained, and mostly a stunted Melaleuca grassy savannah thing I guess.

One small relatively nondescript trail leads to the edge of the cliffs, where another small trail goes down the rock face to a small ledge. At the the top of these cliffs, water runs off underneath the top soil and gathers in depressions and seeps, where all sorts of cool things grow.

I had been trying for years to find a really cool terrestrial orchid that grows on Mt Stuart, Habenaria triplonema. I was always going at the wrong time of year, and it is pretty hard to notice this plant if it isn't flowering and you don't know what you're looking for. This Habenaria species only grows on Mt Stuart and a couple of places along the Bloomfield River (in Queensland anyway. The species is widespread in WA and the NT).
Upon my return to Townsville at the start of 2016, I headed up to Mt Stuart, as it was flowering time for Habenaria. I checked out a small creek line that I had scoped out for being a good spot for carnivorous plants and BOOM, ground orchids! Finally!

Of course, once you see one, you notice about five million of them. They were everywhere on the track down the cliff edge, and it was really nice seeing something that I've spent ages looking for just growing in such profusion.

Crotalaria calycina is also everywhere, and much nicer looking than the other weedy species.

Heaps of Dianella too.

Another plant that I had been searching for was the northern rainbow plant, Byblis liniflora. You may remember that I found this at Tannum Sands, but that was only three or four plants. Here on Mt Stuart, the byblis grow en masse in carpets.

Plenty of other carnivorous plants too!

One seep runs under a heap of rocks and down a series of stone shelves and down the cliff. Here, there is just a ton of sundews. These ones are part of the Drosera indica complex, either serperns or finlaysoniana.

Drosera auriculata! Did not expect to find these here. These are the same species as at home. Contrary to growing advice and populations growing in other states, the QLD populations seems to grow in summer and go dormant in winter, and is the opposite in other states. Though to be fair, I have noticed that the ones at home grow whenever they get enough rain, regardless of season.

This is another species I did not expect to ever find here. I knew they grew on Mt Stuart, but was never particularly hopeful about finding them. These are silver elkhorns (Platycerium vietchii). They are an epiphytic (well, lithophytic in this case) fern, and are tolerant of semi-desert conditions, whereas other Platycerium species are confined to higher rainfall areas.

Scarlet bloodroot (Haemodorum coccineum) is another species that I've never seen in flower (in the wild). I always manage to find the dead flower heads, and the plant when it isn't flowering just looks like a dianella. These are in the same family (Haemodoraceae) as kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos) and are essentially Queensland's answer to the kangaroo paw.

Just like at home, there is Murdannia everywhere.

One of my homecoming celebratory Mt Stuart trips was with Aaron, and that is the trip I found the tuberous sundews and bloodroots and all the really cool stuff on. We were venturing around aimlessly when we saw a creek at the bottom of a gully, lined with thick vegetation. So of course we had to go check it out. When we got down there, there was no standing water, but it was very moist. The trees along the banks were all of the same species, and looked rather eery. Heaps of pencil orchids (Dockrillia bowmanii) were in the trees too.

Mystery Tree fruitscovered every available surface

Now, this is where I started getting really excited. These trees are the Mt Stuart Mystery Tree (Backhousia tetraptera), which was only just recently discovered, and declared a new species in 2012. This creek line on Mt Stuart is the only place it has been found so far. So cool. Again, this is another thing that I thought that I would never see. I always got the impression that it was growing in some super secret, inaccessible section of Mt Stuart, only to be seen by a select few when they deign to show it to outsiders. But nope! It's just right there!

To read more about the story of the Mystery Tree, go here.

Of course, it wouldn't be a decent trip without miscellaneous animals and scenery.