BZ3620 Trip 2: Davies Creek

Our second day trip was to Davies Creek on the Atherton Tableland. Eucalypt woodland dominates the drier areas of the watershed, with rainforest further up the creek towards the falls. Wet sclerophyll, a very cool and rare type of forest, runs along the creek in a narrow band.

Upon arriving at Davies Creek, we split up into two groups, one group started at the rainforest, and the other started in the eucalypt woodland, and then swapped over after lunch. Luckily the group I was in was the rainforest starting group.

Above, native bees gather around a wound on a Bursaria. Doing what, I don't know. Maybe gathering the sugary phloem?

On the way to the rainforested area, we stopped at the Eucalyptus grandis wet sclerophyll ecotone. Eucalyptus grandis dominates this area, and is similar to the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests down south, in that they need devastating fires to reproduce. The understorey was composed of ferns, mostly bracken and Cyathea, Dianella, gingers, and heaps of other things that I didn't get a good chance to look at.
The Greater Mahogany Glider inhabits this type of forest, and the marks that it leaves on the trees are quite distinctive. The glider drinks the sugary sap, and as it works its way up the tree, it moves in a spiral, so there are these cool spiral shaped scars on the trunks. I didn't get a good photo of any of the scars, but they are there.
These ecotones are very cool, because of the reproduction by fire method, and also because they get invaded by rainforest. Most people think that the rainforest would be being invaded by the sclerophyll, but without a consistent fire regime, the rainforest is quite aggressive in moving into and taking over the fire affected ecotones. So if the rainforest invades fully, then there is no habitat for the gliders.

From there, we moved through the teeny tiny patch of ecotone to the rainforest. Yay!

And of course, because we were standing still talking about plants for so long, the leeches found us.

As with most rainforest areas in tropical Queensland it seems, there is history of logging in the area.

On the side of the path, there was a dead bush pig. Someone had killed it and separated the head from the body. Bloody hell, it was ripe. Worst thing that has even been smelt in the history of mankind. It had been dead for a while I reckon, it looked like it had gone past the bloating stage of decomposition and had turned to mush which had soaked into the ground. Urgh. Never again.

We then headed up into the dry eucalypt woodland. Nothing too exciting there, so no photos. Nothing except this cute little dragon that Fiona caught.

My old enemy, Erythrina vespertilio. Thorny little buggers.


Nothing to do for the rest of the trip, so I poked around the flooded gums along the creek.

And that's Davies Creek.

BZ3620 Trip 1 Stannary Hills/Irvinebank

First field trip for BZ3620 we went out to Stannary Hills and Irvinebank out near Herberton.
Stannary Hills represents a tropical heathland environment, typified by Casuarinaceae, Fabaceae, Proteacae, Myrtaceae, Mimosaceae, and Epacridaceae. Heathland in the south east of Australia has a much greater diversity of Epacridaceae, whereas those in the north, like Stannary Hills, usually only have one or two species present.

Silver daisies (above, below) are very common in the area.

Native bluebells (Wahlenbergia) are also very prevalent in the area.

Above shows what the newest flowers of the silver daisies looks like.

Above, flowers of Hakea plurinervia, and below, the unopened seed capsules.

 There were also lots of Stylidium graminifolium (above), a type of trigger plant. Insects that land on the flower trigger a hammer mechanism which swings down and slams pollen onto the insect. Pretty cool stuff.

The top left flower in the above photo shows the hammer the best

Plant habit, and hand for scale.

There were also lots of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea) wit spent flower spikes, like the one below.

 Sundews (Drosera spatulata...maybe) are present in areas with poor drainage, indicating that the area has poor soils.

I noticed more fringe lilies (Thysanotus tuberosus, above) on the downhill slopes than anywhere else.

 Mirbelia speciosa (above, below) looked amazing when flowering together. Also a typical heath species - fabaceous, and with thin firm leaves similar to northern hemisphere Ericaceae heaths.

 And now for my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Thelymitra, the sun orchids (below). I don't know if these are nuda or aristata but I don't really care, because I finally got to see a Thelymitra!

Went trekking a bit further and found another orchid on my botanical bucket list - Caladenia carnea (below).

 In one area there was a large patch of Borya septentrionalis. I had never even heard of this plant, but it is pretty cool! It is a type of resurrection plant, so when times are tough, nutrients and fluid are extracted from the leaves to keep the system ticking over, then when it rains they burst back into life. And the leaves are VERY VERY SHARP.

In a hill cut area where groundwater was seeping out, baldderworts (Utricularia caerulea, below) were growing. Another carnivorous plant, and the traps are borne along the roots as little air filled bladders that suck in little critters.

From Stannary Hills we moved up the road to Irvinebank, where it was more of an open woodland than heath. Here there were plenty of grevilleas, and acacias, as well as poison peas.

 Above, Grevillea pteridifolia. Below, a Gastrolobium species, also called, poison pea as it contains the poison 1080 which poisons stock.

 Below, Grevillea glossadenia, which is found only in Irvinebank.

 Below, Acacia purpureapetala, the ONLY purple Acacia, and it is only found in Irvinebank.

So yeah, that was the Stannary Hills/Irvinebank trip. Going to Davies Creek tomorrow so that should be interesting.