For much of the year, tea tree orchids Dendrobium canaliculatum (Orchidaceae) are quite inconspicious in the wild. If you notice them at all, you might chuckle at their incongruous appearance, rather like dryish bunches of small onions arranged on the branches of wetland Melaleucas (photo below) and other trees. However, from about September to November, …
Continue reading “Plant of the month 10/2021: Dendrobium canaliculatum“
The Landcare revegetation area on Castle Hill provided a nice surprise this month (Sept 2021, photo below) when flowers appeared on several small Pavetta australiensis, only 8 months after they were planted as tubestock. Pavetta australiensis (Rubiaceae) grows as an understory shrub in our drier rain forest areas, monsoon forests and vine thickets. It has …
Continue reading “Plant of the month 09/2021: Pavetta australiensis“
Dischidia nummularia (Apocynaceae) is a dainty native vine that grows as an epiphyte on paperbarks and other coastal trees in northern Queensland, sometimes in association with Myrmecodia species (ant-plants) and some native orchids. In favourable situations, these plants develop an attractive cascade of rounded succulent leaves. People have likened Dischidia nummularia foliage to strings of …
Continue reading “Plant of the month 08/2021: Dischidia nummularia“
Townsville is outside the natural range of Myrsine subsessilis subsp. cryptostemon but a single specimen is growing very well in Anderson Gardens. With masses of tiny flowers clustered along the stems, this plant made a splendid show at the time of our group’s July outing. Small blue fruits can be expected to ripen in a …
Continue reading “Plant of the month 07/2021: Myrsine subsessilis“
After our wonderful outing to White Mountains National Park, it was impossible to pick “the best” among many fascinating plants we saw. Instead, our Plant of the Month is “the biggest” of our weekend discoveries. Eucalyptus chartaboma is not widely known, although it is a Queensland endemic. Its scattered distribution in north Queensland includes the …
Continue reading “Plant of the month 06/2021: Eucalyptus chartaboma“
By Hugh Sweatman While Australia is home to 117 species of sundew, representing about 50% of all recorded species, the centre of that diversity is southern Western Australia. Atlas of Living Australia lists 21 species in Queensland; three of these are endemic to rain forests of North Queensland and have very limited distributions. Drosera prolifera …
Continue reading “Drosera adelae – a true North Queenslander”