Common Bog-rush

You say tomayto, I say tomahto...

There's a little plant called Schoenus apogon. (At the moment that is. It's had other botanical names since it was first described in the early 1800s.) Schoenus comes from the Greek word for reed or rush and apogon means 'without a beard'. (I still don't know where the beard would be if it had one.)

A search of various pronunciation sites on the web revealed that Schoenus is pronounced 'shernus' or 'skinus' or 'shonus'. So I'm going to keep calling it shonus unless Neville Walsh* tells me his version.

And the common names are confusing as well. It's called Common Bog-rush here in Victoria, but also Common Bog Rush, Fluke Bog-rush, Bog Club-rush and, because it also grows in New Zealand and Japan, who knows what else. That's why we use the scientific name. It's standard across the world. (Did you see how I used the word 'we' there? I'm a citizen scientist.)

Schoenus apogon flower

Schoenus apogon, habit

If you want to see the Common Bog-rush flowering you need to get out there now (spring and summer) and look for a very small rush growing in a seasonally damp area. It's common so you have a good chance of finding some but they're easily overlooked and you've probably walked on one heaps of times because it looks like grass. Compare the size of the gum leaves in the photo above. It's an annual so that means it grows from seed each year.

The culms are terete and striated. To you and me that means the stems or stalks are circular (in cross-section) and striped or streaked. The sheaths around the flowering spikelets are dark red-brown and quite attractive really when you get down low to have a good look. The sheaths are shiny with glabrous margins. (That means they're smooth and free from hair so maybe that's the 'apogon' cleanshaven aspect.)

These plants were growing near Heywood in Western Victoria. I've identified them as Schoenus apogon but there are 19 other Schoenus species in Victoria so it's possible I'm wrong. I'm happy to be corrected.

* Click on photos to view large

** Neville Walsh is Senior Conservation Botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

*** Schoenus plants are in the Cyperaceae Family

Hands up for the Woolly Teatree

Crawford River, Hotspur

There is a tall shrub that grows in swamps and along watercourses in south-eastern Australia and in my lifetime it has become much less common. It's the Woolly Teatree Leptospermum lanigerum.

The 'lanigerum' part of its name refers to the woolly (hairy) capsules and leaves. It has a a silvery appearance. In fact its other common name is Silky Teatree. The references call it 'common and widespread' and it is a plant used a lot in regeneration and restoration projects so in no way is it a threatened species but what is under threat is their favoured habitat. Farmers for generations have drained swamps and allowed stock to graze along river banks and in wet areas. My father was a dairy farmer and one paddock on our farm was a Woolly Teatree swamp when I was a child. Dad allowed his cows to graze the paddock and subsequent owners have as well and now there are no teatrees left.

Some farmers are doing the right thing and fencing off swamps and creeksides. Organisations like Landcare, Greening Australia and Catchment Management Authorities are providing funding for fencing in some cases. But I fear it is too late for some populations of Woolly Teatree. In the photo, above, the swamps beside the Crawford River at Hotspur are full of water at the moment and the Woolly Teatrees must be loving getting their feet wet. But there won't be much regeneration because this particular patch (and others like it) is not fenced off and teatrees rely on a 'cool' fire to release the seeds from woody capsules.

A swamp along the Crawford River at Hotspur with Woolly Teatrees, Phragmites, Poas and flowering Billy Buttons. 

Remnant Woolly Teatree in a small gully near Myamyn, Victoria.

Remnant Woolly Teatree, fenced off from stock. Milltown, Victoria.

Stewarts Reserve

Armstrong Creek, Stewarts Reserve

Stewarts Reserve is a small linear reserve on Stewarts Rd south of Waurn Ponds. It is only four hectares of grassy woodland with Armstrong Creek running the full length. There are almost no facilities in the reserve, just one picnic table and a short path, parking is limited and access is through a pedestrian gate.

In late spring and summer the water levels in the creek are low or non-existent and when I visited this week the creek was a series of waterholes. Many of the trees were flowering prolifically - eucalypts (Manna Gums, Swamp Gums and River Red Gums), Bursaria spinsosa and Acacia mearnsii - as were the Hop Goodenias and the water ribbons in the creek bed. Red-rumped Parrots and Eastern Rosellas were in numbers and I also heard a Purple-crowned Lorikeet. The only representatives of the honeyeater family were the Red Wattlebirds and White-plumed Honeyeaters, but I'm being a bit unfair because my visit was mid-afternoon. A morning visit would probably be more productive. The prickly Hedge Wattles and bursarias, the tree debris and the hollows in the old trees provide good shelter for the fauna (frogs, birds, insects, reptiles, bats and possums) in the reserve. There are relatively few weeds. The reserve is a very important remnant of what was once a more extensive environmental community - grassy woodland.

Many of the trees are tagged so presumably the council holds a database.

The Common Brushtail Possum gave away its location by moving when I was close by.

Armstrong Creek is only a few kilometres long and drains into marshland at Lake Connewarre but it has given its name to a new suburb being developed between Geelong and Torquay. The suburban sprawl will put immense pressure on the creek and Stewarts Reserve as well as the significant roadside vegetation in the area. I'm pessimistic about its long-term fate unless an active Friends Group evolves.

Stewarts Reserve and Armstrong Creek surrounded by housing development. Source: Google Maps

Photo taken from inside Stewarts Reserve.

Stewarts Road with Stewarts Reserve on the left.

Harman's Valley and Mt Napier

Mt Napier erupted over several decades about 8000 years ago. The lava flowed into valleys and over the landscape forming a shield around the volcano itself. Scientists can date the lava flow that filled Harman's Valley with carbon 14 isotopes of the peat that formed in a swamp after the lava filled a valley. 

Harman's Valley can be easily seen from a lookout on the road near Byaduk. And there are excellent information boards there as well. How else would I have known about isotopes!!

Lava blisters

It looked very different 8000 years ago. The local Aboriginals would have seen the lava slowly filling the valleys and spreading over the landscape in waves through several decades of eruption. 

We now call the volcano Mt Napier (more about that in the next blog) but I went to see the blisters, the tumuli, that form on the surface of a lava flow when gases build up beneath the surface. The dome roof collapses and the sides remain. The blisters (on private property along Old Crusher Road) are excellent examples apparently and much bigger than I expected..

There are no information boards at the site but at the Harman's Valley site nearby there are several that explain everything very well. The tumuli site is not far off the main road but the signposts do not entice the tourists so it can be very easily go unnoticed.

Some Otway orchids

We walked about 200 metres along a track in the forest north of Anglesea on Victoria's south coast but it took a while because we found a few orchids flowering, about ten species in all. Am I repeating myself when I say this area is a marvellous floristic treasure?

Eastern Bronze Caladenia Caladenia transitoria

Large Duck Orchid Caleana major

Plain Fingers Caladenia sp. aff. vulgaris

Spotted Sun Orchid Thelymitra ixioides

Slender Sun Orchid Thelymitra pauciflora

Salmon Sun Orchid Thelymitra rubra

We also saw two species of bearded greenhoods, Pink Fingers and the small duck orchid Caleana minor as well as leaves of several other species. A friend was along the same track a month ago and saw an entirely different suite of orchids and other plants flowering.

Spring fungi in the damp forest

When we were in the Otways looking for the Thismia last weekend (see last blog) we found quite a few different types of fungi as well. The mulch was damp, it was shady and there were quite a few understory shrubs and ferns present as well. In fact there was so much fungi there that it made me wonder why I haven't done more 'fungi forays' at this time of the year.

The first is a small stemmed black cup fungi, only a centimetre or two wide, possibly Plectania (or Peziza). We found quite a lot of this, often completely covered in mulch.

In an open but shaded area next to a path we found a beautiful coral fungus in various shades of pink and deep purple. It's possibly a Clavaria. The insects seem to like it as well. My friend Polly thinks it could be Clavaria zollingeri which 'is usually found amongst decaying litter under tree-ferns' (Fuhrer) - which this one was.

The tiny blue Chlorociboria was growing on a piece of stick in the mulch. Apparently one species stains the wood blue and another doesn't. We didn't look that closely - it was hard to concentrate on the fungi when the Thismia was claiming our attention.

PS A friend has just forwarded me a photo she took on the day and it definitely shows blue staining on the wood so I think it's a safe bet that it is C. aeruginascens.

Looking for a needle in the haystack

They said it was impossible. 'Good luck', they said. 'Best of British luck.' But we pressed on.

Our plan was to search for a Fairy Lantern Thismia rodwayi in the wet forests of Great Otway National Park. Rosalind reasoned that because it grows in Tasmania and eastern Victoria it was a possibility that it would also be present in the Otways, given that Victoria and Tasmania were connected by a land bridge only 15 000 years ago. So she organised a bunch of us to go down there last weekend. It's a very big park but the search technique for this plant is to each take a one-square metre quadrat (that's one square metre!), carefully lift of the mulch and look underneath for this tiny plant. It might be red, but it's only a centimetre of two high. If no Thismia was present we moved on to another quadrat.

At our second site we were successful. It's a beautiful and unusual plant, aptly named Fairy Lantern. We found eleven plants in all, over two days. Naturally we were very excited. It was all good fun.

The first image is of an immature plant, the second is mature.

More bush creatures

This beautiful little Lauxaniidae fly was on a bush-pea at Blanket Leaf picnic ground in the Otways - I think it's Pultenaea mollis and the little yellow slime worm was under the mulch.

Another cemetery visit

Four types of grevillea can be found in the Brisbane Ranges, some more readily than others. One is the endemic Grevillea steiglitziana Brisbane Ranges Grevillea. Another is the Golden Grevillea Grevillea chrysophaea and it can be found fairly easily in heathy woodland near the old gold-mining town of Steiglitz. I found it easily at the Steiglitz cemetery where it grows between the headstones and reaches a height of several metres. A New Holland Honeyeater was taking advantage of the nectar when I was there. The flowers are a stunning golden yellow.

This plant is endemic to Victoria and grows in the east of the state except for the population in the Brisbane Ranges. I've never gone looking for the other two types of grevillea - another thing to put on my 'to do' list.

PS This cemetery is a good spot for orchids too.

Plains wandering

Grasslands look uninteresting from a distance but up close are spectacular. We explored some grassland reserves on today's guided walk at Little River near the You Yangs. We had to walk very slowly in order not to miss little herbs hiding. There were several daisies, dianellas, bluebells, convolvulus, lomandras, blue devils, fringe-lilies, pimeleas, pelagoniums and grass-lilies as well as a variety of indigenous grasses. The yellow flowers of Clustered Everlastings dominated the scene.

One of the little herbs was a Plantain Plantago. I thought it was P. gaudichaudi, but it has hairy leaves so maybe it's P. varia.

Little treasures in the Long Forest

Bull Mallee is the star of Long Forest but we found some of the other players today.

Vittadinia gracilis New Holland Daisy

Wahlenbergia luteola Golden Bluebell

Eremophila deserti Turkey-bush