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It's Blue With Five Petals
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25.01.2022 You probably can’t see me but I am down on the bottom left, just out of the photo. I’m having a cup of tea and an Iced VoVo after a long night’s work on my web. Good huh? I should be getting all the glory for my magnificent work, yet, as usual, IBW5P wants the limelight. But, hey, watcha gunna do? [All eight legs shrug.]... While I have your attention, spider silk is both tough and elastic. Silk can hold together five times better than the equivalent strand of steel in a tensile strength test. Spider web fibres 5 times stronger than steel. And more elastic in a wind, it can bend it like Beckham. Yup. Just by pulling out a mix of a bit of liquid protein from glands near me backside and mixing it with good old water and pulling it out of my body and coating with a layer of protein like a magician with silk scarfs, but way better. Okay, now it is your turn. What can you pull out of your backside? The Spiders (order Araneae) make several different types of silk and different glands are responsible for each one. Most spiders produce silk. I will admit, other Orders of invertebrates, such as silk-worms, make silk but many of these mix the protein with modified saliva and spurt it out. You have no idea all the uses they have for it! I do a great gossamer rather than that show stealer, the concentric circle spider web, but it works just as well and is just as magic. Note: Many science labs are working on how to reproduce silk for a wide range of possible uses. For example, silk is biocompatible with humans and could be used as capsule coatings to deliver drugs. So far, spiders 473 goals, scientists 2 behinds. Another reason extinction is not an option. ..you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone (thanks Joni Mitchell) https://uwm.edu/field-s/the-wonders-of-webs-ii-insect-silk/ https://www.wired.com/2013/09/synthetic-spider-silk/ https://morgridge.org/blue-sky/how-is-spider-silk-made/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas/2018//180821094234.htm https://www.theguardian.com//cobweb-silk-science-technolog P.S. Once again FB does not seem to like the fact that I run no ads and do not pay FB to ‘boost’ my exposure. FB algorithms are again slowly shutting down how many people get IBW5P posts. If you enjoy the site, you can come looking for the regular posts on Sunday night.
24.01.2022 For each and every human alive today, there are probably 10 million ants also alive today. Ants have a more useful role in the web of life than humans. Humans take. Ants recycle and reuse. They clean up offal, move seeds, turn over soil Australia has over 100 known genera of ants and 1300 species, so far. ... With diversity comes a diversity of survival techniques. Some ants forage at night, others are daytime active. They include carnivores, herbivores, ground dwellers, cave dwellers, tree dwellers, slave owners, collectors of sweet substances and eaters of insects. Many are omnivores eat anything that you find. You will have seen 100s of ants on a small dead bird or a T-bone steak dropped at a BBQ. They are there within minutes and the next day, not a scrap of meat left on the carcass. Recycling at its best. In any area of bush, ants can make up 25% of all the land animal biomass. Per hectare, if you could gather them together, (hoover them up) they would weigh the equivalent of several sheep or kangaroos or wombats. And despite some cartoons, ALL the workers in a colony are neutered females, not males. But hey, film makers probably think that no young boy would watch a cartoon where all workers, builders, detectives, soldiers, communicators and heroes are female. The few males fatten up, mate, and die. If you could lie on the ground and tune in your ears, you might hear thundering hooves or feet of local ants at work. Less glamorous than wildebeests or giraffes, but as important. Can you imagine a successful Australian business with The Big 100 tours of our ants? Why do we know so little about the little things that hold the ecosystem together? Together the ant family must make up a considerable, if not the most, biomass on earth. Eat or be eaten. On the flip side of the ecosystem, many animals including our short-beaked echidna, birds, blind snakes, and spiders eat ants. The world (air, water, minerals, nutrients, seasons, day and night) and living ecosystems reuse and recycle everything and work in cycles, not in straight lines. Our society forgets this at its peril.
24.01.2022 Moth-t people will not recognise this moth. I, too, am moth-tly out of my depth with moths. There are probably 10,000 scientifically described moths in Australia and as many again without an identity card. This relates to about 2,000 different moth species in SA. So, I have a 0.05% chance of being in the right ball park for the name. An educated guess narrows this to about 0.1% and probably the right family family Geometridae*. Interestingly, there are 10 times as many moth... families than butterfly families and 40 times as many moth species as butterfly species. With how many are you familiar? It is small, out in the day, has distinct black and white feathery moth antennae like centipedes long ‘legs’ out from the central spine, small black dots along the trailing edge of the wing, and a strong black mark in the middle, so maybe, a Varied Wave Moth. ( P.S. Brett Smith, one of our many nature-loving talented readers, tells me it is a Plantain Moth, Scopula rubraria. Thanks Brett.) The distinctive antennae make this a male moth and seals the ID. As normal, I was down on my tummy in a local grassland. While there, not to waste the effort, I thought that this Wave Moth must be named for the beach-y sand colour wings and the faint lines across the wings, like gentle waves drifting up the beach with the tide. The caterpillars of these are slender Loopers feet at both ends, moving by endless yoga-like Downward Dog -Plank repetitions. They feed on grasses and broader leaved forbs in grassland. which is a common habitat type for this group. Most ecological research time and effort is spent on ‘big, furry’ animals. But it is the thousands of species of caterpillar and millions of individual caterpillars that fuel the ecosystem. They turn plant material into animal protein and concentrate essential nutrients in their droppings a fast recycling system. They provide essential food for birds that need protein to build the tiny bodies and feathers of their babies. A baby bird can eat up to 300 caterpillars and other insects every day * * for weeks. A slower recycling system. Recycling: In nature, everything is broken down into bits and re-used to become something else. * family Geometridae - means ‘earth measurer', because of the looping movement of the caterpillars or ‘inchworms’ in this moth family. * * Peter McQuillan, Jan Forrest, David Keane, Roger Grund (2019) Caterpillars, Moths and Their Plants of Southern Australia. Butterfly Conservation SA Incorporated, 208 pages. Plastic cannot be broken down by nature and recycled.
23.01.2022 The aberrant one. The different one. The one you overlook. But I think it is a little cutie. It’s the one that always looked just a bit different to Whittakers Sundew. A bit small. In fact, it eventually was given its own subspecies name translated as meaning the Slightly Different Whittakers Sundew. On close examination, taxonomists found real significant differences and took it out from under the wing of Whittakers Sundew in 2008. It was given its own name, Scented Sundew... or Drosera abberrans. Whittakers Sundew is the one that you often see in the Adelaide hills. At the sight of the first big bright white flowers of the season, you get on your hands and knees to take a photo. Often there are 6 or 7 flowers all blooming at the same time from one rosette, 48 cm across. After all, Whittakers Sundew is our Sundew, only found in S.A. If you have Edition 1 of Its Blue, you are overlooking the aberrant one. If you have the Edition 2 of Its Blue, you are probably still overlooking it, based on the text and leaf drawing. Add Scented Sundew to your book with these few guides: 1. Each rosette is smaller at 35 cm across. Leaves are smaller. 2. Often only 1 flower per rosette. 3. Flowers, if more than 1, few and opening in succession, not together. 4. Rosettes grow in colonies (not such a such a popular strategy in this time of pestilence). 5. Parent plants send out little creeping ‘arms’ (stolons or stems) shown in photo along the soil surface and these then burrow into the soil to start a new plant a clone. 6. Plants can turn reddish at season’s end as they begin to die back to the tuber. Found in eastern foothills towards Murray Bridge, through the South East and into Victoria. Drosera aberrans or Scented Sundew
22.01.2022 It was a big surprise when I saw these lime-green flowers on an Emubush / Eremophila in the Adelaide Region, eastern hills. I almost had to lie down with a cup of tea and wet cloth on my forehead. I had the tea but, alas, left the cloth at home. If you have a 1st edition of IBW5P, it would have been extra surprising to you because it is not included. (It is very rare.) If you have a 2nd edition of IBW5P, it may have still been surprising. Page 333 shows a single flower and l...eaf of Dense-Felted Green-flower Eremophila, a subspecies much more likely found on the other state peninsulas. IBW5P has, in the past, usually ignored subspecies, as ‘too much information’ for the average user. There are many people happy with the excitement of correctly getting to a genus and muttering That’ll do pig, that’ll do. (to quote the movie) However, others want detail, all the detail. Add text and sketches to your book. Page 333 in Second Edition or on page 344 in First and Revised Editions. Sketches of this subspecies in the first comment. There are two quite different foliage subspecies of Green-flower Eremophila. Eremophila subfloccosa ssp. glandulosa Green-flower Eremophila This subspecies of Green-flower Eremophila has shiny sticky young leaves. The ‘sticky’ are lollipop (glandular) hairs on new growth, which, although hard to see, are very very sticky. So sticky it is rumoured that Sundews / Drosera weep with envy. Perhaps the function of these sticky lollipop hairs is to keep insect chewers at bay. I took these photos in an area burnt in the last few years. Perhaps this plant is rare because it has a fire or smoke stimulated germination. (Rare in state and endangered near Adelaide.) Eremophila subfloccosa ssp. lanata, also known as Dense-Felted Eremophila The leaf is so hairy and cottony that it looks blueish rather than green. Perhaps these keep insect chewers at bay, or perhaps it helps conserve water in a very dry environment. Lanata = woolly or felted. Shown in IBW5P Second Edition but very unlikely in the Adelaide region.
22.01.2022 Identification of our 4 local Tea-tree species made easy, using normal household ingredients.. We are quite lucky with the four local Tea-tree species. They live in different habitats and have different leaf shapes and fruit shapes. ** If you are not standing in creek water or a swamp, you are probably not looking at Silky Tea-tree. It is also a tall shrub with a very blue look. The outsides of the young fruits are silky with fine hairs.... If you are sorry you grabbed a handful of this shrub to help you up a steep slope, you have met Prickly Tea-tree. Found in damp sites and damp gullies in the hills. Sharp tipped leaves, and fruit hang around for a long time, pretending to be tiny (wooden) muffins. Heath Tea-tree can be found in many of our stringybark forests with a shrubby understorey and in more open heaths with or without low growing trees. For some reason, the fruits do not remain on the parent small straggly shrub for very long after maturity, so fruits are not useful diagnostically. The fall-back identification if not one of the others. Are you in the mallee, on sandy soil? Does the shrub have green leathery leaves about 1-1.5 cm long? That will be Green Tea-tree. Each of these fill a niche in their respective communities / habitats, providing shelter and food, all year round for some species but seasonally for other wildlife that must be mobile in the hills, following nectar in flowering events, seed production, or flushes of insects. Saving habitats is so much more complex than just saving one type of tea-tree, one kind of robin, or one kind of hopping mouse. From the top left: 1. Silky Tea-tree Leptospermum lanigerum 2. Prickly Tea-tree Leptospermum continentale 3. Heath Tea-tree Leptospermum myrsinoides 4. Green Tea-tree Leptospermum coriaceum ** There are several weedy Tea-tree species of which you should be aware. The most common of these is the large shrub Coastal tea-tree (Leptospermum laevigatum), making itself at home along the coasts; looks most like Green Tea-tree but on steroids. Leptospermum species IBW5P 2nd Edition page 156-157
21.01.2022 Just grateful for the rain, the sun that comes after, and the promise of spring.
21.01.2022 Don’t crow about knowing this bird or I might just have to call you a little raven’ nutter. Hold your hand up if you think ‘crow’. Hold your hand up if you think ‘raven’. Huh, everyone has a hand up. Mind you, a lot of the Crow vote seems to be coming from arms in yellow, red, and blue jumpers. And yes, of Corvid it is - a crow - or a raven or a crow. With your handy DNA testing kit, check if your bird has raven or crow ancestor lineage.... If you have forgotten your DNA kit, with consenting permission, gently remove a few feathers from the neck or body and check if the feathers are white (crow) or grey-brown (raven) at the base. Not wanting to ruffle your feathers or to get your hackles** up with this obtuse chat, but that’s the point. Actually, ‘crow’ or ‘raven’ is almost irrelevant to the average birdwatcher. They are all Corvids. But there are recognisable taxonomic and in field differences. Many birdoes use the Corvid call and their geographic location to distinguish Corvids. Carn the Crows is one such call. The 3 bird Corvid species in southern Australia are Ravens, while the 2 species in northern Australia are Crows. The Little Raven (shown), is found in the SE corner of Oz. It characteristically flips its wings while calling caarwk caarwk caarwk on the same(ish) note. The bigger Australian Raven, which is more widespread, sounds as if the bird is falling off a cliff as its call ends with a descending aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh after a few aaaah aaaah aaaahs. Corvids eat many things including snails, grains, eggs and large insects. If you see them eating meat, they are almost always eating carrion - animals already dead. Scavengers. Actually, the Little Raven diet has a big insect component. Corvids have an essential role in our ecosystems scavengers and clean-up kings and queens. Enjoy them for this. **Some bird species have different shaped feathers around the neck. These are called hackle feathers. Check photo to see the extent / outline of the hackle feathers of this Little Raven. These stick out a bit, like a little bagpipe, when the bird calls. P.S. Some readers will now need to put on their scarves and stand in front of a mirror and practice shouting Carn the Ravens! or perhaps just Carn the Corvids! Little Raven Corvus melloris
21.01.2022 Annual Meeting of the Tree Dwellers Union. Owlet Nightjar, President, presiding. We used to have a multitude of excellent tree trunk apartments to choose from, Owlet Nightjar said. While a grand 300-year-old spreading Mallee Box (recent Its Blue post) is full of apartment hollows and crevices, almost no trees like her exist now. Finding a hollow with views is now almost impossible.... We, the Tree Dwellers Union, need more hollows for roosting and raising our kids in the mallee. I will now call upon our comrade and guest speaker, Its Blue, to explain this housing crisis. Its Blue: Thank you. An adult mallee with one main trunk is called a First Growth Mallee tree. If you cut it down you could fill a big trailer. There would be some trunk sections, 30-50 cm diameter, plus sections of big limbs, 10-20 cm diameter, plus lots of smaller branches and twigs. Next to it, a mallee tree cut down for fences or charcoal making 100 years ago, has sprouted from the mallee root and grown again. The second time around, the tree actually produced a number of trunks. A magic pudding! If you cut it down, you would find you could still fill your trailer. It would have many, many sections of thin trunks (5 -10 cm diameter), a few limbs plus lots of smaller branches and twigs. A magic pudding? Yes but no but yes but no but Same volume of wood but a completely different structure. Small trunks, not 1 big one. Not the same habitat value. The 10-20 small trunks have been competing for water and soil resources. None have been able to dominate and make a large trunk and the big limbs needed to make useable large hollows. No big trunks. No big limbs. No big hollows. Simples. Mallees can be cut down. They come back good with lots of fresh foliage. This was a regular comment when I worked in mallee country. This is true. And this is false. Depends on your eyes and interests. If you could see the trees through habitat eyes or bird eyes, you wouldn’t like the felling of First Growth trees at all. Owlet-Nightjar, President, pictured at home. Aegotheles cristatus [In other habitats First Growth trees are called Old Growth trees.]
21.01.2022 Walking along a bush track in the hills this week, I came across a lovely little glade. In here there was a large beautiful grove of Silver Banksia of all ages. Most amazingly, there were saplings and juveniles a rare sight now in many habitats. Banksias are an important nectar source - but in many parts of the hills, few young Banksias are emerging to replace their grandparents and great grandparents. It is not known if the seeds are infertile, herbivores are eating the se...edlings, or if the changing climate no longer provides the correct temperature and rainfall for germination to occur. Or something else altogether.. Many revegetation projects (and wildlife) would benefit from the planting of big groves of Banksia. Some of the Banksias in my grove appear to be flowering over a very long time. In the photo you can see stalks of pale lime-green buds, yellow heads in flower (nectar!), rusty orange flowering heads just finished, recently formed cones, and dark grey-brown cones from previous years. I saw 7 different honeyeaters, including 2 of my favs - Eastern Spinebill and Little Wattlebird, within a few minutes. Nectar of Banksias is so important for honeyeaters. No ‘panic buying’ required here this week. Habitat values and other resources in this grove support a wide range of other birds and fauna. For example, a tiny White-browed Scrub-wren has been living here for over 12 years, keeping within a small but apparently outstanding habitat area. A big shout out to the Friends of Scott Creek Conservation Park! Their dedicated excellent steady, regular, precise bird work over many years gives me the data that allow me to make that statement. Shout out to Mikey. This is Mikey’s post request. Silver Banksia Banksia marginata
19.01.2022 A little knowledge goes a wrong way. Everyone knows that annual upright winter plants with big thin bright-green leaves and yellow flowers in damp places are weeds, right? No, no, no. This limited knowledge bank can get you into a whole lot of weeding trouble. Sigesbeckia orientalis, or Siggie to her friends, ticks all the right boxes for a weed (which is actually a box filled with wrong assumptions about Australian natives and weeds) but is Aussie to her core.... A really beautiful little plant and her small flowers are very intriguing and lovely daisies. Look at those long outer bracts shaped like a long handed spoon, covered with short stalks each tipped with a tiny sphere. But why, oh why, did she choose creeklines as her habitat? In her defence, weeds were not invented in Australia when Siggie made moist gullies her preferred life-long habitat partner. But now many gullies are chock-a block with weeds of every shape and hue, including several species of weedy yellow daises with thin bright green leaves. And careless weeders have taken to removing and /or spraying Siggie by mistake So, look before you weed. Don’t go a ‘wrong way’. Oriental Sigesbeckia Sigesbeckia orientalis IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 76-77
18.01.2022 This Mallee Box near Monarto must be 350+ years old with its low and twisting limbs full of hollows. In 1850, 170 years ago, it must have been so large that: 1) its grandeur impressed the farmers or 2) its limbs were already twisted and bent - no good for fenceposts. What a vital role in the habitat this tree still plays. Just what the Brown Treecreepers (BTC) ordered.... Lovely birds with brown backs, front with a mousse bib and streaked ‘wood panelling’, and a pale orangey-brown stripe underwing as it flies or glides away. Somehow, the BTC missed the memo about its name - at least the Tree Creeper bit. BTC spend much of their snacking and shopping time on the ground. A better name might be the Feathered Anteater. Ants make up a large portion of the BTC diet. BTC spend much time pecking and probing for insects on the ground - amongst the litter, tussocks, fallen timber, and hopping along low branches. Their preferred suburb /habitat is slightly dry woodland with a diverse but sparse understorey and open ground. Each BTC group need a territory patch of 10-20 ha good quality habitat to successfully breed; and the BTC groups collectively need patches totalling about 300+ ha within flying distance. Makes that isolated 10 ha in the back paddock seem a bit small.. BTC babies are reared by parents plus several older brothers or uncles. Young female birds move to set up their own home territory. BTC are on a slippery slope, declining towards extinction, in our Mount Lofty region. If you work on land with BTCs, a few things are high on the list to do: Leave all fallen timber on the ground or add some Leave all limbs with hollows on the trees, and leave dead trees standing Protect a few trees (2-3 per ha) every 10 years to replace older trees long term Add usefulness by fencing nearby blocks And stop feeling so smug if your trees are growing straight up. Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus picumnus Mallee Box Eucalyptus porosa IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 192-193 My box brownie was not up to the task, so a big thank you for the Brown Treecreeper photograph courtesy of Gillian Louise Reeves Rayment, Azoic Arts Photography https://australian.museum//animals/birds/brown-treecreeper/ https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatened/profile.aspx www.naturalresourcessa.gov.au - threatened species - Fact Sheet Brown Treecreeper
18.01.2022 To tell you the truth, Oxalis taxonomy is a bit of a dog’s breakfast. Taxonomy questions are like a jigsaw puzzle or cryptic crossword. Last week, Claire asked how to tell native from weedy Oxalis. There are 17 named Oxalis species known in SA.... Pink Flower and Bulb: 11 weedy species with pink flowers and storage bulbs. No native Oxalis. Most common is One O’clock /Large-flower Wood-sorrel. The most well-known weedy Oxalis is Soursob a rosette of bright green leaves and groups of yellow flowers on long stalks, a soft white root, leading to a storage bulb (plus tiny bulbils in late spring). Yellow Flower and Bulb: 7 Oxalis species with yellow flowers and bulbs - eliminate 3 of these as weeds - Soursob and 2 others. Yellow Flower and Stems: 3 species with obvious stems, yellow flowers: 2 native, 1 weedy. Downy Native Sorrel or Hairy-Stalk Oxalis is an easy ID: perennial, a stout tap root, stem(s) do not readily creep, nor root at regular intervals, softly hairy including under leaflets, found in grasslands and more semi-arid locations. Then it gets a bit messy. It is the last 2 that hoodwink Claire and others. Me too. PART 2: Comparing these two: Oxalis corniculata and Oxalis perennans. At the extremes, they are easy to pick but they mix horribly in the middle and no 1 feature will do in ID. Many keys seem to use hair types and hair directions but I find this unsatisfactory and it also needs a hand lens. O. corniculata ROOTS annual but sometimes a taproot, STEMS thin like cotton thread, upright and often ground-running and rooting at nodes, LEAFLETS love-heart shape, FRUITS to 2cm, held at same height as rest of plant. Mainly urban. O. perennans (in photos) ROOTS stout taproot, STEMS many, upright, some ground running but rarely rooting, LEAFLETS a bat-wing shape, FRUITS to 3cm, held high above rest of plant. Grasslands and elsewhere. Really after all that, I do not worry too much about the weedy Creeping Wood-sorrel. I see it mostly in pot plants and urban lawns and gardens. Dig them out at home if you must. I cannot recall bushland in which I thought weedy Oxalis was a worry. What I see in bushland are natives. The rare native butterfly, Chequered Copper, does not seem to distinguish between the native and weedy one and the caterpillars eat both. So why should we bother? Perhaps spend time on more aggressive weeds in the bush. Just leave it be and then you will never pull out the native one by mistake. Table of Oxalis in the first comment. Just a reminder: Posts go up on Sunday evenings.
18.01.2022 Here’s looking at you, kid. And I can see you looking at me metaphorically. Several sets of wing ‘eyes’ to scare off predators or perhaps to misguide predators towards the wing edges, to save the body and vital organs. These beautiful wings, often made to support a butterfly for only a few weeks, are built on an elaborate system of many over-lapping tiles or scales (at a very tiny scale ha! ha!) ** The scales are on a transparent membrane held rigid by a vein framework... - like a stain-glass window. Have you ever watched a newly emerged hanging butterfly pump liquid into the crumpled wings through these thin tubular veins? Origami in reverse! There may be 500 scales per square millimetre on the wing. So, a square cm has 50,000 scales. ( I think) Add your own zeros for the total number on a 4-winged butterfly. My ‘box brownie’ is not up to the task but you may get a feel for the layered look in the white parts of the RH pickie. ## The scales are actually modified hairs. So much work, so much detail. The chemical construction of these scales is called chitin. Chitin is a complex molecule based on glucose (sugar) and is a common building block for insect exo-skeletons and for fungi. Chitin is natural, nontoxic, nonallergic, antimicrobial, and biodegradable, and it is insoluble in water. Perfect for flight. But wait. There’s more. Butterflies can have both flat scales (which are mainly structural to strengthen the wing) and wavy or slotted scales to get that shimmery look we gasp at. Chitin can be broken down into its basic bits by a wide range of living beings and used as food or restructured into something else. These tiny building blocks of life are used again and again. Actually, the building blocks made by life CAN used again and again by the living world. Plastic cannot. Get it? Plastic can be moved around, but not really reused. It cannot be broken down to its basic parts by living things. Would you use plastic bags if they were called plapoisonic bags? Meadow Argus (Junonia villida calybe) - Flying now, in bushland or gardens near you. ## Type in some version of wing scales pattern butterfly to your favourite search engine to see them in magnificent detail and colour. Or see the comment link below. ** Many species of butterflies may live only for a few weeks but some can survive much longer. Long distance flyers such as Monarchs can live to 6 months plus. https://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Anatomy%203.htm https://www.thoughtco.com/touch-butterflys-wings-can-it-fly https://www.reimangardens.com//butterfliesmoths-spread-wi/
18.01.2022 Live in Australia. Live in the real Australia. Really live in Australia. Live in the marvelous natural world of Australia. Marvel at the little miracles of Australia. Enjoy Australia’s festive season bells. Be joyful about the nature's detail in Australia. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. . . . .... If I get one more Christmas card with a snowman on it
17.01.2022 Here we are in late spring- summer with a profusion of yellow flower heads to admire, held above the bulk of a lovely sprawling shrub. This perennial shrub often puts up its new branches from the base yearly. One of Ours - a almost entirely south Australian higher rainfall species, often in gullies - although some seem to have gone to the Grampians in Victoria on a very very long extended period to live (...and don’t get me started about how they got a permit to do that in... 2020.) The hypoleucus part of the binomial [a two-part name] means white under (the leaves). And so it is. I love it when a plant reads the taxonomy books and follows its instructions carefully. Slim pickings but that’s your lot for the week. Pale Senecio, Senecio hypoleucus IBW5P 2nd Ed. pages 74-75
17.01.2022 Don't just emojy this! Ring / email / write to the Minister for Environment and Minister for Mining....
16.01.2022 Previously I have discussed the shape, colours and detailed design of some Eremophila and other lipped flowers that maximise attraction to, and ease of pollination by insects. What clues indicate a bird pollinated flower? Individual flowers are large, tubular, and often match the bird beak shape and length.... Flowers often reddish in colour - red, pink, orange, yellowish Flowers pollen sacs positioned to maximise pollen contact with forehead feathers and beak. The bottom half of flowers tuck away (rather than protruding as a landing platform). Flowers hairy in and out to hamper insect movement. No ‘nice smell’. Pollen on the bird feathers matches pollen from the flower. How did you go with this flower? Well, this Eremophila certainly seems to fit the clues. Blossom is very important for birds as well as insects in Australia. Over 100 species of birds have been seen visiting the flowers of some 250 species of plants in Australia. Honeyeaters and lorikeets are the most persistent flower-feeders. Some bird species depend almost entirely on nectar as a source of energy. Silvereyes, parrots, woodswallows, pardalotes, thornbills, and some passerines occasionally visit flowers. The plants most frequently visited are Eucalyptus, Callistemon, Banksia, Grevillea, Epacris, Astroloma, Correa, and Eremophila. ** How do we know? Researchers identified pollen grains on birds to match them to flowers visited. Q: What value is research? A: What value is a baby? (rhetorical) Birds get fed. Pollen gets transferred. A win-win. Think of all the teeny-weeny tiny accidental positive adjustments to the form and function of the flower and the beak of hundreds of different flowers that were made over millions of years - for mutual benefit. How can we let our arrogance allow such a delicate fine-tuned natural interaction and thousands more just as remarkable to be destroyed? Weeping Emubush Eremophila longifolia IBW5P 2nd Edition page 234-235 ** Birds as pollinators of Australian plants Hugh A. Ford, David C. Paton, and Neville Forde New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1979, Vol. 17: 509-19 https://www.tandfonline.com//10.1080/0028825X.1979.10432566
15.01.2022 Remember to look at tiny things. Really look at them. It is the tiny things that hold our natural world together. On this bit of stem of Blue Boronia, did you notice tiny ‘nipple’ on each petal tip? And the 8 yellow pollen sacks per flower held up by flattened white filaments each with rungs of wee side hairs? And how the flower bud seems bluer and cradled in 4 sepals? A thread-thin stalk of the Climbing Sundew snakes around the same twig, using it as a climbing ladder. The l...eaves are a perfect semi-sphere shape and around the rim, with droplets of sticky trapping fluid on each maroon hair-like extension. Glistening. A green segment of Twining Fringe-lily stem makes one loop around the Boronia twig, cupping two petals as it passes, and then exits stage left. It is the tiny things, the billions and billions of tiny things and tiny interactions, that build the natural world; understorey upwards. They hold the system together. It is not just about trees and koalas and large kangaroos. It never has been. This is how the world works A birthday cake is a birthday cake. A birthday cake with candles on top is a birthday cake. A birthday cake with all the ‘understorey’ cake eaten away, leaving a few crumbs is not a birthday cake any longer. A habitat is a habitat. A habitat with trees on top is a habitat. A habitat with all the ‘understorey’ eaten away, leaving only a few crumbs is not a functioning habitat any longer. Understorey holds habitats together. I understand that kangaroo numbers are now estimated to be 20-30 times carrying capacity - abundant because of ‘European’-made increases to water supply and suitable feed in our environment. If we unconditionally admire large mobs of resident kangaroos grazing and browsing in bushland, we run a real risk of losing countless tiny plants in the understorey and animals dependent on it. As an ecologist, I have been watching our bushland for 50 years. I think that over-grazing in bushland by overabundant large kangaroos is now one of the greatest threats to the long-term survival and integrity of our bushland in the Adelaide Region. [Along with deer and goats.] Please be civil in any comments. And please don’t share if you are just looking to stir up a shit storm. Blue Boronia, Boronia coerulescens subsp. coerulescens IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 266-67 Climbing Sundew, Drosera macrantha IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 130-31 Twining Fringe-lily, Thysanotus patersonii IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 290-91
14.01.2022 Farming? Sh*t Shovelling? Guarding? Dangerous Liaison? Slavery? Sugar daddy? The ‘nice’ version of Ant and the Aphid story I was told as a child was that the ants were milking the aphids for a sugary ‘milk’. Just like farmers. Everyone is happy... Aphids suck. Why would I chat about something so small that my Box Brownie doesn’t capture the detail? An aphid is about 2-3 mm long, and packed into that space is usually* a little pear-shaped body, 6 legs, 2 antennae, an ‘in tube’ mouth piece and an ‘out tube’ anal canal, and 2 siphuncles (no aunties???). Siphuncles exude sticky waxy defensive juices to gum up the enemy. Mouth parts of aphids are adapted for piercing plant surfaces to get to sap in phloem cells. Sap is very sweet but has almost no protein [which is needed to build little bodies] so most sap goes through to the keeper, to get the necessary sugar/ protein ratio. That’s where ants come in. Some species collect the excess partly digested sap from the anus (not teats). Without ants, the whole branch becomes a sticky mess. So, sh*t shovelling? The Ant and the Aphid story is often told as a mutually satisfactory arrangement. Ants do protect aphids against many predators - and there are so many predators for these tiny juicy lolly titbits. Ants get food in return. So, guarding? It is known that ants produce chemicals in body glands. One use for these is to coat their feet to mark out trails. Recent research suggest that some ants also use chemicals to drug, tranquilise, and subdue their colony of aphids. So, dangerous liaison? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When there are too many aphids in the colony for the amount of plant, aphids have the ability to make babies with wings. This caste with wings (alates) fly to new areas. However, in some ant camps, alarms bells ring and ants begin to pull wings off aphids, to keep their sugar-daddies (or mummies) at home. So, slavery? ** Aphids survive by the numbers. The more the merrier, as so many get picked off by predators - including ladybird beetles. Kill the aphids, kill the ladybird beetles. When did you last see a ladybird beetle? Insecticide is not the smart answer in nature. * I use the word ‘usually’ because there are probably 5000 species of aphid worldwide and, while nature builds to a basic plan, there are always the exceptions. ** Not surprisingly, with the enormous number of aphid and ant species, not all ants display / use all the behaviours discussed above. P.S. if you have access to Netflix I recommend ‘My Octopus Teacher’ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas/2007//071009212548.htm http://blog.corkyspest.com/site/?p=707 https://www.thoughtco.com/aphid-herding-ants-1968237 https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-aphids-19 https://www.thoughtco.com/why-are-there-so-many-aphids-1968 https://www.thoughtco.com/aphids-family-aphididae-1968624 https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/aphid.html
14.01.2022 Mainstays of habitat. Sticky Longheads, and friends. These are tiny little complete plants at 3-4 cm high, and most of that is the flowerheads, each holding up to 50 flowers. Why waste precious time getting tall when spring and moisture is limited? Get those flowers up and blooming and setting seeds. Hands-and-knees are all the go to see what really holds habitat together. Especially in mallee, where water and nutrients are at a premium.... In a good year, Sticky Longheads might be 10 cm apart, on average. In any hectare there are 10,000 1m X 1m squares. If Sticky Longheads were evenly spread across this 1 hectare, there would be 1,000,000 plants of Sticky Longheads in total. Better get busy if you are revegetating that’s a lot of tubes. Of course, they are never all over an area, so perhaps 20,000 tube stock of Sticky Longheads might be enough But in mallee, there may be up to 30 different species under 10 cm tall (3 other species shown). So, you are looking at 900,000 (almost a million) tube stock just for tiny plants in a 1 ha habitat. Revegetating 100 ha of an old farm would take 90,000,000+ tube stock - for just the understorey. This is the essential reason to protect and look after existing native vegetation. All those million understorey plants, for free. This is always the first and most important action needed to protect biodiversity - even if it is degraded. Trees are only just icing in a habitat and planting 1000 trees is never the first action to take. That’s why declaring a large area that was previously a farm as a new National Park does not cut the mustard with me. Never will. A lovely open space perhaps, but not a national park. Creating a new park is the easy (Facebook friendly) part. Managing the parks we already have is the hard stuff, politicians! Everywhere in the system, existing national parks and conservation parks are inexorably degrading because there are too few Rangers and biologists, plus woefully inadequate budgets for weed control, feral animal control, or for culling of overabundant kangaroos. In this situation, diverting biodiversity money and volunteer energy and spending it on tree planting at a degraded farm seems like fiddling while Rome burns to me. MAIN: Sticky Longheads, Podotheca angustifolium IBW5P 2nd Edition pg. 55 TOP: Hairy Stylewort, Levenhookia dubia IBW5P 2nd Edition pg. 211 mixed with Tiny Pennywort, Hydrocotyle callicarpa IBW5P 2nd Edition pg. 133 LOWER: Tiny Daisy, Brachyscome perpusilla IBW5P 2nd Edition 5 pg. 55
14.01.2022 Some days I feel like one of these small pebbles in a seashore rock shelf. Working away day after day relentlessly wearing away the resistant rock around it as the tides come and go. But I am working away on behalf of our living world against the Ponzi Scheme (investing scams similar to pyramid selling) referred to as modern economics.... Life wasn’t meant to be easy. But I wonder why some days it is so hard. We ecologists have known about the risks of extinction of species and of habitats in terms of the web of life for decades. We also know the lost economic possibilities of each and every species that disappears. Some examples: New antibiotics from the defences against fungi and bacteria of warm dark places already made by bees, ants and other colony insects. Milking the ant glands for the chemicals that ants smear over their young Spiders webs which are stronger weight for weight than steel. Looking for wild rices to reinvigorate the gene pool of our stable, rice, that feeds 30% of the world’s peoples. New cancer drugs from the plant genus Catharanthus New antimalarial drugs from the plant genus Cichona New drugs from the Australian plant Duboisia myoporoides used for treating motion sickness, stomach disorders, and the side effects of cancer therapy. And as Rusty Ryder says in the comments - Horseshoe crab blood! Horseshoe crabs are also extremely important in medicine, as their unique, copper-based blood contains a substance that coagulates in the presence of bacterial toxins. It is used to test the sterility of medical equipment including needles. Anyone who has had an injection or vaccination can know that it is not contaminated with bacteria because of horseshoe crabs! (thank Rusty Ryder) But the relentless telling of the Economics Myth is stronger than the stories we ecologists tell. I want to live in a real world and in a society rather than an economy. But some days it feels hard. https://myfwc.com//salt/crustaceans/horseshoe-crabs/facts/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duboisia_myoporoides
13.01.2022 My sister gave me the inspiration for today’s blog. There was a honeyeater in her garden going hell-for-leather at old drying Kangaroo-paw flowers. Honey, honey, honey, it must be funny, in a rich bird’s world. Honey, honey, honey, always sunny, in a rich bird’s world Aha-ahaaa a a, all the things I could do,... If I had a little honeyIt's a rich bird’s world. ** Sister: There’s no honey left in those flowers. What on earth is it doing? Its Blue: It’s almost spring. Sister: What kind of ***** cryptic answer is that? ItsBlue: The rough outside of the flower probably has lots of tiny spiders and spider’s webs. Sister: And so? (a touch of tension in her voice.) I use the word touch, because I can’t spell frisson. But it was more like frisson. ItsBlue: Well, many birds collect spider web to help line their nests. Sister: Looks like a lot of work to me for bits of web I can’t even see. ItsBlue: There is also the Luck Dip bonus. Sister: What Luck Dip bonus? ItsBlue: Often they get the tiny spiders too, as a take-away snack. And maybe a few insects caught in the webs. Sister: They are HONEYEATERS. It says so in my book. ItsBlue: Yes, much of the year they are honeyeaters, and they use their amazing brush-tipped tongue to take nectar / honey from flowers. But in winter and spring, they are also parents and they need lots of protein from insects and spiders too. Sister: Why? ItsBlue: To build and help grow all the tiny little feathers and bones in their babies. Sister: Another good reason not to use insecticides in the house or garden. ItsBlue: Yup. Little Wattlebird, one of the big honeyeaters. Anthochaera chrysoptera ItsBlue: It’s like calling you a Sushi-Eater. Sister: Come on! I eat lots of other stuff too. ItsBlue: Exactly. Sister: Why do you always get the last word? ItsBlue: Excuse me. You usually have the last word. Sister: No, you do. ItsBlue: No, you do. Sister: No, you just did. ItsBlue: It was you, just then. You did. Sister: Whatever. ItsBlue: See, you did it again. Honey, honey, honey, but some insects too, Aha-ahaaa a a, all the things I could do, If I had a few insects, in a rich bird’s world . ** ** apologies to ABBA
13.01.2022 This is a native plant you won’t find often. Why? Are you seated comfortably? So, dear listeners, once upon a time ... Botanists have known for a long time that some plants are hard to germinate. And some Aussie plants are harder than others; i.e. we couldn’t do it.... We tried the usual horticultural germination tricks: cold treat, heat treat, collect from Emu poo, soak them, sandpaper the seed lightly, and even the old sure-fire trick of ‘stick-tongue-in-corner-of-mouth-while-planting’, but none of these worked. So, we tried a few other well-known methods: We kissed them, slayed a few dragons, climbed long tresses of hair, shouted Abracadabra, and shooed away ogres from under bridges. Still - No Cigar. Finally, we went back to the drawing board. After all, native plants germinate in bushland all by themselves. So, we asked What is the bushland doing right? Now, I know it is past your bedtime so I will cut to the chase. Many plants are stimulated to germinate by the heat of a bushfire. But in the early 1990s, we finally worked out that while some seeds are stimulated to germinate by heat, others are stimulated by the smoke that accompanies it. Gyrostemonaceae is a small Australian family: only 4 genera and 20 species. A characteristic family trait is that they are short lived, germinate following a fire, and are common only for a few years afterwards. Smoke promotes germination of False Buckbush seed. Where I found these few plants was last burnt in 2013 and previously in 1983. A thirty-year wait between babies. Give that seed a cigarette! So that’s why you may not know it. False Buckbush grows in heath on sandy soils a rare habitat in the Adelaide Region, fires are rapidly suppressed, if possible, and the species may have to ‘hibernate’ as seed in the ground for years. Thanks to the brains and hard work of Kingsley Dixon and others for this discovery in W. Australia. http://anpsa.org.au/articles/smoke-germination.html Note: If you have a biological problem to solve, ask ‘Where in the natural world has this problem already been solved?’. Usually, somewhere in our amazing natural world, a plant or animal has already worked out the answer. Half of our pharmaceuticals still have their origins in plant or animal chemicals. One human-centred and economic reason not to stuff the world up. False Buckbush Gyrostemon australasicus IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 258-59
13.01.2022 Where is the Running Postie running to, anyway? Wherever it is running to, it is on a marathon rather than a sprint. I followed the plant from the flowers back for some metres. The stems grew thicker and thicker. The oldest stem was thicker than my thumb. ... This old wizened plant was creeping at glacial speed through the rocks along the southern coastline. Its size suggests it had already found a pleasant protected sunny site in light or sandy soils. Most people think that Running Posties live for only 4-5 years, based on bush observations or longevity in a garden. I would add a zero to that estimate. Yes, 40 or 50 years for this plant. One of the main issues with thinking our bush ticks along quickly is that we do not notice the long timeline everything seems to remain the same. Why don’t we understand that many species in the Australian bush are long-lived and so very patient; waiting out droughts, fires, insect attack, and other habitat calamities - for decades? Damage we do today to our habitats may not be obvious to us for 50+ years. For example, we see the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos fly over every year but most of us don’t know if these birds are parents and youngsters or if they are the same birds year after year getting older and older because we have removed nesting hollows big enough for these birds to raise youngsters. Will we wake up one year and wonder where all the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos went? This phenomenon is called the Extinction Debt. Extinction Debt is the coming extinction of species due to actions we took in the past without considered the long-term consequences. Extinction Debt is steadily at work today in the Adelaide region. Much of our original woodland was cleared for farming. Now, 150 years later, many of our woodland birds are locally extinct or well on the way to local extinction. Kennedia prostrata IBW5P 2nd Edition. Pg 244-245
13.01.2022 Instead of sneaking up on you with a nice photo and cheery text and then a little take-home-message at the end, today I am being upfront with the ugly truth. But can you ha-a-a-andle the truth? I have been wandering our bushland for over 50 years. When I began my work, I saw many more snakes than I saw kangaroos. Many more. I almost never saw a kangaroo. Today I can go into most bushlands, including semi-urban places such as Belair National Park, and see a large mob of kangar...oos in the middle of the day. And I see damaging changes in the understorey from overgrazing by unsustainable number of kangaroos. Almost everywhere in the Mount Lofty Ranges there are too many kangaroos, relentlessly grazing the understorey towards a biological desert. Here are just two photographic examples: A. Healthy Banksia marginata juveniles inside protective fencing and others reduced to bare twigs when outside and accessible by kangaroos. Kaiser Stuhl Conservation Park. B. Healthy fenced understorey alongside Sandy Creek Conservation Park compared to the totally denuded understorey in the Park itself. People tell me that the kangaroos do not eat wildflowers and stay only in "open grassed areas". Sorry, but these "open grassed areas" are usually there because kangaroos have eaten absolutely everything else that used to be there. Kangaroos are baby factories. They have one at foot, one in pouch, and one in suspended animation waiting for the occasional good times. Well, it is always the good times now for kangaroos in the Adelaide Hills. Kangaroos are at extreme levels because we have created hundreds of permanent water holes in dams and reservoirs and laid out feed all year round in lifestyle blocks, hobby blocks, government reserves, unmanaged parks etc. And the long-standing regulated culling program shrank. Every action has a reaction. If you think kangaroos are sacred at any number and cannot think about culling, you should sit quietly somewhere and ask yourself the following: How many billions of orchids, daisies, lilies, bush-peas, heath, native grasses, seedlings of bushes, sapling of trees and the insects, reptiles, butterflies, birds and small mammals depend on understorey am I willing to let die or become locally extinct as the end result of my viewpoint? Those who care about ecosystems, habitats, understorey, and wildlife that depend on them need to start saying this out loud to friends and politicians so that there can be responsible and necessary culling of over-abundant kangaroos. I have it on good scientific authority that every single western grey kangaroo could be culled from the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula and there would be no impact on the overall population. Am I advocating that? No. But regular humane culling? Yes. I expect civility in any comments.
12.01.2022 Sweet little daisy flowers. It was winter but now it is spring and ephemerals flower. Ephemeral means transitory or quickly fading. An ephemeral plant is one with a short visible life cycle. When it rains, they grow from seed, go hell-for-leather, and live an entire life cycle in one growing season. All done with mirrors well, actually done with a hormone system that reacts to temperature, day length and moisture.... With rain, it is all hands to the pump. It is a communal job. The ‘flower’ you see is a bit like an ant nest - different flowers with different functions. Each of the outer purple ‘petals’ is a complete little flower. And each of the inner yellow 5 sided circles is also a complete little flower. The outer petals attract pollinators and often sacrifice the option to make babies (seeds). The central flowers combine together to maximise pollination and make seeds. But this daisy with 2 kinds of flowers also makes 2 kinds of seeds - small fat black ones and thin lighter ones with a fine wing around the edge. Seed shapes in first comment below. Does the plant drop heavy seeds nearby while the winged seeds blow further away to maximise next years germination in a ‘good’ site? Or does it allow for seeds to fall into different size and shape cracks in the soils, optimising the number of different seed positions in the soil? Or does the thick shell of fat seeds mean that they survive longer than thin-winged seeds in an arid climate? Or do fat ones only germinate with heavy rainfall, while thin ones take a gamble with the first fall of rain? We know so little of the complexities of the natural world, at every scale. And you thought they were just cut little daisies to walk over or past on your way to somewhere important Variable Daisy Brachyscome ciliaris var ciliaris IBW5P 2nd Edition pg 302-303 https://www.researchgate.net//566f55cd08ae486986b/download
12.01.2022 This week, someone sent me a single wattle leaf. Whattle I do with this, I thought? I was flattered that she was confident that I would be able identify it for her. ... Now, my plant ID skills are not too shabby. But one leaf is not enough for wattle ID. There are over 900 Acacia species in Australia and over 100 different species in South Australia. It is a brave ecologist that would try to name a species just with one leaf. This is how many different bits may be needed to identify a wattle.. Identification is a series of yes and no decisions. So, first decision, if a good character is used, takes the possible choice of species from 100 to 50. Second, takes the choice from 50 to 25. Third takes the choice from 25 to 12. Fourth takes the choice from 12 to 6. Fifth takes the choice from 6 to 3. So, from a standing start, theoretically, a botanist may need 5 different parts from the same wattle to be confident of an ID. These can include: Where in the state was the plant seen? In what type of habitat was the plant mallee, forest, sandy coastline, other Leaves showing both the shape and veining in the blade surface and tip. Buds or flowers or left-over flowers still attached to the twig to see the number and arrangement. Pods, mature, with seeds and the attachment points still inside Often, of course, there are shortcuts. This picture shows two wattles with young narrow and shiny or viscid (with resin) leaves. These 2 species have shiny young leaves with two veins visible, and only 2 stalked flower balls at each leaf junction. But they can be easily separated by the pods: one has ‘naked’ pods and the other has very hairy pods. Very few wattles in SA have hairy pods, so, in the snake and ladders game of ID, hairy pods give the botanist a boost up a long ladder towards the answer. Acacia verniciflua (leaves only far L) IBW5P 2nd Edition page 88-9 Acacia montana (middle leaf and pods R) IBW5P 2nd Edition page 82-3
11.01.2022 Biodiversity: our oxygen tanks, our drinking water, our grocery shop. Our art and music inspiration Our cathedral Our cradle... Biodiversity is the sum total of all living species and all their variations and all their interactions. This complex of dynamic living things created the thin thin film of life the biosphere clinging to the surface of the earth and the oceans. Their interactions unite the world. The ‘machinery’ of their living creates the air we breathe, the fertile soil in which we grow things, the oceans from which we feed, the fresh water we drink. Tiny decorations on the eggs of a butterfly, the fine threads of fungi that wind through the soil for many meters, the petite leaves of mosses that swell and turn green with the first winter rains, the bulbs that push up from underground in autumn after conserving energy all summer long to allow this to happen, millions of microscopic bacteria breaking down the fallen leaves, the ants that are security guards for tiny caterpillars while they feed on native sorrel, the call of a blue wren or a magpie, the bandicoot turning over the soil, eagle that soars over 1000s of hectares daily. Think of the most complex delicate machine you can imagine and multiply that complexity by many billions. That is biodiversity. Now imagine starting to pull this machine apart one bit at a time; an aluminium cover plate, a bolt, a nut, a few more bolts, a coil, a small circuit board, a tiny weld, hair-thin copper wire, a tension spring, a tiny dial. At which point would you accidentally pull out an important part that fuses the whole machine or causes its disintegration? That is the point at which we, the people, now find ourselves destroying a complex universe bit by bit and we are close to the collapse of the system. Biodiversity; the diversity of all living things. The machinery of our Sunship Earth.
08.01.2022 Our teacher had taught us That it was a tortoise Our answer was curt. No, that's a turt (le)... So, what was it that our teacher taught us about the tortoise? Not all turtles are tortoises - but all tortoises are turtles. Tortoises live exclusively on land, while most turtles live in or near water. But no. It is much messier than that. Tortoise, turtle, sea-turtle, and tortoise are all just common names often used interchangeably. And in Australia, we tend to call most of these shelled creatures turtles, even ones called tortoises by scientists. For tortoise, I think of the ancient tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, lumbering around on land, on jointed legs and no webbing on the feet. Those tortoises can live for over 150 years. Take that, Hare! And their heritage is 260 million years long. Anyway, we were off to the Japanese Gardens to see Cherry Blossom. While we were enjoying the serenity, the pond showed us a Turtle (or scientifically a tortoise). The yellow eye and the yellow corner-of-the-mouth-and-cheek stripe told us it was a Murray River Short-necked Turtle (MRSNT). MRSNT eat all sorts of food, a sort of meat and 3 veg diet. Just love that high-up position of the nose, so that all but the nostrils can be underwater. And all that shell is made from the same stuff from which we make our fingernails. The MRSNT is an inhabitant of the Murray-Darling River system in SE Australia. It lives in larger rivers, permanent lakes, and lagoons. The MRSNT lay eggs in the banks of a river but predators including foxes get many of these. Although the MRSNT may be holding its own in some locations upstream, down here in South Australia, MRSNT is listed as Vulnerable. In Australia, about half of the 25 existing species of freshwater turtle in Australia are currently listed as on the slippery slope towards endangered and extinction. Yet another reason to stop taking too much water out of our river systems, poisoning our waterways, and ignoring feral predator control. Murray River Short-necked Turtle, Emydura macquarii. For a little ‘post lock-down redial’ treat, watch the delightful film Esio Trot, with Judy Dench and Dustin Hoffman. P.S. It is illegal to import any turtles into Australia. https://reptilepark.com.au//turtles-t/murray-river-turtle/ https://www.dw.com//turtles-tortoises-differenc/g-53260454
08.01.2022 To understand the Big Picture in ecology, it helps to understand all the tiny jigsaw pieces that fit together to make it. Down on the tummy, again. Here we have 2 or 3 little clumps of violets joined by running stems. Violets are found worldwide (about 500 species) but in SA we have only 5 native species, all tiny plants sheltering in damp understorey in in grassy or heathy woodlands and forests. ... The violet flower shape is quite different to the standard blue-with-five-petals flowers. They have two petals at the back, two on the sides, and a bigger petal at the bottom. They are close to the ground and very small - so not likely to attract birds. Most seem to be pollinated by small 2-wing flies and 4-wing flies. Insects can hang head down from the two upswept petals at the back or they can land on the lower petal and walk in. This can increase the range of pollinators and the likelihood of cross-pollination, which strengthens the gene pool. At the other extreme, some Violets are owner-drivers. The native Viola betonicifolia will fully open, but often the flowers will already be pollinated without insect help, prior to opening. This is more properly called cleistogamous flowers. The overseas violet Viola odorata is used the perfume industry. Like many plants, a wide range of Violet species have been put through their paces as possible sources of useful drugs. One species seems to be showing promise as an additive to cough syrup for children with asthma. Viola sieberiana IBW5P 2nd Edition page 314-315 P.S. Most of you will have missed all the fun last week when the Trolls came out to play. Apparently, I am ill-informed, ignorant, misguided, a moron, demented, alarmist, a dimwit, an ignorant fcktard, and the devil’s advocate. And those are a few of the polite ones.. How did they get me soooooooo right, so quickly? A big shout out to Dinara Fernando, Traceu Crockett, Elena Polozova, Nancy Daher, Global Veganism ~ Animal Rights and Environmental Activism, Nation Wide Wildlife Protest Working Group, and People Against Killing Kangaroos for their enthusiastic support of Troll Week.
08.01.2022 are you or any visitors to your page interested? https://www.facebook.com/events/673919889956965/
07.01.2022 "Here's looking at you, kid". One of my favs. An orchid with full Ned Kelly beard and 2 beady eyes. The Purplish Beard-Orchid, Calochilus robertsonii, is now bush-ranging in a habitat near you.... This species is the most common of the Bush Ranger orchids. Quite widespread in stringybark, scrubs and near swampy ground in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu. Other species include: Red Beard-Orchid Calochilus paludosus. More like an Abraham Lincoln beard, badly shaved in the middle and fuller around the edges. Hiding out in wet forests in SA. Extremely rare. Copper Beard-Orchid Calochilus campestris (now Calochilus pruinosus?) The top of the tongue petal is exposed and shiny purple and the end of the tongue is also hairless more like mutton chops or goatee than a full beard. High-tailed it out into mallee country in SA. Rare. P.S. The number of species of Beard Orchids and their names are in a state of flux P.P.S. I have an extensive knowledge of beard type names but I am not hopeful that I will be called on to sort out any of the formal taxonomic issues. Calochilus robertsonii IBW5P 2nd Edition page 348-349
06.01.2022 As I was hanging out our wash before lunch, a Garden Orb-weaving Spider was hanging out its Bee Spring Roll, getting ready for lunch. Amazing beauty and detail in such a small creature in an ordinary suburb garden. Check out all the hairs, the different stripes of colours in the legs, and what I guess are the spinneret glands located at the tip of the abdomen for making silk... I could admire it for hours. Oh, bother, bother, bother, burnt the toast I was making Garden Orb-weaving Spider Eriophora biapicata
06.01.2022 World Migratory Bird Day! Missed it by "ll-------ll" that much. (last weekend) S.A. shores are essential for migratory bird survival. Knot Knot. Who’s there? Knot. Knot who? Red Knot but Knot Red when in Australia.... Knot here at the mo. Red Knot and friends are on their way to Siberia to put on their rusty-red breeding plumage and make babies. While you pine after your next cruise or your annual winter migration to Greek Islands, spare a thought for tiny Red Knots that travel up to 12000 km twice a year. While preparing to migrate, Red Knots run back and forth on tidal mudflats probing for small prey (almost anything that moves) all day and/or night, depending on tides. Red Knots can add an extra 30% body weight in fat over a few weeks, for the long flights ahead. At their heaviest, they weigh as little as a D-battery but boy, they carry a punch; flying up to 8000 km without recharging. One Red Knot (banded as 3BRBR but we will call her BaRBaRa) was banded in 1998 in W.A. and tracked for 13 years. Between Australia and Siberia, via Bohai Bay China, BaRBaRa chocked up an estimated 291,000 kms of flying. Some Red Knots (including S.A. birds) spend summer on the SE coast of Australia and fly to arctic NE Russia to breed, while others fly between WA and Siberia. Both stop-over at Yellow Sea in China and Korea. In 2019 the Yellow Sea was given World Heritage Listing as part of the East AsianAustralasian Flyway. Waders live on the edge on the edge of the tidal mud flats; relying on tidal flats and summer to still be at both ends of their journey and 1 or 2 stop-overs on the way. Unfortunately, many stop-over tidal flats are currently going under - from port developments, factories, exclusive holiday resorts and climate change. Here in SA, the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary exists along the coast for tens of thousands of migratory shorebirds that use our shorelines as part of the East Asian-Australiasian Flyway. Red Knots Calidris canutus (a kind of Stint) are listed as endangered under Federal legislation. Worth watching: our beloved John Clarke being a Red Knot (link below). https://mrjohnclarke.com/tin/farewell-shorebirds-a-red-knot http://globalflywaynetwork.com.au/ http://museum.wa.gov.au//art/last-migration-story-red-knot https://environment.des.qld.gov.au//animals/liv/shorebirds https://www.audubon.org//red-knots-are-battling-climate-ch
05.01.2022 A little bit AC, a little bit DC (well, a lot really) going on here Liverworts, along with mosses, are primordial plants that do not reproduce with flowers. But that does NOT stop them. Liverworts do reproduce in 3 different ways.... Come on! Get down on the ground next to me, in the shade, and take a look. If there is water slowly seeping up into your clothes at the elbows and knees, you are in the right place. There are 800+ liverworts in Australia, about 25% endemic, and this is 3 versions of the pattern. 1: Some grow vegetatively as a flattened leafless thallus (like a liver or tongue) on the ground surface. They can grow forked leading edges and these become independent when the original plant dies. 2: Some form cups on the thallus surface. In this cup many tiny mini-mes (gametes) are produced. These get splashed out when rain droplets slam into the cup. The mini-mes hopefully fall onto damp soil nearby to grow into new plants. 3: Some raise umbrellas when it starts to rain frequently. Well, not umbrellas. They send up joint or separate antheridium and sex archegonium organs (that look a bit like umbrellas). Long story short: they use a version of the old sperm and egg method although the sperm has to swim through a water film to the female plant which requires a wet environment and rain. The end products are spores, which mature in sacs hanging from the ‘archegonium’. The spores then disperse to grow a new plant. And so, the cycle begins again. Available now at all good participating damp soils in shady sites. But wait! There’s more! About 800 species to choose from. Only green currently in stock. Many endemic species in stock. P.S. Not my choice of male and female symbols in pink and blue - all Facebook's doing............ http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz//liverworts/reproduction.htm http://www.environment.gov.au/node/13869
05.01.2022 All habitats need plants out of synch with the ‘normal’ plant seasonal routine. Sweet Bursaria is just now forming its sprays of thin woody seed cases with 2 tiny young seeds developing inside. See middle of photo. Other common names for Bursaria are Christmas Bush or Exam Bush, which credit the time of flowering. ... Sprays of white flowers in the bush in hot weather when little else seems to be flowering. The seeds mature later in summer. ** ‘So what?’ you ask. ‘Not many people go bush in summer anyway.’ ‘Yes’, I reply, ‘But all the living creatures that live in the bush are still there and they are still on the hunt for a safe place to live and enough to eat.’ Tens of different bird species, tens of different reptile species, hundreds of different plant species, thousands of insect species, millions of invertebrates and countless soil bugs - in every season and every time of day. Many species will have bred and successfully raised young in spring when there is more water and more food resources. But now they need to keep themselves alive through a long hot dry summer. Flowers and insects out of synch are essential for this survival. Flowering and seeding of Bursaria out of synch, along with all the insects attracted to them out of synch, provide an essential service to many wildlife species. Intact habitats are also essential. Large areas (1000s of hectares) of intact habitats are essential. Revegetation is, at best, faint simile of a habitat. Building a useful habitat is a lot more difficult that building your average IKEA furniture with its boards, plastic bag of various nuts and bolts, plan, and single allen key. Where will you be getting your 3D habitat design plan? Where will you be getting your bags of the hundreds of tiny plants, mosses, lichens, and the millions of insects needed, let alone the bag of 100,000,000 plus tiny scales for the butterfly wings, for example? Bursaria spinosa IBW5P 2nd Ed. pg 158-159 ** Even the Bursaria seeds are out of synch they germinate in early winter, not spring.
04.01.2022 Sorry. My sincere apologies to quite a few people. Its Blue is currently out of print. The webpage should have stopped the option to buy a book online. I will have to check this fault. All recent payments made after the last of the books were sold are in the process of being refunded.
03.01.2022 This is a story about big picture versus small view. I have heard many people, when seeing this climbing vine-like plant weighing down branches of a tree or the whole of a shrub, saying, Oh, poor shrub! Let’s pull that horrid weed off so it can grow. There a number of small view things in that sentence to an ecologist. Where should I start? ... First, 1 battle between 1 Cassytha vine and 1 shrub takes place over many years in slow motion and is not the main game. There will be no clear winner and no clear loser. Let it be. Secondly, it is a clever native plant called Cassytha. Cassytha seeds can invade the stems of a number of perennial plants. It can send tiny fingers worming through and around cells in the stem of the host as an anchor for the growth of the resulting plant. Necessarily parasitic, for all its needs in the beginning, but mainly for water once it is big and can photosynthesise through its green stems. No obvious leaves mean it is very water efficient, not losing water through the pores that occur in leaves. Thirdly, the fruits of Cassytha provide a fast-food option (a biodegradable bag of nutrients plus water) for many bird species, plus an indigestible centre which is the seed. The birds usually eat the flesh but drop / poop the seed out some distance away from the origins. A life gift both to the bird and the potential new plant. Not all birds eat fleshy fruit but many do need summer fruits when nectar is not readily available. So, Cassytha is life-giving as well as life-taking. Lastly, look around. There will be many other individuals of the host shrub nearby and throughout the bushland with no Cassytha at all. That is a population of shrubs, enough to keep the species going through many generations without interference. So, yes, the burden of one Cassytha and its many metres of stems may stunt and perhaps eventually kill its host. But causing a quick death would be a poor evolutionary trend, as the Cassytha would also die.** The big picture sees the whole web of life, where there is both life and death, in every interaction. The big picture is needed in all thinking about all life in the bush. Write this next sentence on a piece of paper and stick it on the fridge door at eye height. If you are keen, maybe a tattoo? Habitat takes priority over populations which take priority over individuals. .** (If one swimmer in a synchronised swimming display drowns, do they all have to drown?) Strangle Vine Cassytha melantha IBW5P 2nd Edition page 334-5 P.S. S Taylor reminds me that the common name for this vine is Snotty-Gobble in South Australia, because the flesh is sticky and snot like - will stick to the back of the shirt of your childhood enemy..........
02.01.2022 Revegetation Recipe with Deck Chairs and Red Wine 1 Michelin Star Everyone is cooking and posting recipes in these days of pestilence. So here is mine suitable for many revegetation projects in the hills.... Ingredients Tree, paddock, deck chair, bottle of red wine, glasses Method Prepare red wine and verandah ahead of time. Then; 1. Use a paddock with isolated trees. 2. Remove grazing animals. 3. Sit on verandah with red wine. 4. After the recommended cooking time (4-5 years), admire new saplings. (You may wish to undertake other household and revegetation tasks during cooking process) Photo is a tree in a paddock taken out of production some 20 years ago. Marked, with red dots, are young trees that have germinated without human intervention. As trees can grow up to have a canopy 30m across, and can live for 200+ years, less than 1 sapling / hectare / year needs to germinate and grow to replace grandparents and great grandparents. In the MLR, suitable rainfall and soil temperature for natural germination of Eucalypts occurs, on average, every 4-5 years*. So, getting baby trees to grow is similar to one of my mother’s favourite recipes Wait-and-see Pudding. Simples. In fact, removing some seedlings so remaining saplings can grow to full width and height may be on your agenda. Pull up your deck chair and just observe for a year or two. In this time, get some professional advice about weeding priorities and plant important understorey plants instead. Sometimes, planting trees should be last on your list of revegetation tasks. If you must, supplement with my excellent Johnny Wattleseed Dessert. Collect local wattle seeds, heat treat them, and broadcast in revegetation area. This recipe should work in most MLR areas where scattered trees are left. Examples: degraded parts of reserves and paddocks / lifestyle blocks where grazing has stopped. Managing grazing pressure and good weed control will usually give you a better outcome than planting. And no physiotherapy bills for fixing your back after digging hundreds of (unnecessary) holes. In the mallee, good conditions occur less frequently about every 10-15 years. Take full advantage of these good years to protect emerging seedlings.! *Research by Dr Geoffrey Bishop, using glasshouse experiments and local rainfall and weather records in the 1970s.
02.01.2022 You’ll be lichen this post by the end. New real science! It's damp and the bush is alive with mushrooms and lichen . At school we learnt that lichens were an example of symbiosis: a long-term beneficial deal between 2 different organisms living in close contact. ... Symbiosis, Greek for ‘together’ and ‘living’, was invented to explain this very combination. The alga uses sunlight to make food while the fungus provides minerals, water, and shelter. Did you learn the mnemonic ‘Furgus took a Likin’ to Algernon’ as a reminder that Fungus + Alga make Lichen? Hah! Not so these days, my friends. Scientists have been trying for years to re-create known lichens by putting the relevant fungus and alga from a lichen together in the lab. No cigar. Recently, after trying for a l-o-o-o-o-ng time to work out why 2 lichens composed of the exact same fungus and alga did not look or react the same, Spribille and McCutcheon discovered that some lichens are a threesome. In the tough outer coating of the lichen they found a completely new fungus; single yeast-like cells suspended in a sugary/starchy mix, a bit like bread crusts. Two different fungi plus an alga make these lichens. Many people misunderstand Darwin’s adage ‘Survival of the Fittest’. It is not a contradiction that life is and always has been a co-operative venture. Biodiversity is not a them versus us. Threesomes has been found in 52 genera of lichen from 6 continents so far - mostly foliose species, as are those pictured. This is still a tiny number - 1 group of lichens out of 17,000+ species worldwide. Australia has about 3200 species in 400 genera and 100 families. So, sometimes Furgus + Yvonne take a Likin’ to Algernon. As the Buddha may have said The way to enlichenment is a long entwining road. Available NOW in Many SHAPES and COLOURS at a Woodland near You!!! https://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/lichenlist/Slide%20Show.html https://www.theatlantic.com//how-a-guy-from-a-mont/491702/. https://theconversation.com/lichens-may-be-a-symbiosis-of-t
01.01.2022 A Scented Iron-grass. Now in a habitat near you! In 3-D full screen technicolour! [Also featuring smell-o-vision, but more of that later.] That’s where I was - in an Iron-grass dominated grassland on the plains along the flanks of our eastern hills when I saw this patch of Lomandra.... While I was there, I remembered meeting a mid-north farmer who told me that when he was young, the whole family knew the Iron-grass was flowering by the sweet aroma filling the air. Because here, I too was smelling it! What looked like just a bunch of tussocks (about 15 in the LH photo) began to reveal their sweet-scented white flowers to me - nestled at the base of each tussock. The closer you get, the better they smell. Careful! The tips of most leaves of Scented Iron-grass are Very Sharp. You don’t want to get one up your nostrils..believe me... Ah! You have noticed that the flowers actually have petals. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. Although they are called Iron GRASSES, Lomandras are actually related to lilies - called Grass because they have a similar form and function as true grasses in a grassland. These grasslands, at their best, flourish along with many other species of native grasses and a range of wildflowers including herbs, lilies, daisies, rice flowers, peas, goodenias, pussytails, orchids, and small shrubs. Originally these Iron-grass dominated grasslands covered much of our eastern flanks but now they are listed as Endangered under federal legislation. A map of their distribution is shown in the first IBW5P Comment (below). Officially they are the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grasslands of South Australia and are listed nationally as a critically endangered ecological community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Lots on other information on line. Don’t go planting trees in any grasslands, you hear? https://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au//iron-grass-native- https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au//iron-grass-natural- Scented Iron-grass, Lomandra effusa IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 164-165
01.01.2022 A lovely shot of spider orchids. And then I go and spoil it all, by doing somethin' stupid like adding nu-u-u-mbers. In spring, many people get out in the bush in search of wildflowers. Lots of flowers get trapped as billions of pixels in smart phones and digital cameras. Some of these go up on social media masquerading as lovely orchids.... So, in the interests of the orchids, here are a few tips that might just save you a touch of embarrassment when showing off your spring photos. Orchids are biologically in with the lilies and irises group, all* of which have 3 or 6 petals. [Grasses are in this group too, but they have stripped down their flowers to 3 x almost nothing.] Orchids have gone the whole hog in another direction, adding unusual designs, shapes, colours, odours, hairs, lumps and bumps, in a highly sophisticated all-or-nothing bid to attract a pollinator. But they still have 6 petals (3 sepals + 3 petals). More accurately, there are 3 sepals (1, 2, 3) and 2 similar petals (4, 5) and 1 very different shaped petal called the Tongue Petal** (6). Often what you see is ‘5’ petals’ and a messy middle that is Can this really be the ovary and stamens? The tongue petal often sticks out - like a tongue, and is hinged so that the weight of an insect alighting on it is enough to make it swing or even snap shut. Tongue petal designs and shapes are unique to each species countless variations on a theme. Lastly, there is a highly modified central column at the ‘back’ holding modified the male and female flower parts. You can see a fat package of yellow pollen shown near the top of column (RH pickie). Complex shapes, central tongue petal, and especially the column indicate an orchid. * ‘All’ is a generality-there are exceptions to every biological rule. ** Tongue petal is also called lipped petal or labellum. Caladenia capillata IBW5P 2nd edition on page 128 or as Caladenia filamentosa IBW5P 1st edition on page 130 Orchid aficionados now call this genus Arachnorchis, so Arachnorchis capillata And the guest close-up appearance is Caladenia saxatilis (I think) from the Flinders.
01.01.2022 Same same? Hands up Yes. And hands up No. I see a lot of tentative arms half way up wondering if it is a trick question. Walking through the bush, you walk past these two bushes, noticing that they are pretty and there are lots of them around. Did you slow down enough to notice whether they were the same bush or whether they might not be the same thing? Join me in a version of that Spot the Differences game. Go on, you know you want to do this little test.... Okay, you do the first one. They both have four petals. That’s not a difference. Try again. One has little fat leaves, the other has flat leaves. Okay, do another. One has shiny leaves, the other has hairy leaves. Okay, that’s 2. One has blue-pink petals, the other has pink-pink petals. Okay, on a roll. Do another. One has no hairs on the petals, the other has hairy petals. Okay, that’s 4. One has no sepals visible, the other has sepals peeking between the petals. Okay, they are all good observations. For all you budding Botanists, here is the most important difference: the flower on (L) has 8 stamens (the male part of the flower with the pollen sacs) and the flower on (R) has 4 stamens. That puts them in 2 different genera - Boronia (L) and Zieria (R), growing side by side in the heath in sandy soil. Taxonomy is primarily based on differences in the floral parts of the flowers. So, these flowers are same same in that they are both in the Lemon family the Rutaceae. But different enough in flower design to be in 2 different genera. BTW, did you notice the lemony smell of the hairy leafed Zieria as you brushed past it? IBW5P 2nd Edition pages 214-215 Blue Boronia, Boronia coerulescens subsp. coerulescens Pink Ziera, Zieria veronicea ssp. veronicea
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