May 25

Coming up this month: Lots of tree planting!

Galbraith Park

This Mackay Whitsunday Streambank Stewardship Program project is funded by Reef Catchments through the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and delivered by Whitsunday Catchment Landcare.

What: Planting.

When: 8:30am to around 11:30am, Saturday 10th May

Where: Community gardens side of Galbraith Park Drive: follow the signs.

Bring: Sun protective clothing, a hat, water bottle and please wear closed shoes. Equipment, water refills and light snacks will be provided.

RSVP by email

Coral Esplanade

Thanks to the Queensland Government's Community Sustainability Action Grant Round 7: Community Sustainable Places, and Whitsunday Regional Council, we are carrying out weed control and replanting along Coral Esplanade, at Cannonvale Beach.

What: Planting, mulching, weeding.

When: 8:30 to around 11:30am, Sunday 4th May

Where: Opposite numbers 10-18 Coral Esplanade.

Bring: Sun protective clothing, a hat, water bottle and please wear closed shoes. Equipment, water refills and light snacks will be provided.

RSVP: So that we can bring the right amount of tools, food etc. and in case of weather related cancellations, please RSVP.

RSVP by email

New portable signs thanks to the Proserpine Lions Club.

WCL would like to offer a heartfelt thanks to the Proserpine Lions Club for their generous support. With their donation, we have been able to purchase a new A-frame sign and attachments for use at our nursery as well as at markets or other events. It has 2 blank stick-on magnetic overlays so that we can also write custom signs for events.

Nicole & Beth putting the new sign out.

The new accessible workspace & toilet is on the way, thanks to the Gambling Community Benefit Fund!

Regulars at the nursery will know that for many years now we have been seeking a grant to fund an all-access workspace and toilet facility at the nursery. Thanks to the Queensland Gambling Community Benefit Fund we are finally able to make it a reality.

This space will enable more members of the community to be involved in activities at the nursery, and will free up some much-needed space for us to reorganise our storage and work spaces.

AND no more slogging through the water to the sports field in the wet season to reach the toilets!!

It has been a long time coming , but now that the rain has finally stopped Marco De Boni and his Trusty Sheds crew are making it all happen.

The slab has been poured!

Landcare Nursery open Saturday the 3rd and 17th of May.

Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine

When: 9 am to 12 noon Tuesday & Thursday, & 1st & 3rd Saturday each month.

What: A huge range of local native plants grown from locally collected seed, at great prices from $3.50. EFTPOS available. Gift vouchers available for a gardener you know. Knowledgeable staff & volunteers are on hand for friendly advice.

Community Nursery activities:

Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine

When: Tuesday & Thursday mornings 9am to 12 noon.

What: Plant propagation, native seed sowing & preparation, nursery maintenance tasks, plant propagation and a great morning tea with a fantastic bunch of volunteers.

Please wear sun protection and closed-in shoes.

What's showing: Pandanus tectorius

Family: Pandanaceae

Common name: Screw Palm, Pandanus

Description: A small to medium tree 6-12m in height, often with a branched stem and warty trunk, often supported by large prop roots. Individual trees are either male or female.

Distribution: Found from Cape York to central NSW, as well as Indonesia, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. It grows in littoral rainforest, sandy coastal areas and dry rainforest.

Leaves: To 1.7m long and 5-10cm wide, emerging spirally from the branches and bent down at the centre. Small spines occur along the edges and along the underside of the central vein. In young trees the spirally arranged leaves extend right to the ground, as they mature a clean trunk emerges, with circular, wavy leaf scars and small warty nodules.

Flowers: Hanging clusters of small yellow scented flowers surrounded by pale bracts.

Fruit: Large compound fruits that resemble a pineapple, green ripening to bright orange-red. Both sexes need to be present for fertilsation; female trees may take up to 20 years to start fruiting.

Notes:

In many places where they grow, the leaves are stripped of their spines and used to weave mats, baskets, roof coverings and even canoe sails.

There may be as many as 30 species in Australia, and there is a great deal of confusion about the different species of Pandanus, which are quite variable and have acquired a vast number of synonyms (multiple names applied to the same species).

They require full sun, and are tolerant of salt spray and temporary waterlogging.

Food for: People: Indigenous Australians and other Pacific peoples roast the fruits, and eat the seeds, as well as the sweet bases of the fruit which can be chewed on after roasting. The soft white leaf bases can be eaten raw or cooked.

The fruits are also eaten by the black footed tree rat, common noddy, red tailed, sulphur crested and palm cockatoos, eclectus parrot, southern cassowary and silver eyes. The roots are eaten by the pale field rat. It is the larval food plant of the moths Trissodoris honorariella, Trissodoris larozona and Echinoscelis spp.

Fruiting tree PHOTO: CP

Flower and leaves. PHOTO: CP

Fruits PHOTO: CP

What’s in a Name? Pandanus, from the Indonesian/Malay name of the tree, pandan.
tectorius, from the Latin, tectorium, a covering, perhaps referring to the dense canopy or the traditional use of Pandanus leaf mats for a roof or floor covering.

References:

Melzer R. & Plumb J. (2007) Plants of Capricornia.

https://anpsa.org.au/plant_profiles/pandanus-tectorius/

https://www.somemagneticislandplants.com.au/plants/coastal-screw-pine

Bandicoots: Nature's free bush regenerators

If you have a well-watered lawn or garden (and who doesn't right now...), most likely you will have found finger-deep, conical holes, sometimes all over it, especially in the drier part of the year. You may even have had root vegetables or ginger plants dug up and eaten overnight. These are signs that you have a visiting bandicoot. Here they are likely to be Long-nosed bandicoots, Parameles nasuta. Before you get annoyed, here is the case for loving these little nocturnal diggers.

Bandicoots are omnivores; they have a very diverse diet of insects & their larvae, spiders, lizards, earthworms, berries, seeds, roots and fungi. Because of this, they are great dispersers of fungal spores, including the ones that partner with plants to get the food and nutrients that they need to grow, called root-fungi or mycorrhizae.

At first glance, you may think that having lots of little holes in your lawn a nuisance, however, bandicoots are experts at finding and eating so-called lawn grubs, such as Scarab Beetle larvae (think Christmas beetles and the like). These toothy little grubs feed on plant roots, so the attentions of your friendly neighbourhood bandicoot are actually good for your lawn. the holes also help with aeration and water infiltration. Once they metamorphose into adults, too many Scarab Beetles can lead to defoliation of the trees that thay feed on, so these little free-of-charge pest controllers are helping to keep their numbers down.

As they dig for grubs, bandicoots are also aerating the soil and creating small holes which help water infiltration when it rains. Studies have shown that natural regeneration of native plants is assisted by bandicoot diggings; a seed that falls into a bandicoot hole has a better chance of getting established, as it gets more moisture and nutrients, grows in softer soil and has a better chance of getting the root fungi it needs to thrive. Since they dig about 45 holes per night, this natural bioturbation is ecologically significant, resulting in about 4 tonnes of soil being moved per year by just one animal. Having bandicoots in your area is a sign that there is a healthy ecosystem.

To help your little diggers out, keep your cat inside: after cars, cats are one of the main threats to their survival in suburbia. Having said that, we have seen 'our' bandicoot clear out just moments before a cat arrived on the scene: suburban bandicoots know the threat and are on the alert. They have good hearing and eyesight; it knew the cat was there long before we did. Another threat is domestic rat bait.

Bandicoots seem to have an insatiable appetite for common rat baits; they will roll bait containers around to get the pellets out. Make sure that any bait stations are secured to stop them getting at the bait. Consider the new natural bait options (corn gluten meal and sodium chloride are the active ingredients) which do not cause secondary poisoning in birds and other animals that eat the dead rodents.

During the day, bandicoots shelter in a camouflaged nest of grass and leaves that sometimes will have soil raked over the top to improve its weatherproofing. They can carry these nesting materials rolled up in their tails, like a little swag.

If they are getting into your veges, a fence made of chicken wire 50mm high and buried 150mm into the soil will keep them out, as they are diggers, not climbers. Areas with thick mulch, and open compost heaps, are a veritable paradise to bandicoots, and will help to keep them distracted from eating your root vegetables.

Apparently Bandicoot is not an Aboriginal name, it was first used in India and thought to come from the Telugu word ‘pandi-kokku’, which means pig-rat. Of course they are marsupials not rodents.

Long nosed bandicoot, Strathdickie.

PHOTO: Graham Armstrong

'Who you calling long-nosed?'

PHOTO: Graham Armstrong

Bandicoots can get quite used to being around people, like this cheeky devil at Lake Tinaroo campground. PHOTO: JS

The Common Rhinoceros Beetle larva, a familiar sight for gardeners and a favourite food of bandicoots.

PHOTO: Jeff Wright, Queensland Museum.

Bandicoots belong to the family Peramelidae which includes both bandicoots and bilbies. Since European settlement, two species of bandicoot and one bilby have become extinct. Another two are extinct or critically endangered on the mainland, and two more are classified as vulnerable to extinction. Only the Southern Brown Bandicoot, Long-Nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoots are still common, but they have still experienced significant declines in numbers across their former range.

Bandicoots are marsupials, breeding when the availability of beetle larvae is at its peak, usually in the warmer months. Female bandicoots have a very short pregnancy, giving birth to 2-3 'jelly bean' like babies, still connected to Mum via their umbilical cords, after only 12 days. At 60 days they are fully grown and ready to breed themselves, so they can breed like, well, bandicoots. They are territorial, so the young ones disperse quickly once they are independent. If conditions are good, they may breed up to 4 times in a season.

REFERENCES:

Qld Department of Land & Water: About bandicoots

Land for Wildife SEQ: Bandicoots of SEQ

Weed hall of fame: Antigonon leptopis

Common names: Coral Vine, Chain of Love

Family: Polygonaceae

Origin: Mexico, Central America

Description: A vigorous semi-deciduous perennial climber with deciduous hooked tendrils in the leaf axils, angular stems and tuberous roots. Can climb as high as 20m into the tree canopy or forms a dense ground cover when there is nothing to climb.

Leaves: Alternate, simple, arrow to heart-shaped, 70-120 x 50-80mm, dull green, coarse textured, with wavy margins

Flowers: Tiny, eclosed within deep pink petal-like sepals, held in large terminal sprays ending with a tendril.

Fruit/ seeds: Egg-shaped nut enclosed within persistent papery flower parts.

Spread by: Garden waste, contaminated soil, gravity/ storm runoff on slopes. Can grow from seeds, cut pieces, tubers and root suckers. Clumps will expand outwards as seed falls around the established plant.

Invades: Open forest, beach forest, coastal strands, alluvial plains, and creek banks. Leaves dry out and drop in the dry season, providing fuel for fires.

Notes: Grown originally as an ornamental, this is a garden escapee with scattered populations around our region.

Mechanical control:

Small seedlings and individual plants can be hand pulled or dug out. Follow up and remove any regrowth or new seedlings.

Chemical control:

For large infestations of vines growing up or through trees, cut the main stems of the vines near the ground, and manually remove any plant material that can re-shoot, or drop seeds. Apply herbicide to the regrowth to kill the rest of the plants. Follow up will be required to control seedlings.

Coral Vine can smother entire trees.

PHOTO: Margaret Lane

Close up of leaf and flowers

PHOTO: Saskia von Fahland

Small flowers with large pink sepals. PHOTO: Alison Pearson

There are no herbicide products specifically registered for the control of Coral Vine in Queensland. However, a permit allows people to use some herbicide products to control it as an environmental weed in various situations. Prior to using the herbicides listed under this permit (PER11463) you must read and understand the conditions of the permit.

What's in a Name? From the Latin anti-, (against) and gonia, (an angle), perhaps referring to the zig zag stems, and leptopus referring to the slender stalks.

References:

Mackay Regional Pest Management Group (2018) Weeds of the Mackay Whitsunday Region, Second Edition, p94.

Botanary

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