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Coming up this month:
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Whitsunday Catchment Landcare Annual General Meeting
WCL needs you! Please consider supporting your volunteer organisation by serving a term on the management committee. The minimum time commitment required is a 2-hour meeting each month excluding December-January, which can be attended in person in Proserpine or virtually. We have been successful this year in getting some good grants and now there are many things to organise. If you would like to contribute to building the future of WCL, your input will be most welcome.
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At this AGM a special resolution will be presented on a proposed trading-name change from Whitsunday Catchment Landcare Inc. to Whitsunday Landcare Inc.
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Date: Thursday 17th October 2024
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Venue: Landcare Nursery, 33 Kelsey Creek Road, Proserpine.
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The Agenda for the Annual General Meeting and the Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting have been sent to members by email, as well as a Proxy Nomination form for those unable to attend in person on the day. If you didn't receive one please contact Christine.
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Please note that the current Chairperson and Treasurer will not be renominating for these positions at this AGM. Nominations are called for six members of the Management Committee (including the executive positions of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary). If you are interested in a position on the management committee or would like more information, please contact the Coordinator or any of the Management Committee members.
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Please return written nominations by COB 3rd October:
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Whitsunday Catchment Landcare – 33 Kelsey Creek Road Proserpine
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Landcare nursery open Saturday 5th October...AND Saturday 19th October.We are trialling 2 Saturdays each month!
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Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine
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When: 9 am to 12 noon Tuesday & Thursday, & 1st & 2nd Saturday each month. EFTPOS available.
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What: A huge range of local native plants grown from locally collected seed, at great prices from $3.50. Gift vouchers available for a gardener you know. Knowledgeable staff & volunteers are on hand for friendly advice.
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We're opening 2 Saturdays each month for a few months, to see if it allows more people to access the community nursery. Come along and take a look!
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Spring seed collecting at Nelly Bay Thursday 24th October
We had some good rain in August so hopefully there will be plenty of seeds on offer in the Beach Scrub. We will go for a walk through this special patch of rainforest and along the beach, and then finish up with a cuppa and some snacks on the beach.
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What: Seed collecting for the community nursery.
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Where: Meet Jacquie at the Nelly Bay carpark on Trochus st, Dingo Beach.
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Bring: Sun safe clothing & hat, water bottle (refills will be available), closed-in shoes, a small bag or backpack for carrying water etc. is handy as well.
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Please RSVP to Christine so that we have an idea of numbers for catering, there will be some seats available if you need to car pool, or can offer a ride please advise.
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Collecting seeds from a Silver Beads tree. Brachychiton Australe is flowering now.
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Community Nursery activities:
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Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine
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When: Tuesday & Thursday mornings 9am to 12 noon.
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What: Plant propagation, native seed sowing & preparation, nursery maintenance tasks, plant propagation and a great morning tea with a fantastic bunch of volunteers.
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Please wear sun protection and closed-in shoes.
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What's showing: Trophis scandens subsp. scandens
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Scientific name: Trophis scandens subsp. scandens
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Description: A bushy shrub 1.5 - 4m high. It can be seen in fruit now around the northern islands and Cape Gloucester.
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Distribution: In rainforest and along creeks in Northern and eastern Australia from the Kimberleys through the Northern Territory and Queensland to Batemans Bay in New South Wales and overseas.
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Leaves: Oval in shape, juvenile leaves have serrated edges. About 100-150mm long, dark green above and paler underneath, with prominent veins. Broken parts exude a milky sap.
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Flowers: Usually in spring, but may flower at other times. Cream coloured. Male flowers occur in 20mm long spikes from the leaf axils. Female flowers form globular heads about 80mm in diameter.
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Fruit: Edible red berries with a prominent warty looking pink receptacle (the main part of the flower) around the base.
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Notes: Food plant for the larval stages of the Two-brand Crow and Eastern Brown Crow Butterflies. There are only 2 sub-species in the genus Trophis (Malaisia), the other occurs only on Lord Howe Island, Malaisia scandens subsp. megacarpa.
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This one is complicated! Malaisia scandens is listed as the accepted name in the Australian Plant Census, but the Queensland herbarium (among others) prefers to use Trophis scandens. The name Malaisia is from 'Malaisis', the local name used in the Philippines.
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Trophis - derived from the Greek word “trophe,” which means nourishment or food.
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scandens - meaning climbing.
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Dictionary of Botanical Names, Don Perrin
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At the nursery this month: Larsenaikia jardinei
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PHOTO: Christine Peterson
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Once known as Kailarsenia jardinei, it was given a new genus in 1993. Also known as Native Gardenia, this little shrub is a true local, growing only from Mt Elliot (near Townsville), down to Mackay. It's natural home is open woodland and vine forests, along creeks or behind mangroves, so once established, it is tolerant of full sun, tough soil conditions and long dry periods.
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It can be pruned to shape if desired. I
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Planted in the open it is a 2-5m shrub, with stiff competition it can reach a little higher.
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It has white-cream, scented flowers and small, egg-shaped green fruits which provide food for wildlife.
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Bottle trees: hardy Australian survivors
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Australia is the world centre of diversity for Bottle Trees; there are 31 species and we have 30, the other is found in Papua New Guinea. They are sometimes mistaken for Boabs, understandably given the eponymous swollen-trunked appearance of many.
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The Australian Boab is Adansonia gregorii, it is closely related to the Boabs of Madagascar and Africa. There are eight species of Adansonia; six occur in Madagascar, one in Africa and one in Australia. Australian Boabs are naturally found in WA and the Western Northern Territory, how they came to be there is still being debated.
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Botanists have recently placed Bottle Trees in the same genus as Boabs, the Malvaceae, along with all of the other members of Sterculiaceae, including our Peanut Trees (Sterculia quadrifida), Kapok Trees (Cochlospermum gillivrayii) and Bombax ceiba. Most members of this group can produce a thick, gel-like mucilage if wounded, presumably in defence: apparently it can strip car paint; I haven't tried this!
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B. acerfolius (Flame Tree) seeds showing the 'tunic' of prickly hairs. PHOTO: CP
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Three common local Brachychiton species are: Brachychiton acerifolius (Flame Tree), Brachychiton australis (Broad-leafed Bottle Tree) and Brachychiton compactus, the locally endemic Whitsunday Bottle Tree. All three species can be found growing together on the rocky shores between Cannonvale and Earlando, as well as on some of the northern Islands. Here they grow on seasonally dry, baking hot, rocky slopes; more rocks than soil.
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They all have hard, woody pods which persist for quite a while on the tree and below it. The pods are generally boat-shaped, splitting open along one side to reveal the rows of matt-yellow seeds inside, surrounded by their prickly coat of hairs. Beware if handling them: the hairs are as itch-inducing as fibreglass, especially on a sweaty day! Despite this, I have seen several bird species eating them, including currawongs and crows.
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B. australis, leaf & pods PHOTO: S. Pearson
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Brachychitons are generally small to medium trees or shrubs, and can be dry-season deciduous, presumably an adaptation to our unreliable rainfall. Some are full-on 'pachycaul' plants: they form big swellings in the trunk to store water for long drought periods.
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The Whitsunday Bottle Tree does this, enabling it to remain leafy and green in very tough conditions. If you have one, don't be tempted to water it once it is established, they can rapidly succumb to rot if too wet for too long, or if they are wounded. Due to their soft storage tissues fungal rot can cause them to almost melt away.
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B. australis flowers PHOTO: Steve Pearson
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Brachychiton australis, the Broad-leaved Bottle Tree, tends to be taller and a bit straighter, in the beach scrub it can be an emergent reaching as high as 12m. The large, divided leaves have 4-9 broad lobes, giving it a Maple-like look. It usually flowers after leaf-drop. The flowers are white and strongly scented, if a little high for you to notice.
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Indigenous people ate the roasted seeds and the yam-like roots of small seedlings. Reportedly, the seeds contain 18% protein and 25% fat, with high levels of zinc and magnesium. This species grows naturally from NE Queensland down to SE Queensland in monsoon forest and vine thickets.
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Brachychiton compactus, the locally endemic Whitsunday Bottle Tree, tends to be stubbier, with a fatter trunk, growing 8m to 15m, depending on the competition. It has a beautiful lacy green and brown bark pattern when young. It is closely related to B. rupestris, but B. compactus only occurs naturally here in the Whitsunday region.
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They can grow quite quickly, but it takes quite a few years before they begin to flower; some trees planted in parks and gardens are flowering regularly now, at the age of about 15 or so years. They flower prolifically, producing large quantities of seed capsules.
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B. compactus flowers & mature leaf shape PHOTO:Steve Pearson
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The famous Illawarra Flame Tree, Brachychiton acerifolius grows naturally from Cape York down to SE NSW, in drier and well-developed rainforests on a variety of soil types. The species name 'acerifolius' refers to the leaf shape, which is? a little like an oak leaf: oaks are in the genus 'Acer'; think of the playing card symbol. Their leaves actually vary in shape quite a lot, from entire to lobed, often on the same tree.
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This species often flowers while bare of leaves, making for a spectacular show of red flowers. Depending on soil moisture, the tree may retain all or some of its leaves, or lose them all. The bark of younger trees has a beautiful deep green lacy pattern. It is the larval food plant for the Pencilled Blue, Helenita Blue, Common Aeroplane and Tailed Emperor butterflies.
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Flame Tree flowers PHOTO: CP.
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Bottle trees lining the rocky shore, Grimston Point (Woodwark). PHOTO: JS
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Our local native bottle trees or kurrajongs belong to the genus Brachychiton: from the Greek 'Brachys', meaning short and 'chiton', meaning a tunic, referring to the bristly surrounds of the seeds. The NSW name Kurrajong comes from the Dharuk language 'garrajuŋ', meaning fishing line, as their people made fishing lines from kurrajong bark.
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Some Brachychitons have a variety of leaf shapes during their life cycle: ranging from narrow and entire to palmate; B. compactus is a good example. The leaves vary so much from the seed leaves, to the sapling, to the young tree and finally the mature tree, that we are often asked by customers at the nursery whether we have supplied the correct plant!
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They are monoecious: that is, they produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant. Some species are erratic in their flowering, such as Whitsunday Bottle trees, which flower when they are good and ready, to their own timetable, or utterly reliable every year, such as the famous flame trees (of the Cold Chisel song), B. acerifolius.
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Young leaves of B. compactus PHOTO: SP
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Varied leaves of B. compactus PHOTO: CP
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Above: The imposing trunk of B. australis, Grassy Island. PHOTO: JS
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B. compactus swollen trunk PHOTO: JS
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B. compactus fruits PHOTO: CP
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B. compactus bark patterns JS
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Weed Hall of Fame: Leucaena leucocephala subsp. leucocephala
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Common names: Coffee bush, cow tamarind, horse tamarind, jumbie bean
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Origin: Central and South America
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Leaves: Leaves are about 25cm long, bipinnate, with dull, greyish-green leaflets.
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Flowers: Flower heads are spherical, creamy-yellow, on short stalks about 5cm long. Sets seeds and flowers year-round.
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Fruit: Flattened pods up to 15cm long, in dense hanging clusters. Each pod contains about 20 flat, glossy brown seeds that scatter when ripe. Seeds can survive well over a decade in the soil and remain viable.
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Spread by: Seeds spread by stock, wind, water and machinery. Spreads rapidly to adjacent areas unless heavily grazed or controlled.
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Invades: In tropical and subtropical areas, everywhere on disturbed ground, in gardens and waste areas, cleared land, beaches, along creek lines and roadsides. It forms dense thickets which exclude all other species and hinder movement of people, stock and wildlife.
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Notes: Imported as cattle fodder, Leucaena forms dense thickets, hindering movement of wildlife and excluding all other plants. There are a number of subspecies of Leucaena in our region, some of which are grown as a managed fodder crop. Leucaena leucocephala subsp leucocephala is a locally declared weed in the Whitsunday Regional Council area. Contact Council for more information about landowners obligations to manage declared weeds.
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Manual control: Hand-pull seedlings; be sure to remove the roots to prevent regrowth. This can only be done when they are very small and the ground is soft. Prevent it from setting seed: in this case 'one year's seed is about 15 years weeds'.
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Herbicide control: There are no herbicide products specifically registered for the control of Leucaena in Queensland. However, a permit allows people generally to use some herbicide products to control it as an invasive plant in various situations. See the factsheet below for details:
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Pods and leaves. PHOTO: QLD Government
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Infestation PHOTO: QLD Government
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Flowers and buds. PHOTO: QLD Government
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Seedlings growing en-masse. PHOTO: CP
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There may be some Council assistance available for landholders to carry out weed control:
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How you can help:
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If you're interested in doing your bit for the local
environment and socialising with like‐
minded people, we have volunteer activities on Tuesday & Thursday mornings
and more. Contact us!
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WCL is a community not‐for‐profit. We rely on donations to assist with our projects such as revegetation.
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WCL is registered charity; donations of $2 or more
are tax deductible.
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To donate, please contact us or go to the
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CONTACT
CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION ON
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- Natural Resource Management
- Land Management Plans
- Native Plants
- Environmental Weeds
- Volunteer Activities
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WCL TEAM
Coordinator: Christine Peterson
Admin/finance: Leigh Donkers
Field Staff: Kayla Simpson, Rory Richards
Nursery Manager: Nicole Murphy
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WCL Management Committee:
Dale Mengel, Chair
Jacquie Sheils, Secretary; newsletter editor
Cath Campbell, Treasurer
Jan Armstrong
Canegrowers rep. John Casey
One Community position vacant
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Thank you to our supporters:
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