alpine_flora_of_australia's Favorites

More than 1000 plants found at this location this year. I have recorded a single plant there in 2013, but not in the exact same location, so it's possible I missed the larger population then. This site did not burn in 2020, and this newly discovered population slightly compensates for the apparent complete loss of the large population on Little Bog Creek after the high intensity fire there caused considerable alteration to the bog hydrology. Maybe they will return in a drier season when the bog is not quite so full.

Lightly scattered through the Bega Swamp bog at 1090m elevation. I've seen them more abundant in previous seasons, but whether the lower numbers are a response to the early 2020 fire which burnt through the bog, or the very wet conditions this year is not apparent.

Typical of scenes in the general area with large stands of flowering Incense Plant lining the roads or stretching along gullies burnt in summer 2019-20. Many over 4m in height. Beautiful scent on an overcast humid day.

Location very approximate, along My Youngal road, a couple of occurrence growing on a northish facing roadside cutting. It keys to collina ssp paludosa, if you accept that the calyx is basically glabrous, despite having a few scattered hairs. Calling the calyx hairy could make it the regionally extinct ssp muelleri, but it was not as hairy as that is depicted in the Flora of NSW. I've taken a specimen and will get the ID confirmed eventually. Plants were abundant in the 2 locations I saw them, but not seen anywhere else, in montane forest at 1240m elevation.

https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Boronia~granitica

Threatened species: NSW BCA: Vulnerable; Commonwealth EPBC: Endangered

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10098

The first nearly all white Eastern grey joey to be seen out of the pouch on my place since the fire. Bodes well that Creamy and/or Snowy, the white males, are still around. I have seen 50/50, Dazzle's mother, and Dazzle, a joey before the fire but not immature adult.

Moderate intensity burning around car park and nearby area, and on way to waterhole. Fire impact not as pronounced around waterhole.

The fire was more recent than the Black Summer fires, most likely occurring in mid-November 2020.

The location has been generalised a bit since this is a threatened species. Most of the bog and all of the surrounding forest burnt at high intensity in Jan 2020. E. scabra has been present in high numbers at one site here, and in lower numbers at 3 other sites in past years, but post-fire, it was only present in 2 of those sites (the other 2 being currently too wet for it due to elevated seepage out of the burnt forests). Plants reduced to 114 and 30 at the 2 sites, c.f. a peak combined population of >6500 in 2016. Numbers had dropped due to drought prior to the fire, but less drastically (1200 in 2019). In the 2nd photo the open water in the background did not exist pre-fire, but has been created by consumption of reed beds and underlying peat. At least the fire has reduced the impact of feral herbivores, but probably only temporarily as there was deer scat and prints in the vicinity.

A couple of seedlings 14 months after fire burnt through much of this old growth stand of cool temperate rainforest dominated by Elaeocarpus holopetalus in Jan 2020. Many trees were dead, so a lot more light was getting through to ground level than usual. Although I only saw seedlings of Bedfordia at this location, I did also see it resprouting from the base along the road on the way out.