Over the last month or so the rainforest seems to have been awakening in anticipation of the coming wet, with an number of trees and plants bursting into flower along the road as well as deeper into the forest.
Two trees that have been putting on a great show are the blush alder (Sloanea australis) and brown silky oak (Darlingia darlingiana). Both of these have been featured in Colwyn’s Rainforest Tree of the Month series and for me its great to not only appreciate the displays of creamy flowers around the village roads and tracks, but also to now know the names and key characteristics of the trees.
Blush alder (Sloanea australis) beside Mt Spec Rd near the Paluma Environmental Education CentreBrown silky oak (Darlingia darlingiana)
Another tree that is currently flowering along the tracks, creating small patches of purple petals on the ground is the paperbark satinash (Syzygium paryraceum). Many of us would be familiar with the beautiful bright purple fruit from this species which appears on the forest floor around Christmas time, but I had not realised that the flowers were equally attractive (albeit a bit more subtly).
There are probably other equally beautiful trees in bloom that I have not seen, so feel free to add to this list using the comments section of this post. There should be a Tree Warratah in bloom somewhere in the village?
Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver
Also known as Powder-puff Lilly Pilly and Wilson’s Satinash, this tree was possibly named after Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson, (1792 – 1843), a botanical collector in the 1890’s.
It is an unremarkable-looking little tree, with its straggly growth under and among the protective foliage of neighbouring trees, but it bears beautiful, pompon flowers which make the plant worthy of recognition. Although not endemic to Paluma, there are several examples of this Lilly Pilly in Paluma gardens. Perhaps the most striking, as it is bearing blooms at present, is in the garden bed beside the office at PEEC. Another small shrub grows in the Trees of Memory grove, alongside the memorial stone.
The natural distribution for this Lilly Pilly is in the rainforest at Whyanbeel, near Mossman to Hinchinbrook Island, at altitudes up to 850 metres.
The leaves of this tree are distinctive. They are simple, alternate or opposite, hairless and can be quite large, growing from 80 – 190 mm by 22 -54 mm. with a recurved margin. New growth is spectacular with deep salmon-pink colouration.
Flowers, growing in axillary or terminal panicles, hang modestly among the foliage and can easily be missed. The individual flowers are tiny, the red trumpet shaped calyx hidden by the dense cluster of magenta to crimson stamens, about 20 mm in length. They form a dense, soft pompon about the size of a mandarin, hence the name powder-puff. An accompanying photo shows the remains of the flower panicle after the stamens have gone. Flowering season can last from June to December.
The fruit of the Powder-puff Lilly Pilly is a fleshy white or cream berry, 10-18 mm long by 10 -16 mm long. It contains one seed. Like most Syzygiums, the fruit is edible but is very sour and unpleasant to eat raw. As I do not have a photo of the fruit, a sketch will have to suffice. Note the ant which was determined to get into the picture!
Next time you stroll around the streets of Paluma, see if you can spot one of these demure little trees.
Len Cook’s famous Anagama wood kiln was fired up this Monday after a two year break, and those in the village would not have missed the smoke and fire belching from the chimney over the last four days.
As of writing, the kiln has been going for over ninety hours hours and is due to be shut down and sealed up on Friday evening. This year Len was supported by a visiting potter from down south, Tania Edwards, with occasional neighbourly assistance from Jamie.
The Anagama firing is always a visual spectacle, with a roaring firebox that consumes tonnes of wood, and side stoke holes that occasional belch fire, and a chimney that sends smoke and flame skyward for 100 hours straight. Len is reportedly pleased with the firing this year, having reached temperatures in the front and back of the kiln that should be sufficient to produce some spectacular pots. However the outcome won’t be known in until next Saturday when the kiln will have cooled sufficently to be unsealed and inspected. I’m sure the results will be pretty impressive.
Len and Tania having a break after more than 90 hours “feeding the beast”
In the mean time, here is a selection of pictures from the firing.
TMR has recently confirmed that in recognition of anticipated increased use of the range Road during the Paluma Push, no road works will be carried on on Saturday and Sunday (Oct 10 -11) nights. The road will still be closed to all traffic on Friday night (Oct 9th). Formal notification by SMS will be sent to all those who have subscribed to this notification service from TMR.
The annual Paluma Push is fast approaching. This is an iconic event for Paluma and every year the Paluma Community supports the Push by providing volunteer assistance throught the local SES and Rural Fire Service. If you have not already volunteered or been contacted about volunteering Len Cook, head of the Paluma RFS, is keen to add volunteers for several check points along the race route. Please contact Len on 0427 708 530 or anagama@activ8.net.au. As a way of thanking volunteers, RFS will be sponsoring a thankyou BBQ to Push volunteers on Sunday after the race.
Strangler figs are one of the distinctive features of rainforests. They start life as epiphytes half-way up the forest canopy, germinating from seeds in bird or bat droppings that have landed on a suitable tree branch. The young seedling sends roots sinuously down the trunk of the host tree while growing its branches up towards the forest canopy. As light severely limits the growth rates of tree seedlings on the forest floor, strangler figs gain a huge advantage by starting off life near the canopy courtesy of its host tree. Once the fig’s roots reach the ground they penetrate the soil where the added supply of nutrients and water spurs rapid growth of both the branches and aerial (above-ground) roots, which progessively envelop the host tree.
Typical pattern of root growth over host tree in younger strangler figs
Seedlings can also occasionally germinate on large boulders, cliff faces and even old ruins (e.g. the ruins around Anchor Wat in Cambodia). The height at which the seedling germinates, as well as the orientation of the host dictates how the roots will grow. If a tree with a strangler on it is knocked over into a diagonal growth position, the roots will start to grow vertically directly down to the ground. An impressive example of this diagonal growth with vertical roots can be found on the famous Curtain Fig Tree outside Yungaburra in the Tablelands.
Mature figs often either kill or out-live their host, leaving a hollow core in the network of thick roots that make up the trunk of many mature stranger figs. The cause of host death is not certain and while the name suggests that the roots eventually strangle the host trunk, hosts will also have to compete with the fig for canopy space and nutrients and water in the surrounding soil and this could severly weaken the host tree. However a recent recent study of trees that survived Cyclone Yasi suggests that stranglers may actual help their hosts survive these extreme storms, perhaps by adding structural support to their host in the face of cyclonic winds.
Mature stranger figs reach enourmous size and can dominate the canopy. There are several huge figs at the bottom of Bambaroo track (unknown species) which can be seen on the satellite view of Google Earth and have canopies exceeding 50m in diameter. The largest tree in the world (in terms of area covered) is a Banyan fig (also a strangler) that covers a massive 4 acres.
Ficus watkinsiana on the Paluma Rainforest Track
Figs belong the Family Morace, and the group known as stranglers (starting off as epiphytes on a host tree or rock) belong to the subsection Urostigma. There are around 1,000 species of Ficus worldwide and Australian rainforests host about 40 species. Of these, 18 are stranglers.
Ficus watkinsiana is one of several species of strangler figs that occur around Paluma. A good example can be found on the Paluma “Rainforest Track” opposite Smith Crescent. This specimen has a dedicated platform in front of it, including an extension that allow photographers to step back so that they can get most of the tree in a photo.
Leaves and Fruit from Ficus watkinsiana on the Rainforest Track
Ficus obliqua fruit
Identification of figs is not easy and professional taxonomists may even resort to electron microscope imagery to detect minute differences in the strucuture of the fruit to confirm identification. However, based on distribution records, leaf size and fruit shape/size I am pretty confident that this one is indeed F. watkinsiana. Other species of strangler that have been identified on the H-track are F. destruens and F. obliqua. F. destruens has similar leaves but the fruit, while similar in shape are significantly smaller than F. watkinsiana. Along the H-track, starting from the JCU house, there are two specimens of F. destruens labelled with white tags (numbers 2 and 7). F. obliqua can be identified from its small globular organge coloured fruit. There is a specimen about 20m from the first right hand bend of the H-track starting from Lennox Crescent on the left side of the track.
Old stranger figs are enormous! Their canopies extend over huge areas, and their aerial roots can be over a metre wide. Top left: Curtain Fig Tree Ficus virens) at Yungaburra. Top right: a huge Ficus species at the bottom of Bambaroo track whose canopy (~52m diam) is easily seen on Google Earth satellite view (photo by Sam Stedman). Bottom: the aptly named Ficus religiosa at Ta Prohm ruin near Anchor Wat, Cambodia.
While strangler figs have a fascinating growth habit, all figs also exhibit amazing and bizarre reproductive characteristics that would require a separate post to describe in full. One fact worth noting is that almost every species of fig is dependent on a single species of tiny wasp for pollination! A scary fact since all it would take is the extinction of one species of insect to wipe out an entire species of majestic fig trees! We usually think of insects as ubiquitous and prolific, but a recent scientific global survey found that 40% of all insect species are declining and that a third are endangered.
For our local Ficus watkinsiana the polinating wasp is Pleistodontes nigriventris. You may never see one ( I couldn’t find a picture of it on the web) but you would certainly know if it went extinct!
Text and photos (unless indicated) by Jamie Oliver
Paluma has had a number of major power outages in the last month or so as Ergon Energy carries out major maintenance on the system, including replacement of several power poles. According to Ergon, all residents should receive a notice my mail of any upcoming outages, but for some reason not everyone seems to have received these for the outage that occurred this past Thursday.
Linda Venn has shared a way of getting automatic emails of upcoming outages that will provide an additional means of notification:
“Ergon cannot manage to work around our twice-weekly mail deliveries and they are only bound to give us four days’ notice. If we are not getting notices in time, or if we are not getting them at all, apparently it is not Ergon’s fault, but Australia Post’s. There may be some truth in that, but this is an unwinnable argument. Far better to set up an email contact, similar to that we now have with Main Roads.
Unfortunately, this cannot be done online. You have to phone 13 22 96 and press a lot of buttons before you get to speak to a real person. Give them your street address and your email address and request that they email you with the details for setting up an email contact. My email to set this up arrived within 5 minutes of my phone call and all I had to do is reply. Now I await my email of notification of future outages.”
Townsville City Council has announced that the next kerbside collection of bulk rubbish has been postponed to Monday 28th September. Currently only 2 residences have registered for this service and the Council is asking for the word to be passed around concerning this new date, and the need to register if you wish to have your rubbish picked up.
People can submit a booking enquiry at townsville.qld.gov.au Generally they want some idea of what the rubbish is and how much – presumeably to decide which truck to send! There are some items that can’t be collected, these are detailed on the website.
As previously reported, Les Hyland was nominated to be the Townsville City Council “Senior of the Year” for 2020. While he did not win the award, he was included in the short list. This Saturday (Sept 12) our local Councilor, Margie Ryder, will come up the range to make a presentation to Les in recognition of his shortlisting. The event will be at the Rainforest Inn at 11am. Please come along to help celebrate the achievements (and stamina!) of our now-famous senior member of the Village.
Last Thursday SpaceX, the company led by Elon Musk, launched 57 “Starlink” satellites into low earth orbit. For the first day or so they could be seen in the night sky as a string of bright lights racing across the night sky, prior to moving off under their own steam to take up separate orbits. Last Saturday night Wilfred Karnoll was lucky enough to see this spectactular show and was briefly convinced he might have been seeing UFOs.
A string of recently released Star-link satellites taken last year over the Netherlands
Perhaps others also caught a glimpse of this latest deployment by SpaceX? Let us know if you did.
While sixty-odd satellites sounds like a lot, this is mearly the lastest batch in a major program that will ultimately see a network of thousands of wirelessly interconnected satellites that will provide high bandwith internet to people around the word in even the remotest of locations.
Currently there are over 700 Starlink satellites overhead and beta testing of internet links has commenced in the US. Hovever SpaceX has permission to launch nearly 12,000 and has currently seeking further permission to have a total of 42,000 satellites in orbit. Currently there are only about 2000 satellites of all types circling the earth, so space is going to get pretty crowded in the future. Astronomers have complained that all these bright objects will hinder stargazing – SpaceX has responded by intalling “sunshades” over its latest satellites.
Australian regulator ACMA has given SpaceX initial approval for the Starlink internet service to operate in Australia, but there is much more testing, launching and approvals to do before we in Paluma can think about switching from the rather lack-lustre SkyMuster NBN satellite. In the mean time you can go to this website, or download an Apple or Android, app that will tell you when you can observe the light-show over Townsville/Paluma.
