This rather skinny python was spotted recently by Lynda Radbone on the back verandah of a residence at the western end of Paluma Village. The poor python was a bit lethargic and quite reluctant to move from the deck. It certainly looks like this snake could do with a good feed of scrub turkey or perhaps a rainforest rodent. We hope it has made its way back into the forest and has found something nourishing to eat.
If anyone knows a wildlife carer who might be able to assist with regard to the welfare of this poor python, please contact Lynda for the location of the recent sighting of this snake. It retreated under the house so perhaps it is still there and in need of care. It’s times like this that we miss our resident wildlife expert and herpetologist Roy Mackay who would have known exactly what to do!
If you have visited the Rainforest Inn recently you will have noticed the impressive Banskia flowering in the garden at the front of the building. It’s hard to miss, given the very large and striking deep orange to bronze coloured blooms.
Jennie says that she planted the Banksia about 6 years ago and while it has grown into a sizeable bushy shrub standing to about 2.5 m in height, this is the first time it has flowered. Jennie purchased the plant from a nursery in Ingham and she is unsure of its exact identification. We think it is most likely Banksia ‘Giant Candles’ which is a registered cultivar and a hybrid between Banksia ericifolia and Banksia spinulosa.
The flower spikes are at least 25 cm in size and they can reach up to 40 cm. Flowering time is late Autumn through winter. Banksia ‘Giant Candles’ is described as an adaptable large shrub that can grow up to 5 m in height if left unpruned. It likes a sunny and well-drained position, flowering best in full sun.
If you are looking for a stunning plant to bring birds to your garden then this is a great option. Several times over the past weekend we noticed the local honeyeaters visiting the giant candle flowers. Lewins’ honeyeaters and eastern spinebills were eager feeders on the nectar laden flowers in the early morning and late afternoon.
Over the last month or so, one of the consistently flowering plants in my garden, as well as other gardens in the village has been bromeliads.
Broms belong to the family Bromeliacea which includes “air plants” in the genus Tillandsia. They come in an amazing range of colours (on both the flowers and leaves) and flower shapes. They can grow anywhere from full sun to deep shade and in wet and dry habitats.
In Paluma they are great plants for “mature” gardens with a full shady canopy that restricts the number of brightly flowering plants that can grow in the gloom. Currently one of my favourite broms is blooming throughout the village. Bilbergia pyramidalis, like most bromeliads, comes from South America. Its common names (flaming torch and foolproof plant) are certainly apt. It has a stunning large red and purple flower and it tends (at least in my garden to bloom during only a short few days in March when the effect in mass plantings is quite spectacular.
Bilbergia pyramidalisThe beginnings of a mass planting next to Wilfred’s house
This year the blooming period seems to be less synchronous and more prolonged, perhaps due to the lack of a “proper” wet season.
This species grows prolifically in semi-shaded to fully shaded areas and it is dead-easy (fool proof) to grow and propagate. I have created a living boundary “fence” along one side of my garden by heaping up my endless supply of branch timings and then just tossing B. pyramidalis onto the top of the pile. Three to six months later it formed a living cover and a spectacle of colour once a year thereafter.
A living and flowering border fence
Another stunning relative of the bromeliad that has just finished flowering is the Pink quill (Tillandsia cyanea).
Tillandsias are also called air plants since they can grow epiphytically on tree trunks or rocks without any soil. T. cyanea is different in that it prefers to grow in a small pot of well drained soil. It produces 2-4 “pups” each year so it doesn’t take long to get a row of these delightful plants lined up on a ledge in your garden (see the header for this post).
Tillandsia cyanea
Some of the other broms that have been flowering, or showing off their colours are also shown below, together with any names I have been able to attribute to them (this is still a work in progress). If you are interested in long-lived flowers then Guzmania conifer and Achmea fasciata keep their blooms for up to 6 months or more!
Whilst gardening at her Smith Crescent property last weekend, Jodie came across this beautiful Ocellated Velvet Gecko (or OVG for short!). Scientific name Oedura monilis.
These relatively large geckos are found in north eastern Australia from near Townsville, south to the New South Wales border. They are common in forested areas, sheltering by day in crevices of rock outcrops, in tree hollows or beneath loose bark.
My research suggests that Jodie’s specimen is a sub-adult due to the bright yellow dorsal markings. In adult geckoes these markings are said to be variable, but they tend to be darker brown to grey in colour. Individuals usually dwell on a home tree from which they forage widely in search of food. References indicate that these geckoes prefer dry woodland and dry sclerophyll forests rather than high altitude rainforest.
Has anyone else spotted these stunning geckoes in and around the Paluma village?
References: Stephen Swanson – Field Guide to Australian Reptiles and Stephen Wilson & David Knowles – Australia’s Reptiles: A Photographic Reference to the Terrestrial Reptiles of Australia.
Last Saturday night (11 December) the residents of Paluma celebrated the last Social Event for 2021 with the annual Tropical BBQ held at the Community Hall. The event was well attended with locals catching up for a yarn and a beverage before the Christmas period. Everyone bought along their own meat for the BBQ which was expertly cooked by the King of the BBQ – Don Battersby. Paluma’s cooks put on a splendid buffet with an impressive array of fine salads and other delicious foods. A special treat was a platter of fresh prawns compliments of ‘yours truly’ who happened to win a $50.00 voucher from Cleveland Bay Seafoods, courtesy of a Lions Club raffle ticket sold by the one and only Les Hyland. The dessert bar was astounding with cheesecake, pavlovas, chocolate tart, mangoes and ice-cream. I think everyone ate way too much, but who’s counting calories. It’s Christmas time!!
The attire for the night was definitely ‘tropical flair’. It was great to see everyone embracing the theme with their loud tropical and Hawaiian shirts, sarongs, thongs and Santa shirts. Tropical flowers adorned the tables and one attendee decided to wear her tropical garden on her head!
Speaking of flowers, the other important theme for the evening was all things gardening. Lynn announced the winners of the Paluma Annual Garden Competition which was held in late November and judged by two members of Bunnings staff. Congratulations go to Nick and Glenda for again taking out the Championship Trophy Prize of Best Residential Garden. The competition winners are outlined below, courtesy of Lynn Hyland.
1. Best Residential Garden in the Village – Glenda and Nick Van Rynswoud. Perpetual Trophy winner. The Judges enjoyed immensely the guided tour of such an impressive garden.
2. Best Non-Residential Garden in the Village – Gumburu. A well planned environment with some rare species to be found in the garden.
3. Best Acreage Garden – Bobbie and Glen Parker. Such a serene ambience and they loved the collection of miniature potted gardens.
4. Highly Recommended Village Garden – Michele Bird. The atmosphere created by the hanging baskets looking out onto the garden was wonderful.
5. Most Unusual Plant Specimen – Anne Bruyere’s “ Rainbow Gum“. Such a wonderful specimen of such a rare tree. The bark was highly coloured on the day of the judging.
Bunnings donated $200 in Vouchers and the ‘Alison Evans Trophy’ was engraved with the winners name for 2021 which was the 25th year since the Garden Competition first started in Paluma.
Here are some selected photos from the evening, with apologies from this author for not getting around to everyone on the night.
Text by Michele Bird & Lynn Hyland. Photos by Michele Bird.
The judging for the Paluma Garden Competition will take place this coming Wednesday 1st December 2021.
Two staff members from Bunnings will be escorted by members of the PDCA and will be visiting the gardens of Paluma to decide on the winners in the Annual Garden Competition.
Should you not wish to have your property entered, please contact Lynn Hyland before Wednesday (Phone: 4770 8681).
The winners of the Competition will be announced at the PDCA ‘Tropical BBQ’ to be held on Saturday 11 December at the Community Hall.
We have previously posted on the beautiful Tibouchina’s growing in many of the village gardens, but it is hard not to mention the current spectacle of the Tibouchina Chameleon in gardens along Mount Spec Road.
The Venn’s large shrub at the eastern end of the village is a show-stopper and I saw many visitors stopping to photograph it over last weekend – just as I did!. It seems just about every second garden has a ‘Chameleon’ and why not, when they thrive with very little care in our mountain climate. Other good specimens are located towards the central and western end of the village at Nick and Glenda’s place and at Neil and Jennies at Cloud Cottage.
Tibouchina Chameleon is a dense and fast growing evergreen shrub. At Paluma it seems to flower at least twice a year. The flowers open white in colour and then change to mauve and pink as they age over several days. If you are looking for a hardy, colourful and rather special plant for your garden, you can’t go past one of these beauties.
We have previously posted several articles on this website regarding the amazing bowers built by the satin bowerbirds in and around the village of Paluma.
This is a story of two bowers and the concerted efforts of my resident satin bowerbird/s to build and maintain their bower in the face of considerable adversity.
A few weeks ago at the start of the breeding season I noticed that the satin bowerbirds were very active in the garden – in their favourite spot where a bower has been built over two successive years. So, it didn’t surprise me to see work had begun on a new bower (no.3) this breeding season. The construction of the bower was well under way and various blue objects started appearing in the garden as the efforts ramped up to build the bower and tempt the female birds in. There was some frenetic activity going on.
Then…….along came the tree trimmers to prune the vegetation from the transmission lines.
At my place they pruned some sizeable branches and left most of them behind littered throughout the garden. The clean up effort by the crew was pretty poor to say the least. As I cussed (numerous times) and began cleaning up the branches left behind, I noticed that a large branch had been lopped and left right on top of the bower. I promptly removed it to discover that the bower had been flattened to a pulp (along with several of my garden plants). In addition, the large branch left on top of the bower meant that the birds could not get access to the area to retrieve their twigs, sticks, blue trinkets and treasures to rebuild or relocate the bower.
I cussed again (more times than previously) and resolved with some disappointment that the bowerbird courting and breeding in my garden would be over for this year.
But that is not the end of this tale.
Coming back to my garden after two weeks away I was pleasantly surprised to see the bowerbird/s had rebuilt and re-erected the bower. It was bigger and better than before. There were new and many more blue trinkets scattered around the bower, along with pieces of bright green lichen. A new addition was the leaves of the exotic aluminium plant with the silvery upper side of the leaves carefully placed at the bower entrance. In recent times there has again been a hive of courting activity and chortling at the bower and around the garden.
It never ceases to amaze me how adaptable and innovative these birds can be. Not only do they collect and re-use the plastic contaminants we humans leave in the environment (well at least the blue pieces), they also re-adjust quite readily to our invasion of their rainforest home and our constant interference in their breeding and life cycle.
If only we humans were so tolerant and adaptable to the other species sharing the planet!
View of the rebuilt second bowerThe array of blue (plastic) treasures at the bower.
Paluma gardens have a pretty wide variety of both native and exotic orchids and at least one or two species can usually be seen flowering during most seasons. Over the last month, two striking but relatively uncommon native orchids have flowered around the village: the spider orchid (Tetrabaculum cacatua) and the orange blossom orchid (Sarcochilus falcatus).
Michele has written about the spider orchid previously, but it’s great to see it again in full splendor and flowering at nearly the same time of year (July 20 in 2019 and July 14 in 2021). The orchid flowers lasted only a few days and are gone now, although there might be other speciments around the village or tracks. These orchids have unusual pseudobulbs (“stems”) that are square in cross section.
Orchid names have been in a state of flux recently. While this specimen was identified as Dendrobium tetragonum in the original post this species has been devided into 4 species in the genus Tetrabaculum, two of which can be found in Paluma. The one posted here (T. cacatua or the yellow tree spider orchid) has light yellow to white flower petals with few or no reddish spots and is restricted to forests above 900m). The other one to look out for (occurs below 900m) is T. capitisyork or the blotched spider orchid, which – you guessed it – has conspicuous red blotches on the petals. But for most of us, it’s just a gorgeous flower no matter what its official name is, and I am sure Shakespeare would agree!
The other beautiful orchid in flower at the moment is the orange blossum orchid (Sarcochilus falcatus). This delightful dainty orchid has a white flower with red stripes and yellow margins on the labellum (lower petal). It also flowered at nearly the same time last year. It is endemic to east and southeast Australia and favours cool moist forests. In north Queensland its temperature preferences restrict it to higher altitude rainforests. Although it is listed as being wide-spread and common in Austraian Tropical Rainforest Orchids, I have not seen this before during my frequents walks along the tracks.
Other fairly common native orchids that are currently sending out flower spikes and should be in full bloom during August in Paluma gardens or along the tracks are the rock orchid (Dendrobium speciosum, the slender cane orchid (Dendrobium adae), the buttercup orchid (Dendrobiumagrostophylla), and the green catepillar orchid (Plexaure crassiuscula). The first three are described in the 5 easy species article on orchids. The last is illustrated here.
