One area of the park that the Friends of Tarra Bulga are monitoring carefully is an area that has been set back by the occurrence of the Black Saturday bush-fires. The site is on a north-west facing slope and is an area of about 10 ha.It was added to the National Park in 1986 which was part of the process of the merging of the Bulga Park and Tarra Valley reserves. At that time it was in very poor condition, having being abandoned after being cleared for farming. It was reportedly covered in blackberries, introduced grasses and native colonisers such as Fireweed Groundsel and Bracken Fern.
Tag: Tarra Bulga
Pretty But Noxious
When cyclists from the Great Victorian Bike Ride “ascend” on Tarra Bulga next week they will notice along with the many native plants in flower some attractive looking flowering plants that are in fact not so desirable. One of the most obvious they will see is Creeping Buttercup – (Ranunculus repens). Although there are native Buttercup species this one comes from the Northern hemisphere. As can be seen by the sea of yellow along the roadsides at this time of the year, it has been well established for a long time and has also penetrate to some moist areas deeper in the park resulting in the displacement of native species.
Another weed that is threatening to take over and become more of a pest is Myosotis sylvatica or Wood forget-me-not. There are also native relatives of this plant in existence, but this species is native to Europe and has been introduced to Tarra Bulga from garden escapes. It is popping up all over the roadsides and is threatening to penetrate deeper into the park. Park staff and volunteers are vigilant in trying to remove seedlings whenever they are encountered but the task seems to be getting more difficult.
Strzelecki Koala
We have had what we hope is the first of many Koala’s detected by our remote cameras. This one was on the move past our camera site in the Tarra Valley. Koala sightings seem to be reported more frequently in the park in recent years, but this is only anecdotal as no proper ongoing survey has ever taken place. Importantly the park is part of the habitat of the Strzelecki Koala population, which is significant because the local Koalas are thought to be the only population in the state that are not descended from a handful of trans-located Koalas from French Island and hence are thought to be much healthier and genetically resilient.
This Koala was in an area of the Park that has some very large Mountain Grey-gum trees, (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa) which researchers believe is one of the local Koalas’ favourite food sources. Although not their first choice Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans); which is the most common eucalypt within the park is thought to also be utilisted by Koalas as well as Messmate (Eucalyptus obliqua) which is also quite common. We would love to hear about any sightings in the park to add to our knowledge and to help contribute to regional efforts that are being made to get a better understanding about the distribution of the Strzelecki Koala and its health and well being.
Olearias
Tarra Bulga National Park has three different species of Olearia which are members of the daisy family. Two of them can be a little tricky to tell apart, however one is clearly different to the others. From casual observation all of them have similar looking flowers and the best way to tell them apart is by examining the leaves.
Olearia lirata – (Snowy daisy-bush) is a very common species in the park, although it is not usually present in the rainforest gullies; it is a dominant shrub in the wet sclerophyll forest areas (which is the most common vegetation type in the park). It is a small to medium sized shrub and its medium sized leaves are lance shaped and usually green and shiny above and grey and hairy underneath.
Flowering.
After flowering the fluffy seed is nearly ready to be released.
This plant is growing in ideal conditions and it has massive clumps of flowers, They are usually not crowded together quite so much.
A more typical looking flowering display.
The leaves are relatively shiny and green and do note have regularly space teeth like the Dusty daisy-bush.
With new flower buds.
Olearia phlogopappa – (Dusty daisy-bush) is less common in the park than Olearia lirata and is and mostly found in the more disturbed areas; it is also a small to medium sized shrub. It has narrower leaves, that are more greyish and not shiny (hence dusty) with tiny hairs on the underside. The leaves also usually have blunt teeth along their margins.
Leaves note the greyish colour and small teeth on the leaf margins.
Flowers
Flower buds
With new flower buds.
Olearia argophylla – (Musk daisy-bush)is the third species. It is a large shrub almost to the size of a small tree. Its leaves are much broader and larger than the other two species, they are green on the top and whitish or silvery underneath. It can occur in all forest types within Tarra Bulga, including the rainforest gullies.
Flowering.
Showing the underside of the leaf which is usually a silvery white colour.
Taller than the other Olearia species it can be grow to be a small tree.
The large broad shiny leaves make it easy to tell apart from the other Olearia species.
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Local Cassinias
This is the time of year when most of the daisy species in Tarra Bulga are in flower. A number of species look quite similar and a bit of knowledge is often needed to tell one from another.They are all medium shrubs with narrow linear leaves and similar looking cauliflower like flower-heads.
One group are the Cassinias’ there are three separate species and all of them occur in the more open and exposed sections of the park rather in the shaded and protected gullies
Cassinia aculeata – (Common Cassina or Dogwood) has the the shortest and narrowest leaves of the three. If you look underneath the leaves you can see that they are curled over at the edges. Another distinguishing feature is that the new flowers are sometimes pink rather that white.
Flower head, in this case showing the Pink Form
Showing the underside of the narrow leaves that are hair below with recurved margins.
Showing white flowerheads this time.
Cassinia longifolia – (Shiny Cassinia) has broader and longer leaves and the new leaves are noticeably shiny and sticky to touch. The underside of the leaves are covered in short dense hairs and the vein down the middle is very prominent.
Showing the Shiny upper-side of the leaf which can be sticky and has a prominent mid-vein.
Showing the underside of the leaf with dense hairs and the mid vein.
Flowerhead
Typical shiny leaves
Cassinia trinerva – (Three-veined Cassinia)Has leaves that are also broader and longer than Common Cassina, they are quite soft and not shiny or sticky. They have a big vein running down the middle of the leaf and two smaller veins that run a millimetre or two inside the leaf margins.
Underside of leaves showing the 3 veins that give the species its name.
Cassinia trinerva – Three-nerved Cassinia
Flowerhead which again looks very similar the the other 2 species in the park.
Cassinia trinerva – Three-veined Cassinia
Ozothamnus ferrugineus (Tree Everlasting) is a fourth species that can be confused with the Cassinia’s as it is a similar size and has similar leaves. It’s leaves are around the same size as Cassinia longifolia (Shiny Cassinia) but its leaf margins are usually a little wavy. With close examination the flowers are clearly different to Cassinias, they have little bracts around the individual florets.
Leaves look fairly similar to Shiny Cassinia but the edges tend to be a little undulating.
Underside of the leaves has a creamy white – felty texture.
Side view of flowers, which can be identified by the separate mini florets.
Another view of the flowers, Note the difference to Cassinias.
They also have a woody trunk, Which is probably the source of their common name.
Wild Cherry Track and Macks Creek Warm Temperate Rainforest Walk
The Friends of Tarra Bulga are holding another activity on Saturday November the 17th which is designed to give people the opportunity to explore some of the less visited and remote sections of the Park. People should meet at the Visitors Centre at 9.30 am where a car shuffle will be organised.
The walk will include the Wild Cherry Track which is named for the native Cherry Ballart trees, (Exocarpos cupressiformis) which occur along one section of it and then leave the park boundary and proceed along a section of the new Grand Strzelecki Walking Track where it follows Macks Creek including Warm Temperate Rainforest that has been the target of restoration activities over the last few year. HVP’s Richard Appleton will be coming along to share his knowledge about this intriguing area.
Although the walk has been designed (with the help of the car shuffle) to be mainly down hill it is very steep in sections and will also be slippery in spots. A bit of rock hopping will also be required to get over Macks Creek so all participants need to be reasonably mobile. You will also need to BYO lunch and drink. Please contact Peter Bryant on 0447474573 to to register for this walk by Thursday 15th of November so we can organise the car pool arrangements.
Clematis Season
There are two species of Clematis that occur in Tarra Bulga National Park and surrounding forest areas, Forest Clematis (Clematis glycinoides) and Mountain Clematis (Clematis aristata) and it can be very difficult to tell the difference between them. They are climbing plants that can climb high into trees and produce a mass of attractive white flowers in Spring. Both of them have leaves in groups of three of a similar size, Clematis aristata commonly has teeth or serrations on the leaf margins but both species show variation.
There are two main ways to tell the difference between the two out in the field. The first is flowering time. Clematis glycinoides tends to flower in early spring, with most of its flowering finished by mid-October, then Clematis aristata seems to take over to be the dominant flowering species for a month or so, although locally it is less common. The other way is a key but subtle difference in the flowers. If you look carefully at a flower the tips of the anthers have little appendages, In Clematis glycinoides they are very short <1mm or even absent. In Clematis aristata they are clearly longer usually around 2 or 3mm long.
Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park 