Excursion to Dalco Creek, 15 Mar 2009
Led by Mark Wapstra and Paddy Dalton to look at mosses &
liverworts and
the endangered treefern, Cyathea cunninghamii.
Our group of field naturalists ready to set-out from the end of the forestry
road.
D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island in the background.
Forest groundsel,
Senecio velleioides.
Found in the middle of a logged and burnt area we passed while walking to the creek.
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Senecio
velleioides often occurs in the thousands in disturbed areas
(e.g. wildfire over wet forest, clearfelled and burnt sites). Oddly, it remains listed
as a threatened species ('rare') despite a widespread distribution, often locally
abundant populations, and an apparent high tolerance of intensive disturbance.
Close-up of S. velleioides.
MW
One of the targets of our excursion, the Slender tree fern, Cyathea cunninghamii.
The species is presently listed as threatened ('endangered').
Dalco Creek holds the biggest population (c. 240 individuals) in Tasmania. and
the site is important because the population is multi-aged and actively
recruiting.
This is a relict population that, Paddy said, probably hasn't been
disturbed by fire since the last ice age due to the steepness of the gully.
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LF
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Liverwort.
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Liverwort.
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Caterpillar.
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Pseudobargylia iuncea.
An unusually elongated and wingless assassin bug that is probably a predator of spiders and psocids and walks on only its rearmost four legs. Its raptorial forelegs are armed with spines and the bug swings its upper body rapidly from side to side, which makes it very difficult to photograph.
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Prostomis atkinsoni beetle and larva in the 'mud guts' of a rotten log near where we had lunch.
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Callomelitta picta, one of the species of native bees that are important pollinators of Eucalypts.
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A beetle larva.
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Isopod.
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Psathyrella aff. pennata.
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Pipe cleaner moss, Ptychomnion aciculare.
LF
Cyathophorum bulbosum (above) is a moss that looks like a fern and often encircles tree trunks. The capsules are hidden underneath.
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Umbrella moss, Hyopterygium rotulatum.
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Gypsy fern.
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Fork fern, Tmesipteris obliqua.
Its spores are in hard brown
cylindrical capsules in an axil.
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Hymenophyllum australe.
One of the filmy ferns which are all one cell thick.
This one has a wide margin down the stipe and its leaves are a bit
crinkly like parsley.
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Sori (spore clusters) on a Grammitis fern frond.
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Photos by Abbey Throssell, Amanda Thomson, Lynne Forster, Mark Wapstra, Michael Driessen