Manna Gums

Looking around you at this point, do you notice how different the vegetation is than at the creek line, or up the hill in the revegetation area? You may notice Austral Bracken in place of tree ferns, or a grassy understory, marking a different ecological area. 

Here, large manna gums are widely spaced, with patches of densely spaced smaller trees, such as blackwoods. The spacing of trees gives us hints about their stories.

 Blackwoods live across one of the widest ranges of habitat in eastern Australia, and you may be able to see their seedpods at some times of year. Each seed within it’s curled pod has a reddish aril surrounding it, which serves not as a wing, but as an additional tasty treat for parrots and other birds, helping the plant to spread. 

Ants also have an amazing relationship to wattles, storing and burying their seeds, so that often the seeds survive bushfire underground, and can be the first trees to bring life back to the land after fire. Do you think that the Blackwood’s before you may have been helped by ants, by birds, or simply germinating where they fell from the parent tree?  

Along the fenceline at the top of the hill, you may catch glimpses of stringbarks with a noticeably darker fibrous bark. These appear to be in almost a straight line, and it is possible that seedlings have taken advantage of a fallen trunk to provide shelter and an opening in the canopy.