High Living #2: plants above the treeline

In my last post we went soaring well above where most of us spend much time, way up in the mountains where the conditions are too harsh for trees to survive - ie above the treeline. Today I want to introduce a selection of the plants that survive up there; some exclusively, others have broader habitat ranges. If you missed part one you may want to catch up before reading this, to get some background on the ecology and the places where these plants and animals live. On the other hand if you just want to browse the pictures here and enjoy some plant life you may not have met, that of course is fine too! It's mostly just a photo essay.

Silver Snow Daisies Celmisia sp. and Mountain Celery Aciphylla glacialis brighten the alpine
meadows in summer in Kosciuszko NP, in the NSW Australian Alps.

All these photos were taken in Australia and South America (and, just, in North America). I've only once been above the treeline in Africa and while I have strong memories of that day high in Lesotho (including a magnificent Lammergeier sailing overhead), that was well before my digital photography days. And the closest I've got in Asia was the lower slopes of mighty Kinabalu. 

Let's start with some plants. 

Mataguanaco ('guanaco bush') Anarthrophyllum desideratum, Torres del Paine NP,
Chilean Patagonia. This spectacular spiny cushion bush pea thrives in the often frozen,
always windy treeless expanses of Patagonia. 

The next half dozen photos were also taken on the exposed Patagonian Steppes slopes of Torres del Paine NP; I've been there five times, not because I love the experience of cold, often wet, winds (I don't) but because it's an extraordinary landscape, and supports some appropriately extraordinary life.

A more 'conventional' pea, Paramela Adesmia boronioides, a tough aromatic low shrub
which grows on the edge of the open plains at the foot of the mountains.

Mariposa del Campo ('butterfly of the field') Alstroemeria patagonica, in the mostly 
South American lily family Alstroemeriaceae. This is a tiny plant, with flowers on 
5cm stems to keep their head down out of the wind.

Darwin's Slipper (but in Spanish Zapatito de la Virgen, 'our lady's slipper')
Calceolaria uniflora, family Calceolariaceae. This is another very low-growing
herb of the harshly exposed Patagonian meadows and mountainsides.
Astonishingly it is pollinated by the Least Seedsnipe, one of a small family 
of four shore waders which have become vegetarians in Patagonia
and the high Andes. Apparently the white 'lip' of the flower contains sugars which 
the seedsnipe appreciate; in pecking the flower they transfer pollen from on flower 
to another. Rather than make you wait for the animals section (by when you may have 
forgotten about it) I'll introduce this surprising mountain bird now.

 

Least Seedsnipe Thinocorus rumicivorus near Coyaique, northern Patagonia

Estrallita ('little star') Perezia recurvata, a daisy. It grows on rocky ground
in the Patagonian Steppe.

And finally, to my surprise at the time, there are orchids in this harsh wind-blasted steppe land; here are a couple which delighted me.

Porcelain Orchid Chlorea magellanica. There is nothing small and 'keeping head down' 
about this beauty, which is found as far south as icy Tierra del Fuego. It can spend 
8 months of the year under snow but when the snow melts its flowering spike
can grow to 50cm tall. 

Yellow Gavilea Gavilea lutea can also grow tall, to 60cm. While probably
most often found in Nothofagus forests, it also grows in wet areas
in the absence of trees.

Far to the north of Patagonia in the Andes of southern Peru near Chivay at 3600masl, conditions are much drier and many alpine plants must grow on the rock faces.

Air plants Tillandsia sp. growing on a road cutting. They are bromeliads which take
most of their nutrients from the air; bromeliads are probably better known as
abundant epiphytes in tropical cloud forests (though the most famous bromeliad
is doubtless the pineapple!).

Puya Puya sp., another genus of bromeliads, growing on the top of
the same high altitude road cutting.

Cactuses growing, perhaps unexpectedly, at the top of Colca Canyon, also
near Chivay at about 3600masl, above the trees.

Again in the southern Peruvian Andes a very different and moister habitat, perched on the brink of the Amazon basin above the cloud forest at 3800masl at Acjanaco Pass on the Manu road, has of course very different plants. 

Gentians Halenia sp. and hardy grasses in the mist at Acjanaco Pass.

And to balance the unexpectedness (to me at least) of yellow gentians, here's
a more familiarly coloured one - I'm thinking Gentiana sedifolia? - in El Cajas NP
in the southern Andes of Ecuador, at some 4000masl.

And finally, from further north again, in North America in fact, some ancient, non-flowering plants from the páramo of central Costa Rica at about 3400masl.

Lycopods, or club mosses, a Class of now small plants which appeared more than 400 million years ago,
long before the rise of the flowering plants, and which dominated forests for a long time.

But we'll finish this part with some Australian alpine plants, mostly from Kosciuszko NP. After an introductory 'wildflower meadow' photo, there are 11 photos of plants from 11 different families. All were growing above the treeline in Kosciuszko NP except where I've specified otherwise.

  December on the Main Range of Kosciuszko NP, with the flowering just 
getting underway; the flower spikes are mostly of Candle Heath Richea continentis.

A close-up of the Candle Heath, a striking plant which lives in boggy situations in 
the alps of NSW and Victoria.

The snow country is perhaps not where we expect to find ferns, but nature can
 enable life in almost any environment. Alpine Water Fern Blechnum (now 
usually known as Austroblechnum) penna-marina is extremely hardy and even 
lives on the sub-Antarctic islands, as well as New Zealand and South America. 
It likes a sheltered position, often among rocks, and spends part of the year under snow.

Bidgee Widgee Aceana novae-zelandiae is far from an alpine specialist - it can be found
at sea level - but it is also very much at home above the trees. It's in the rose family, and
the head of tiny white flowers later forms a bundle of sticky burrs. They evolved to
transfer seed on fur and feathers, but many high country walkers have discovered
that socks suit them equally well. 

Mountain Celery Aciphylla glacialis is indeed in the celery family (Apiaceae). It is found
almost entirely above the treeline and is recovering well from the ravages of
historical alpine cattle grazing.

 

Ribbony Grass Chionochloa frigida grows only in the Kosciuszko alpine zone;
it too has recovered well since the removal of stock grazing. (Actually I'm having slight
doubts about my identification here, from a long time ago. Any comments welcome.)

Tasmanian Mountain Gentian Chionogentias diemensis, Ben Lomond NP,
north-eastern Tasmania. The gentian family is associated with mountains
on every continent (except Antarctica of course). This species is 
limited to alpine and subalpine areas in Tasmania.

Silver Ewartia Ewartia nubigena, Main Range Kosciuszko NP. A small-flowered but
extensive mat-like daisy bush that only grows in exposed alpine herbfields, where
it can colonise bare areas of soil and rock..

Royal Bluebell Wahlenbergia gloriosa in the Snow Gums in Namadgi National Park
in the Australian Capital Territory. It does however extend above the treeline, and
as the ACT's official wildflower emblem (despite my reservations as to its 
appropriateness!) I thought I should give it a guernsey. 

Alpine Mint Bush Prostanthera cuneata, Kosciuszko NP. This lovely member of the true
mint family grows above the treeline (and just below it), often among granite boulders,
in the NSW and Victorian alps.

Alpine Rice-flower Pimelea alpina is another prostrate shrub when growing above
the treeline. It has a similar distribution to the Alpine Mint Bush. The hundred or so
species in Australia and New Zealand are otherwise all found at lower altitudes
and most are erect shrubs.

Alpine Orites Orites lancifolia belongs to a generally unfamiliar genus in a generally very
familiar family, Proteaceae (ie banksias, grevilleas, waratahs etc). This one is found high
in mountains from the ACT to the Victorian alps and grows erectly even above the treeline. 
The only other Australian species is a rainforest tree! 
(There are also four species in Tasmania and two in South America.) 

And that I think is probably enough for one posting! I wonder sometimes if my longer postings aren't a bit off-putting, but I'm unlikely to get feedback from people who don't want to read that much, so I'm only speculating. 

It's not the time to be going to admire the flowers in the high country in the Southern Hemisphere, but perhaps you can bear this in mind for the coming summer. It's made me think we should plan another expedition to Kosciuszko, probably before or after the school holidays. Meantime, thanks for accompanying me on this particular wildflower walk; I've enjoyed it, hope you have too.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 13 AUGUST

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Queensland's Channel Country#1: landscapes and plants

I've mentioned here before my love affair with south-west Queensland, a vast and varied area which is somehow noticeably 'different' from adjacent NSW and South Australia. An important reason for this is that a large part of it forms the bulk of the bioregion known as the Channel Country for the complex network of braided flood channels that cover the area of some 200,000 square kilometres. All these channels flow away from the sea, mostly ending in waterways such as Cooper Creek, and the Diamantina, Georgina, Thompson, Barcoo and Warburton Rivers, which ultimately flow (occasionally!) as far as Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre in South Australia. Waterholes may be deep and almost permanent in streamlines, or ephemeral after rains.

We can really only get a sense of the complex tapestry of the channel pattern from above; here is an aerial photograph, courtesy of Wikipedia.

 However it's only down on the ground that we can get the detail of the tapestry.

Little Black Cormorants Phalacrocorax sulcirostris massing at Cooper Creek near Windorah.

Early morning on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park.
Here, and in subsequent photos in this series, the dominant waterside
trees are River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis.

Waterhole on Morney Creek, west of Windorah.

Ephemeral waterholes in the inter-dune swales west of Windorah.

Frances Waterhole, Welford NP.

Sawyer Creek, Welford NP.

Channel Country bioregion, map courtesy Wikipedia. This post focuses on the
Queensland portion of the bioregion, which accounts for most of it.

As in many previous such posts I've got enough material for two posts, so shall do that again rather than turn this post into a marathon. So today some landscapes and plants, next time some animals.

We've looked at some water features - rivers, creeks and waterholes - that are probably the essence of the Channel Country, but there is a true wealth of landscapes in between them. I've already mentioned the River Red Gums that are quintessential to the waterways, and here are a couple of other important Channel Country habitats - arid and semi-arid woodlands, dominated by a few more key tree species, and grassy plains.

Mulga Acacia aneura east of Windorah. This habitat covers some 25% of arid Australia.

Mulga flowers; the long thin phyllodes may vary, but the flower spikes are
distinctive (though not unique to Mulga.)

Gidgee Acacia cambegei and Coolabah Eucalyptus coolabah, growing near Morney Creek,
a hundred or so kilometres west of Windorah.

Gidgee is a favourite of mine, though one of its other names is Stinking Gidgee, suggesting that others are not so keen. It does have a strong odour, especially after rain, but to me it's like vegetable compost and not especially unpleasant. I've camped near many a Gidgee stand, and it's also perhaps the best firewood I know - it's dense and burns hot and slowly, so we use very little in an evening. It tends to grow in dips where water occasionally collects, and near watercourses where it gets overflow water from time to time. Coolabah, which appears often in Australian folklore and song (though I suspect that most of us wouldn't recognise it), has similar requirements, growing by occasionally wet watercourses and out on mostly dry floodplains. 

Flowering Gidgee, Morney Creek.

And just because I can, here are a couple more photos of these trees, River Red Gums at dawn and Gidgee in the evening, at the same site at Morney Creek.

There are also swathes of grassy plains, especially to the west.

Mitchell Grass plains Astrebla spp., Welford NP. There are only four
Mitchell Grass species but between they cover a huge area of cracking clay
plains across dry Australia.

Spinifex Triodia spp., near Farrans Creek 150k west of Windorah.
By contrast with the Mitchell grasses, spinifex grows on sand,
both plains and dunes.

Such dunes can be found rising from the plains in many parts of the Channel Country (and beyond of course) and can be rich red where there is iron present or paler, yellow to almost white.

Morning dune still covered in tracks, west of Windorah.

Vegetated dune (in fact nearly all them are) near Farrans Creek.

Which seems to provide a segue to introduce some other interesting and attractive plants of the Channel Country, though obviously it will be a very random and limited selection! There are no natural barriers between the Channel Country's habitats and the surrounding deserts and arid woodlands, so many of these plants grow widely across arid Australia. Some other trees first.

Ghost Gum Corymbia aparrerinja, west of Windorah.
(Though there is a chance that this is actually Dallachy's Ghost Gum C. dallachiana.
The Atlas of Living Australia suggests that this would be too far south-west,
but the nearby Welford NP Management Plan lists C. dallachiana
as the ghost gum there. I should have looked properly!)

Desert Bloodwood Corymbia terminalis east of Windorah.

Emu Apple Owenia acidula Family Melicaceae, east of Windorah.
In the same family as Red Cedar, this small tree adapted long ago
to a drying Australia and let the rainforests retreat without it. The fruit
is apparently edible, though I've also heard that it's hallucinogenic,
so won't be trying it any time soon. It is found widely in drier
Queensland and Central Australia.

Lolly Bush Clerodendrum floribundum Family Lamiaceae. The 'lolly'
name is for its looks, not edibility. This small tree has a surprising
distribution, growing at the edge of rainforest on the east coast,
and right across the dry tropics. This one was on the edge of a dune
in a sandplain in Welford NP.

Lots of shrubs of course.

Sandhill Wattle Acacia ligulata, Farrans Creek. Found throughout the Channel Country
and indeed most of dry Australia.

Desert Rattlepod Crotalaria eremaea, on a red dune east of Windorah.
This pea shrub is always found on sand, especially dunes, throughout Central
Australia, south-east to the Channel Country.

Green Birdflower Crotalaria cunninghamii, another in this genus, also
closely associated with dunes and sandy deserts. It's one of the most
strikingly unexpected flowers I know.

And another spectacular dune-dweller, Sandhill Grevillea G. stenobotrya,
Welford NP. Found from the Channel Country to the Indian Ocean.

And one of my very favourite Australian plant groups, up there with orchids and banksias, the eremophilas (ie the 'desert lovers') are found in various habitats in the Channel Country and well beyond it. The common names often include emu-bush (for a mistaken belief that their seeds rely on passing through an Emu's digestive tract to germinate) and turkey-bush (probably a reference to bustards, which were often referred to as 'Plains (etc) Turkeys', and possibly for the same reason as 'emu-bush').

Bignonia Emu-bush Eremophila bignoniiflora, west of Windorah. It grows
throughout the Channel Country along water courses and on flood plains.

Harlequin Bush Eremophila duttonii, Welford NP. Very striking when in flower,
found on sandy soils throughout central and south-eastern arid Australia,
and scattered in the Channel Country.

Crimson Turkey-bush Eremophila latrobei, west of Windorah.
Very widespread in inland Australia and a very beautiful flower.

A yellow form of Spotted Emubush Eremophila maculata, east of Windorah.
The species grows across most of the continent, and can have flowers that range from pink
through to red, as well as yellow and even mauve (though I've not seen many of those).
Moreover they may or may not have darker spots in the tube. It is the basis of most
eremophila hybrids sold in nurseries. Below is a more typical red form.

Rose Cottonbush Gossypium australe, west of Windorah. In the hibiscus family,
this lovely shrub is also closely related to cotton and to the very similar
Sturt's Desert Rose G. sturtianum, the Northern Territory floral emblem.

And of course there are many herbs, including a large number of ephemerals that flower following the rains. Daisies feature heavily among these.

Tangled Burr Daisy Calotis erinacea near Windorah, above and below.
A very common and widespread desert burr daisy; see also in the
photo of the dune at Farrans Creek above.

Soft Billy Button Pycnosorus pleiocephalus, a plant of the south-eastern drylands,
here at Morney Creek close to its northern-most distribution.

Large White Sunray Rhodanthe floribunda, also at Morney Creek.

And finally examples of some more very attractive Channel Country herbs, albeit subtly so in some cases, from six different families. All these were growing in the Windorah area.

Flax-leaf Indigo Indigofera linifolia (Family Fabaceae) which is found in a range of habitats
across the deserts and into the tropics, as well well beyond into southern Asian and Africa.
(I don't know how carefully those far-flung populations have been compared; if not it may be
reasonable to suppose that more than one species is involved.)

Poison Morning-glory Ipomoea muelleri, (Family Convolvulaceae) also widespread
in central and northern Australia. The foliage and seeds are said to be toxic to stock,
though Indigenous people from the Kimberley are reported to eat the tubers.

Long Tails Ptilotus polystachyus (Family Amaranthaceae). This genus, widely
known as mulla mullas or pussy tails, is common and often forms extensive swathes
after rain, right across the arid lands.

Small-beard Fanflower Scaevola parvibarbata (Family Goodenicaceae)
is a herb of the eastern inland.

Lifesaver Burr Sida platycalyx (Family Malvaceae) is quaintly named for the shape
of the fruits, which form a torus when completely dry. This genus too is
widely found inland.

Nardoo Marsilea drummondii growing alongside Cooper Creek after flooding.
This herb grows in floodwaters and subsequent muds, the dormant spores having
being triggered by inundation. The spore-bearing bodies, the sporocarps, lie
dormant for decades if need be, awaiting the next flood.

Nardoo played a key role in one of the great Australian folkloric tales of heroic tragedy - the Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860-61, better known as the Burke and Wills Expedition, which sought to find a route from Melbourne to the north coast. The tale has been told many times and you can easily find the details if you wish. However the essence for our purposes today is that it did end tragically - six of the seven remaining expedition members died on Cooper Creek in the Channel Country on the way back. It was not an inevitable tragedy though, it was very largely due to the ignorance, arrogance and intransigence of their leader, Robert O'Hara Burke.

 

While awaiting rescue on the Creek, the expedition used the abundant nardoo sporocarps as flour and ate lots of freshwater mussels and, we were always told, starved to death. It doesn’t make sense. The local Indigenous people ate both these items, and even showed the Europeans how to prepare them. And in that is the essential clue – because Burke of course could never conceive that a mere native could tell him anything of value.

To cut it short, they died amidst obvious plenty, not of starvation but of beriberi – the symptoms, of leg paralysis, extreme sensitivity to cold and breathlessness, are described perfectly by Wills in his journal. Beriberi is vitamin B1 (ie thiamine) deficiency. By coincidence both the mussels and nardoo spores contain thiaminase, an enzyme which destroys thiamine. Over time the locals had learnt this, doubtless painfully, and had worked out techniques to destroy the thiaminase. They roasted the mussels on the fire; Burke and co ate them raw. The Aboriginals made a watery paste with the nardoo spores - the water neutralises the enzyme - but the explorers made a dry flour with them. 

 

Ah well, perhaps a red herring in today's post, but hopefully of some interest. 

 

The Channel Country's story is much bigger than this one and it is grand and glorious country. If you didn't already know about it, I hope that I may have piqued some interest in you to consider planning a trip out there. Meantime I hope to see you again next time when I will introduce some of the animals of the Channel Country.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY: link here

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