Tag Archives: Queensland

Queensland attractions

16 September 2010 – 11.58am

Despite my previous post, Queensland’s rainforests were far from entirely unpleasant.  The below caught me eye (and of course there were lots of interesting ferns too!).

Heavily pigmented unfurling frond of Blechnum cartilagineum. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A lacy fungus. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

New Zealanders are pretty familiar with the koru, an unfurling fern frond. But Australia’s prickly tree fern, Cyathea leichhardtiana, does it a bit differently. It unfurls the leafy parts of a frond only after the “stem” parts of the frond (technically the rachis and the costae) are nearly fully extended. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Inflorescence of the root parasite Balanophora. This is related to New Zealand’s bat-pollinated Dactylanthus. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The attractive cycad Bowenia spectabilis. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

An unfurling frond of the Ptisana (Marattia) oreades, a relative of para, New Zealand’s king fern. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

New Zealand’s king fern.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Vampires in the leaf litter

15 September 2010 – 10.02am

There’s trauma in this leaf litter – can you see it?!

Dangerous leaf litter. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A downside to fieldwork in Australia is the number of things that will bite, impale, or otherwise injure.

A leech at attention, waiting for a meal to pass by. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Some of my unwanted Australian ‘friends’, that had been making themselves at home under my socks and long pants. Note the size difference between these post-feast leeches and the hungry one in the picture above. (No comments on my muscular legs please.) Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

We had several wet days when the leeches were out in force. At one site, half of our group suffered a leech in the eye – unpleasant!

For me, this was a somewhat traumatic introduction to these creatures. In New Zealand leeches do not make a habit of feeding on humans (generally preferring stream invertebrates instead). Biting ticks were another part of the fauna that made our close acquaintance.

A harmless (from our perspective) python. However, a deadly taipan had slithered across the track as we drove into the site. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The impressively armed leaf of what we believe is a Solanum (relative of tomato, potato, and poroporo). Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Spikes on the stems of rattan palms. These palms also had fine, hanging trendils, which were easy to walk into because they were hard to see, but difficult to subsequently escape because they had barbed spikes. Photos by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A Dendrocnide stinger tree. This nettle-relative packs a particularly nasty poisonous punch if you have the misfortune to touch any part of it (including the trunk!). Not as ferocious-looking as our tree nettle, but I’m reliably informed the sting is worse. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

An echidna. A monotreme mammal like the platypus. Cute but spiky. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Queensland fern fieldwork

14 September 2010 – 6.53pm

I was recently in Queensland, Australia, working with colleagues from the University of Melbourne to collect ferns for DNA analyses.

We were principally after the spleenwort Asplenium ferns, and drove large distances in pursuit of the different species.

Asplenium carnarvonense is known only from a few gorges in inland southern Queensland. The gorges provide respite for ferns and other moisture-loving plants in what is otherwise an arid landscape. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Asplenium harmanii is a birds nest fern, related to the common cultivated A. australasicum. A. harmanii is distinguished by the tapering of its lower frond, and it is only found near the Queensland/NSW border. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Asplenium athertonense occurs in rainforest on the uplands inland of Cairns. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

27 of Australia’s 30 species of Asplenium occur in Queensland, which has a rich fern diversity. New Zealand has about 20 Asplenium species, with eight species shared across the Tasman. DNA sequencing will be used to determine how the Australian plants relate to those from New Zealand and elsewhere.

Te Papa’s fern research.

Asplenium ferns.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 272 other followers