Editor’s pick for our new PoM is the gorgeous little fringe-lily Thysanotus tuberosus (photo above) that we spotted during our July outing to Clemant State Forest.

Thysanotus tuberosus (Asparagaceae) has a wide range in eastern Australia but is not seen often. Being a small plant with slender grass-like leaves, it only stands out while in flower. It is one of about 50 Thysanotus species in Australia but most of them occur only in Western Australia.

Flower colour ranges from the bright purple specimens we saw at Clemant to pale mauve (photo below). Thysanotus tuberosus usually flowers during the warmer months of the year and we thought the July flowers may have been a response to this year’s exceptional rain during our early winter months. Welcome rain! Welcome flowers!

Scaevola spinescens caught people’s attention during our recent outing to remnant bush at the edge of the JCU Douglas campus. The small patch we visited has a remarkable variety of native plants still holding out amid surrounding property development. Unfortunately this little patch is under ever-increasing pressure from invasive weed species.

Scaevola spinescens typically grows as a small shrub with attractive soft growth after rain (photo above). Over time the branches become prickly, as indicated by the common name Spiny Fan Flower. Attractive small flowers appear intermittently throughout the year, followed by tiny purple-black fruits that attract birds and provide bush tucker when ripe (photo below).

Although Scaevola spinescens typically grows on drier slopes amid open forest, it has also been recorded in diverse habitat, even beside salt pans near Townsville (photo below, two decades ago).

Some planted specimens have been growing well in suburban North Ward over recent years and it appears this species is remarkably hardy and adaptable to different growing conditions.

For Indigenous Australians, Scaevola spinescens has a long history of traditional use for treating injuries and illnesses. The plant’s pharmaceutical potential has attracted scientific interest and researchers have begun to study its medicinal properties.

This pretty little plant was spotted by Val during a walk on the bushy slopes of Douglas. What species had she found? At first everyone was stumped. Later, Nanette and Beth worked out the answer: Glycine pescadrensis.

Glycine pescadrensis is a native plant that has been recorded infrequently across much of eastern Australia (Atlas of Living Australia). We found no other details online. If you are familiar with this species, please contact editor@npqtownsville.org.au

You can download Nanette’s key to local Glycine species here.

Hedraianthera porphyropetala was a highlight of our March outing to Emmett Creek, along with numerous other fascinating and seldom-seen plants. It was a “new species” for many of us and we found both flowers and fruits on it – how lucky can you get!

Hedraianthera porphyropetala (Celastraceae) in an Australian endemic, growing as an understory shrub or small tree in well-developed rainforest from NE Queensland extending south as far as NE New South Wales.

At Emmett Creek we might not have noticed its rather inconspicuous foliage (photo above) amongst the diversity of species along the bank. Fortunately sharp eyes spotted its tiny jewel-like flowers and unusual fruits, beautifully illustrated in the photo below which was taken at nearby Mackenzie Creek a few years ago.

Late news: a few fruit capsules collected for the Landcare nursery opened a week later (photo below) and the seeds were promtly sown. Hopefully we’ll hear about seedlings when they sprout eventually. Extra patience will be required as the species is reported to take between 6 and 12 months to germinate.

For more botanical details see the Australian Tropical Rainforest website.

Ackama australiensis (Cunoniaceae), an interesting Queensland endemic, was spotted during our March outing to Paluma. Thanks to John Elliott for the following details and his fine photos.

Ackama australiensis occurs from the McIlwraith Range in Cape York to south of Townsville. The range of the tree is further limited to upland rainforest above 400m in elevation. It only grows in areas of high rainfall, over 1250mm per annum, and mainly between Atherton and Innisfail and the Cooktown area. It prefers the creeks and drainage areas where it finds soft moist alluvial soils and humus-darkened basaltic loams. Here it will reach its maximum dimensions of around 30 metres with a basal girth of up to 3 metres, although usually rather smaller. The large trees will display conspicuous plank buttresses, and heavy concentrations of lenticels giving the appearance of vertical lines in the bark.

The compound leaves are pinnate and consist of 5 or more leaflets which are finely toothed. New growth, particularly in young plants, is often very colourful and decorative giving rise to the name Rose Alder. The more southerly variant Ackama paniculata is known as Rose Leaf Marara for much the same reason.

Substantial numbers of small white flowers are produced on large terminal panicles and the fruit consists of small bright red capsules which are usually 4 celled.

The type specimen was collected by John Dallachy in 1868 from Rockingham Bay but was not described until 1914 by Friedrich Schlechter who named it Betchea australiensis after one Ernst Betche, a botanical assistant at Sydney Herbarium and author. In 1936 the name was revised to Ackama, then more briefly to Caldcluvia after 19th century botanic collector Alexander Caldcleugh, before reverting to its current name. Ackama is derived from the Maori name for Ackama rosifola, ‘makamaka’ recorded by Alan Cunningham in 1839 and changed to conform to botanical Latin!

The Queensland Forest Service were responsible for the common name Rose Alder, because in type and utility the wood resembles that of the European Alder. Among the tree’s other names, Sugar Bark is derived from the sugar-cane-odoured bark, whilst Feather Top refers to the effect of the flowers and leaves in the canopy. Qualities of the timber, soft, open grained with a cedar like texture, gave rise to additional common names including Cedara and Atherton Pencil Cedar.

‘Rose Alder is usually sound and solid and makes very light and easy chopping for the fellers. The wood is light, weighing when air-dried from 36 to 42 lb. per cubic foot’ (575 kgs/m³). The timber has a rosy-chocolate or reddish-mauve hue, and is very light, porous and woolly fibred.
‘It has a quality of toughness, bores easily without splitting, is extremely easy to work, turns cleanly, and dresses with a fine finish revealing a close, even texture of attractive tone. It can also be easily stained and holds glue well.’

Information taken from a variety of historical sources, particularly Swain E K, The Timbers and Forest Products of Queensland, 1928.

Text and photos by John Elliott

Macropteranthes montana (Combretaceae) is officially classed as a rainforest species (RFK Code: 1087) but this unusual tree will only be found in a very limited range on skeletal soils in sparse open forest and woodland. One collection from the 1870’s describes the habitat as ‘desert’! Its range consists of a large tract inland from Cairns from the Walsh River in the north down to the Newcastle Range in the south.

Leichhardt is credited with having collected a sample at the Lynd River in May 1845, but the Type species is officially described as: Lumnitzera montana F.Muell., Fragm. 2: 149(1861), Type: Queensland, Newcastle Range, 1856, F. Mueller; holo: MEL; iso: K

Macropteranthes montana can survive long periods of drought, only bursting into life when conditions are more beneficial. So, it is not surprising to find the official RFK description as follows: Usually grows as a poorly formed tree which looks as though it is close to death, often flowers and fruits when at the shrub stage.

The bark of the trunk is blackish, hard, and rough. The leaves are very small and are held in tight spirals on short burr-like shoots along the entirety of the long tendril-like branches. Both the upper and lower leaf surfaces are densely clothed in pale prostrate silky hairs. And the flowers are small, tubed bracts, with long anthers, usually crimson but can be white.

This tree can most easily be seen on the Herberton-Petford Road between Emuford and Irvinebank, where it grows in small communities. Like many of these unusual slow growing and long-lived species it has a very fine and densely ringed timber, although the tree never reaches any millable size. It is known as Antique Wood, or Bonewood, referring I presume to its usual appearance of age and ‘dryness’.

By an unusual set of circumstances, I was given a potted specimen of this plant about 15 years ago. I was so certain that the relatively rich garden soil would quicken its demise that I resisted planting it out until about 3 years ago. To my great surprise it is now a very straggly bush of about two metres, enjoying the rainfall, and now filling out with a very creditable showing of white flowers.

Text and photos by John Elliott