Jump to content

Ramblings in the neighbourhood I


Recommended Posts

Over the past wet season I've made a few trips to local sites looking for CPs. At this site I was particularly looking for Utricularia singeriana but of course found others things of interest as well. The site is about 12 kms north west of my place "as the crow flies". It's close to a km long, east/west, and irregularly about 75 to 100 metres or so wide, north/south.

It's divided by a locally major road (north/south running). The road was built up and a culvert constructed which now channels water into a creek bed nearer the road. Further down on the western side of the road the creek bed disappears into a flat seepage area which holds water to at least 50mm deep during the wet season.

There's negligible canopy cover over the majority of the site. A very low ridge runs east/west along the northern side. Although overall the site is seasonally quite wet, there's more standing water on the west side of the road than on the east.

Drosera darwinensis (or maybe D. brevicornis, no flowers = no positive ID). This was on the east side of the road, no standing water. Not many around, and none seen on the west side, perhaps too much water.

ala-fr-18032545.jpg    

Drosera dilitatopetiolaris. Quite common, more so on the western side. Also numerous plants where seepage was coming off the low ridge to the north. One plant was flowering, seemed unusually late in the season for them.

ala-fr-18032509.jpg

ala-fr-18032519.jpg

cp-fr-18042001.jpg

cp-fr-18042019.jpg

cp-fr-18051602.jpg

Drosera aquatica. During a number of visits to this site I only ever found one D. aquatica, and quite late in the season. It was flowering amongst D. dilitatopetiolaris in the seepage off the northern ridge.
    
cp-fr-18051616.jpg    

Utricularia chrysantha. Only seems to show up late in the wet season and then becomes quite prolific. These were on the western side, on higher ground, damp but not soggy. They were all pure yellow, unlike the ones at my place which have darker orange in them.
    
cp-fr-18051609.jpg

cp-fr-18051610.jpg

cp-fr-18051611.jpg    

Utricularia involvens. Very numerous on both sides of the road. Seemed to like standing in water, but as the surface water began to disappear so did the plants. They are very prolific seeders.

cp-fr-18032501.jpg    

cp-fr-18032502.jpg    

cp-fr-18042012.jpg

ala-fr-18032504.jpg


Utricularia leptoplectra. Common on both sides of the road. They liked to be in standing water but still seemed okay as the surface water disappeared. They did thin out a lot as it became drier, though not as much as the involvens or singeriana.

cp-fr-18032506.jpg

cp-fr-18032510.jpg

cp-fr-18042025.jpg

cp-fr-18042029.jpg

cp-fr-18051607.jpg

Utricularia leptorhyncha. Only on the eastern side of the road. Seems it likes a thin film of surface seepage, but no more than that. Not many plants, all towards the higher (eastern edge) of the site.

    
cp-fr-18032540.jpg

cp-fr-18032542.jpg

cp-fr-18032543.jpg

Utricularia limosa. Was only found on the eastern side of the site. Not a lot of plants, and only on wet soil, no standing water. However, in other areas I've seen them in shallow standing water.

ala-fr-18032529.jpg

cp-fr-18032517.jpg

cp-fr-18032531.jpg

Utricularia nivea. Only found it on the edge of the northern ridge line. It was lower down than a lot of the Drosera dilitatopetiolaris but not to where there would have been standing water.

cp-fr-18042031.jpg

cp-fr-18042041.jpg

cp-fr-18042042.jpg

Utricularia singeriana. The main purpose of coming to the area. Although there were some plants on the east side, on the western side they were en masse over about a half km of standing water. Other vegetation (grasses and sedges) was thick but the singeriana seemed happy amongst it. Their colour made them stand out. When the water dried out they rapidly disappeared.

ala-fr-18032533.jpg
ala-fr-18032534.jpg

cp-fr-18032538.jpg

cp-fr-18042010.jpg

cp-fr-18042011.jpg

cp-fr-18042027.jpg

Utricularias singeriana and leptoplectra in typical habitat. Standing water is visible beneath the vegetation.

cp-fr-18042044.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...