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A field trip to the Kimberley region


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Hi,

this is the second part of my northern Australia field trip report which I started last December ( http://www.cpukforum...showtopic=48215 ). Sorry for the delay.

The Kimberley region in northern Western Australia is a perfect example of remoteness. There is exactly one sealed road in an area larger than Germany or California! The population density is a whopping 0.09 people per km² (UK: 225 people per km²) :wink:

I will start this report with a few impressions of the stunningly beautiful landscape in the Kimberley.

There are some of the world’s most beautiful and remote coastlines:

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The “horizontal waterfalls” are created by the huge tidal difference of over 10 m:

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One of the most beautiful mountains in the region is Mount Trafalgar (a table-top mountain). Allen Lowrie landed on its top in 1996 (before I was born :wink: ) and surprisingly discovered several extremely rare carnivorous plant species including the never photographed Utricularia kenneallyi!

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The Windjana Gorge belongs to the most beautiful Gorges in the Kimberley:

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The Spider crater is an almost never photographed impact structure in the central Kimberley region

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The famous “Bungle Bungle” rock formations:

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Swamplands:

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A typical creek on a sandstone plateau:

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The same creek forms the famous Bell Gorge:

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Without question, the very remote Mitchell Falls are the most beautiful and spectacular waterfalls in the Kimberley region:

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Overall, the falls are 80 meters high.

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Drosera burmannii is definitely the most common carnivorous plant species in northern Australia. It grows in almost every seasonally or year around wet spot.

A typical plant growing in extremely sandy soil:

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The pretty flower:

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Sometimes they form dense clusters:

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Drosera burmannii can grow in some really extreme habitats. This plant, for example, is growing in pure rock just a few centimeters in front of a roaring waterfall.

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At Twin Falls (Northern Territory) these plants grow in an 80 meters high cliff together with the triggerplant Stylidium semipartitum:

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Utricularia chrysantha is another very common species. It prefers to grow along creeks:

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This habitat is just a couple of meters away from the beautiful Mitchell Falls

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Near Darwin (Northern Territory) I was able to find some different forms of U. chrysantha. This beautiful “Noonamah” variety has a red outer surface:

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Edited by Thilo K.
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Another form:

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And some flowers with a more deeply divided lower lip:

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Utricularia limosa is - especially during the dry season - not a very common species in northern Australia. Nevertheless I was able to find this plant at three different locations in July (two in the NT and one in the Kimberley).

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A completely white form:

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The palm-like Pandanus plants are good indicators for CP-suitable habitats. At this particular spot near Kununurra (with 3.500 inhabitants the biggest city within a radius of nearly 500 km!) some nice plants of Drosera ordensis and Byblis filifolia grew just next to the Pandanus palms.

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Drosera ordensis is endemic to the region around Kununurra and normally flowers only during the middle to late wet season (January to April). But these plants curiously decided to flower in late July! Unfortunately, I was too early in the morning to observe an open D. ordensis flower…

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This species is one of the most hairy petiolaris Drosera:

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Some beautiful glowing Byblis filifolia at the same location:

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A symbiotic bug (Cyrtopeltis sp.):

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This plant is almost covered by these Cyrtopeltis bugs:

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Close-up of the flower:

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An unusually branched plant:

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And a plant with an unusual long flower stalk:

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During the trip, Drosera broomensis and D. derbyensis belonged to the few sundews that were already in (nearly) full dormancy.

A big population of Drosera broomensis (of course near Broome :wink:):

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This plant curiously formed a significant “stem”.

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Drosera derbyensis (of course near Derby :wink:):

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Edited by Thilo K.
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A very young plant:

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The common Drosera indica glowing in the morning sun near Bell Gorge (see photo of Bell Gorge above):

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This is maybe the most beautiful D. indica form I was able to find during my trip. It has very large, pink flowers (up to 5 cm!).

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The biggest flower:

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Near Derby, I was very happy to find Drosera hartmeyerorum since there are almost no pictures of this species in its natural habitat. It was a fairly big population:

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A very large plant:

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A “normal-sized” plant

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Drosera hartmeyerorum is famous for its strange yellow trichomes at the base of the leaves:

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Most plants were inhabited by many Cyrtopeltis symbiotic bugs:

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Prey:

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The flower of D. hartmeyerorum:

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Even some parts of the flower stalk bear these interesting yellow trichomes:

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I also visited a second site of Drosera hartmeyerorum. It is a lake called “Taylors Lagoon”. There should be at least seven species growing at the edge of this relatively famous carnivorous plant site, but I was only able to find very few D. hartmeyerorum plants in a very small part of the lagoon. A possible reason for the poor diversity of species:

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This Drosera has narrowly escaped death! I think farming at Taylors Lagoon has become a serious threat for native plants mainly because of eutrophication (cattle dung) and soil compaction.

Near Derby grew another species from the “D. indica-complex”. Maybe this one of the Drosera species that will be described soon…

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The flower:

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It was covered with Cyrtopeltis bugs:

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There is just one Utricularia species I encountered in the Kimberley region but not in the Northern Territory: Utricularia lasiocaulis

The huge Airfield Swamp near Mitchell Falls is the perfect habitat for this species:

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Utricularia lasiocaulis is a widespread and very beautiful species:

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U. lasiocaulis is also a highly variable species even at the same location:

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Edited by Thilo K.
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Two flowers on the same flower stalk:

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The outer surfaces of the flowers are always of this interesting color:

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The following pictures were taken at the type locality of Byblis guehoi. I don’t know if these Byblis are B. guehoi or just some unusually branched B. filifolia:

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There was a great variation in flower shape and size:

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The sepals:

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Finally, some animals from the Kimberley:

The “Merten’s Water Monitor” (Varanus mertensi):

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I almost trod on this nearly invisible snake while walking through the high grass of a CP-site near Kununurra:

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It was a highly venomous Brown Snake or Mulga Snake… :ermm:

The very common cockatoo birds eating the fruits of a Grevillea tree:

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A kangaroo…

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These road corrugations are very common in the Kimberley region. It is a nuisance but it can also be dangerous when driving at higher speeds:

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Another hazard are stones that are thrown by the tires of oncoming vehicles. These things can be quite big :

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With this broken windscreen we still had to travel at least 400 km of unsealed road. The cracks got bigger and bigger and we had to cancel many waterfalls and carnivorous plant sites (including a very promising site with B. rorida, D. banksii, D. subtilis, U. antennifera, U. kenneallyi, U. leptoplectra “white”, U. fistulosa and many more… :sad: )

More pics:

B. filifolia, D. indica, D. ordensis:

http://forum.carnivo...-bei-kununurra/

Mitchell Falls, U. chrysantha:

http://forum.carnivo...mitchell-falls/

U. lasiocaulis, U. limosa, Mitchell Falls:

http://forum.carnivo...airfield-swamp/

D. burmannii, D. indica, D. derbyensis:

http://forum.carnivo...den-kimberleys/

B. filifolia, D. aff. Indica, D. hartmeyerorum, D. broomensis, B. guehoi?:

http://forum.carnivo...-hartmeyerorum/

Sorry for my English… :wink:

Regards,

Thilo

Edited by Thilo K.
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i came chiefly for the petiolaris photos--not only was i amazed with the plants, and the other carnivorous plants, but your photography skills are great as well! thanks for braving the harsh elements (i tend to overheat easily) and allowing me to live vicariously through you. awesome!

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Great photos and really good detail. It's a fantastic area to be let loose in. I've never seen U. chrysantha looking so yellow. I'm more used to seeing them orange/reddish.

The cockatoo birds are Little Corellas, Cacatua sanguinea. The Water Monitor has much more distinct markings than the ones I usually see. Almost looks like a Mitchell's Water Monitor, but I have a photo of a Merton's from the Bungle Bungles with similarly distinct markings.

And that road, looks very like the road out the front of my place, LOL.

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Thanks everyone, I'm glad you are enjoying it!

The cockatoo birds are Little Corellas, Cacatua sanguinea

Thank you very much for the identification! I am really no bird expert.

And that road, looks very like the road out the front of my place, LOL.

Wow, this could be quite difficult during the wet season :wink:

Best regards,

Thilo

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