THE ENDANGERED PLANT Commersonia inglewoodensis

I recently had the pleasure of leading the Toowoomba Field Nats on their July outing, part of which took us into Bringalily State Forest near Inglewood in south-east Queensland. One of the objectives of the day was to show attendees a rare and threatened plant that is only known from a single site in this state forest. This plant is the small prostrate Commersonia inglewoodensis (Family Byttneriaceae) that is regarded as an endangered species under state and federal legislation. Whilst the day’s activities will be competently reported upon in the trip report this plant did attract quite a bit of interest so I thought that I might submit a few more detailed notes for the reader’s information.  

This plant has no common name but was described by the Director of the Queensland Herbarium Dr. Gordon Guymer in 2006. The description is from specimens taken from along Andersons Road and its verges in Bringalily State Forest. The plant is growing on a deeply weathered duricrust and in shallow red sandy loam with pea gravel in an area where the road transects low heathland and shrubland communities. An old abandoned quarry abuts the road here. The adjacent shrubland is dominated by Calytrix sp., Micromyrtus sessilis, Babingtonia densifolia and Boronia. In 2011 C.F.Wilkins and B.A.Whitlock erected a new genus for 22 species of plant previously described as Commersonia, four species formerly described as Rulingia and seven new species in the genus Androcalva. This included the plant under discussion; however a recent enquiry to the Queensland Herbarium revealed that this institution does not accept Androcalva and are staying with Commersonia for these plants.  

Commersonia inglewoodensis is a ground-hugging and spreading shrub to 100mm in height with trailing stems to about 90mm long. The branchlets are covered in fine hairs. The leaves are dark green on the dorsal side, broadly ovate to ovate to 20mm long by 19mm wide. The upper side of the leaf has impressed veins and a sparse covering of fine hairs. The underside of the leaf is paler with a dense cover of hairs and raised veins. The leaves are irregularly serrated and the leaf-stalks are hairy to 7mm long.  

Commersonia inglewoodensis has been recorded flowering in February, March, October and November. The small creamy white flowers are about 3mm in diameter and occur in groups of three on stalks to 1mm long. The seed capsules are globular, 6.5-8mm in diameter.  

And that is about all that I can offer on this somewhat nondescript but very significant little plant. Some excellent photos from Bruce Thomson will give readers a much better idea of the habit and habitat of this rare species.

References:  

Guymer, G.P. (2006). New species of Commersonia J.R.Fortst. & G.Forst. (Sterculiaceae) from Queensland, Austrobaileya,  -ol. 7(2): 369-71.  

Wilkins, C.F. & Whitlock, B.A. (2011). A new Australian genus, Androcalva, separated from Commersonia (Malvaceae s.l. or Byttneriaceae). Australian Systematic Botany, vol. 24(5):284-349.               

Report by Rod Hobson 08/07/15

(Both photos below by Bruce Thomson) 

Commersonia inglewoodensis habit 

Commersonia inglewoodensis leaves and flower 

JULY 2015 OUTING REPORT

Well this was quite an outing! Twenty or so field Nats and six visitors/guides in 10 vehicles, zig zagging over almost 100 kilometres of rough, dusty tracks across the back blocks of Millmerran. We turned off the bitumen into the Wondul Range National Park and were introduced to our first rare plant, the cycad Macrozamia machinii. This is an unprepossessing straggly plant not much more than knee high. Some bore a large cone and apparently pollination is done by a beetle. Damage to some cones suggested predation by some animal. M. machinii mostly occurs on deep sandy soils from Texas north to the Wondul Ranges. Due to its limited distribution and vulnerability to malentities such as fire, it is perhaps not entirely secure.  

Further into the forest we were told about some native wells nearby testifying to human occupation over the ages. We stopped here and there to admire the masses of white flowers of Olearia sp. Musk Daisy Bush, to bird watch and to have lunch overlooking a small dam. Glossy Black Cockatoos flew noisily overhead and through the persistence of a few persons a reasonable bird list was compiled (see below). Of special interest seen in Bringalily State Forest was the plant Commersonia inglewoodensis, its dull green leaves spreading flat over the track and found only in this area. (So rare it would not Google!!) By mid-afternoon we were thoroughly disoriented and dependent on our guides to lead us out of the forest.  

Thank you Ben for organizing us and a particular thank you to National Park Rangers: Rod Hobson, Mark Weaver, Martin Ambrose and Toby Esstoe who gave so generously of their time and knowledge to make this a very memorable field excursion. This National Park was gazetted to ‘conserve open woodland species typical of the Western Downs’. It will do this even more effectively if the adjoining Bulli State Forest is also given this status. 

Report by Neil McKilligan

Bird list for July outing: Wondul Range N. P: et environs (compiled by Nicci Thompson)

Little Pied Cormorant, Peaceful Dove, Laughing Kookaburra, Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-throated Treecreeper, Superb Fairy-wren, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, White-eared Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater,  Blue-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Striped Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Pardalote, Speckled Warbler,  Weebill, Grey-crowned Babbler, Grey Butcherbird, Pied Currawong, Grey Shrike-Thrush, Willie Wagtail, Grey Fantail,  White-winged Chough, Silvereye, Double-barred Finch

Macrozamia machinii (female)

Small leaved Olearia - Olearia microphylla

Macrozamia machinii (male cone)

(Above photos by Mike Ford)

Scorpion  Isometrus melanodactylus or Lychas
viriatus from Wondul NP (ID by Rod Hobson;
photoby Al Young)

Eastern Tiny Blue China Orchid -
Cyaniluca caerulea, taken in
 Bringalily SF 0 (ID by Rod Hobson,
photo by Al Young) 

Puff ball - photo by F. Mangubhai

JULY SPEAKER'S REPORT - Bird Carer, Lorraine McPhee

Lorraine, with her many years of bird-care experience gave us a number of critically important points about what to do and not to do when trying to help birds, so I will repeat points from her ‘Fledgling Birds’ leaflet called “So You Think I Can’t Fly!”:..... 

     1. Can the bird you are concerned about Stand and Walk?    
     2. Is the bird Trying to fly?    
     3. Are its Parents nearby?

If it is “Yes” to these three questions, then it has just left the nest and is learning to fly. It is best to put it in the tree near where you found it. The parents are looking for it and they will continue to feed and care for it.

Birds born in tree hollows fly out of their hole....those  born in a nest take up to five days to learn to fly after leaving their nest onto a limb.

If you find an injured bird, wrap a cloth around it, keep it held upright, and put it in a cardboard box, NOT a wire cage, as its wings can be caught and broken by the wires if it starts to flap around. Then take it to a Vet! If properly set and fixed in place, birds’ bones (which are hollow) do heal quickly.

When a bird flies into a window it often suffers (and will die) from a ruptured air sack, so please mark your glass windows and sliding doors with curtains, shades, and/or stickers. 

When dealing with raptors, one must be especially cautious of their talons! And another caution is that Frogmouths do bite! Kookaburra and Emus will adopt new chicks that are not their own; and one can add new ducklings to join up with a flock of its own kind. 

A serious virus in birds is “Beak & Feather Disease” from which about half die, and it is quite contagious between birds. 

Numbers to call when you find an injured animal are:
         1300-Animal (1300 264 625) this is an RSPCA Qld service
        Woop Woop Wildlife Rescue 0417 382 184    (In or near Toowoomba)

Report by Lauren Marlatt 

Some plants and fungi from Toowoomba Field Nats Club trip to Wondul Range National Park & Inglewood State Forest

Photographs and explanation by Mike and Deb Ford, ably assisted by their daughter, Lisa

Eriocaulon sp. Possibly Eriocaulon scariosum, commonly named common, rough
or pale pipewort, a species of tufted grass-like herbaceous plants,  constituting part of the plant family Eriocaulaceae.  Common pipewort plants
grow naturally in wetlands, bogs and drainage areas, from central and eastern Victoria, through eastern New South Wales, including the Australian Capital Territory, to eastern and north Queensland, Australia  (Wikipedia)

.

Cortinarius sp.  Possibly Cortinarius areolatoimbricatus.  Caps to 150 mm across, deeply convex at first, becoming broadly convex and irregular at maturity.  Cap surface is generally covered with overlapping fibrillose
scales.  A robust, fleshy fungus usually found in dense caespitose (several fruiting bodies arising from a common base) clumps with caps distorted by mutual pressure.  Common and widespread in eucalypt forest. (Bruce Fuhrer, A Field Guide to Australian Fungi, Blooming Books Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 2005.









Cryptes baccatus (Wattle Tick Scale) (Family COCCOIDAE, Soft Scale Insects) is a light bluish grey scale insect when young and turns brown with age. Forms colonies of 30-40 on some Acacias including A. melanoxylon. Tended by ants, who take away the sugary exudates.  The insects live within these convex, protective "shells". Scale insects constitute a very large group of unusual plant feeding insects. This group is commonly divided into soft scales and armored scales. (Wingless and legless) adult scales spend their lives under protective shells. Soft scale insects have a waxy film secreted
over their body wall. Armored scales are protected beneath a separate cover secreted over their bodies. Some caterpillars ( e.g. Stathmopoda melanochroa) feed on various species of Scale Insect. Female scale insects
lay their eggs under their bodies or scale covers. When they first hatch, young scales have legs and are quite active. At this stage, they are called
crawlers. Crawlers disperse, locate new feeding sites, and then transform
into immobile adults. (http://www.saveourwaterwaysnow.com.au/ article by
Robert Whyte and
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_softbugs/WattleTickScale.htm)

Hardenbergia violacea.  Hardenbergia is a small genus of three species, the most common and best known of which is Hardenbergia violacea.  A widespread species occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. It occurs in a variety of habitats from coast to mountains, usually in open forest/woodland and sometimes in heath. Hardenbergia violacea is usually a climbing plant whose branches twist around the stems of other plants. It is moderately vigorous but rarely covers other plants so extensively as to cause damage. Shrubby forms without any climbing tendency
are known. The leaves are dark, glossy green with prominent veins and are 75-100 mm in length. (Australian Native Plants Society (Australia)
http://anpsa.org.au/)






Cyanicula caerulea (Eastern Tiny China Blue Orchid).  Terrestrial orchid of shady forest areas in well-drained soil.  Single leaf to 6 cm x 5 mm.  One bluish-purple flower to 30 mm, on stem to 15 mm tall, winter to spring.
Labellum with dark bars. (Glenn Leiper, Jan Glazebrook, Denis Cox, Kerry Rathie, Mangroves to Mountains, A Field Guide to the Native Plants of South-east Queensland, Logan River Branch SGAP (Qld Region) Inc., 2008.

A History of the Toowoomba Bicentennial Water Bird Habitat by Neil McKilligan

This is not an official history, there is none. It is the possibly imperfect, recollections of someone intimately involved in the project from its earliest beginnings to its completion and beyond.

Earlier times

When in a state of nature, some 200 years ago, Toowoomba was a place of meandering streams and lagoons. These wetlands were mostly reduced to concrete-lined drains as the city was adapted to better suit the needs of urbanization and industrialisation. A small paddock near the corner of Alderley and Mackenzie Streets on East Creek survived total elimination, albeit being greatly modified, for example, as Chinese market gardens. (A well that supplied these gardens has been preserved in the reconstructed parkland). In 1980 it was a cow paddock, drained by several deep ditches and infested with weeds. By about then the Aberdeen Street development had encroached on the eastern side of the swamp giving it an unnaturally steep profile. 

The vision of Ken Ferrier

Enter Ken Ferrier a local man and committed ‘greenie’. Ken recognized the historical and environmental value of this swampy piece of land and I needed little persuasion to his point of view. Together we wrote a submission to go to the Toowoomba City Council for the preservation and development of the East Creek swamp. It was sent jointly by the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club (TFNC) and Toowoomba Green Watch (TGW). Both of these organizations were actively involved in conservation at that time. The latter is now defunct, regrettably. 

Well this ‘grand plan’ was received with interest by Council who politely ‘put it on the shelf’. However, that was not the end of the matter. The Australian Bicentennial Celebration was to take place in 1988 and each local council had to produce a suitable commemorative project. So we submitted another, more detailed, proposal. Alternatives projects were considered by Council, one being the refurbishment of the Empire Theatre, and costed and rejected. However, the plan for the creation of a water bird habitat on East Creek was adopted in 1983 as Toowoomba’s Bicentennial Project. It had a predicted cost of half a million dollars. Quite a lot of money in those days, to be got from local and federal government and private donations. And seven hectares of land were available, too little really. Work started in 1985. 

Five objectives of the TBWBH

1. To save the swamp
2. To attract a variety of water birds
3.  To encourage passive recreation and education
4.   To have it look attractive
5. To aid in flood mitigation

All have been achieved except number 5, which was a bit optimistic in the light of the massive excavations of flood detention basins presently being undertaken upstream and downstream. 

The Committee.

Peg Iseppi at the 1988 opening of the Habitat

Of course a committee was needed to plan and guide (debate and argue) the Habitat. It comprised Council staff and local bird watchers and conservationists. The TFNC, TGW and Toowoomba Bird Watchers were well represented. I will not attempt to remember all the names but there was Ken, myself and Rod Smith of USQ  (a water engineer). In attendance was the City Engineer Ray Moore. The late Garnett Lehmann was especially good value with his knowledge of earth moving and sympathy for the views of the ‘birdos’. The anchor that held this multifarious bunch together and ensured that the right course was followed was the Chair Person, the late Mrs Peg Iseppi. She was a feisty little lady and had been one of the main movers in the formation of TGW. She smoked like a chimney and had I known then what I know now about the dangers of passive smoking I might have been unhappy sharing the same room with her!. The very attractive ibis statue standing in the North Lake of the TBWBH is a tribute to her achievements.

Designing for birds and people

Platform over the north Lake

About this time Ken Ferrier relocated to Bundanoon in NSW. He was greatly missed. I drew up what I called a ‘conceptual plan’ (so called because it lacked the sort of detail the engineers needed for their on-site excava-tions). Its main elements were three lagoons each with a large, treed island. The plan was adopted by the Committee. A competition was held to decide on a name, with the illustrious poet Bruce Dawe on the naming sub-committee. Despite there being many good entries the ‘Toowoomba Bicentennial Water Bird Habitat’ was adopted. The safe option, but at least descriptive. Large machinery was brought in to divert East Creek from its main course to allow the basin to dry sufficiently for earth removing. Three large holes were dug and islands created. Across Mackenzie Street a Sedimentation Pond was dug to catch silt and allow for its easy removal. An Ephemeral Pond was belatedly proposed for an empty area of grassland on the southeast corner. Clive Berghofer generously provided the machinery to create this.

Domestic ducks

The concept was to confine people to one side, the west side, of the Habitat and an unobtrusive fence was installed for this purpose. A high perimeter fence was put in place to keep out human and animal intruders and the gates were to be locked from dusk to dawn. Two viewing platforms on Aberdeen Street allowed for 24 hour observation. Extending over the North Lake a large wooden platform provided easy access to the water’s edge for little persons wishing to feed the ducks. A hide was built at a later date, with my rough sketches being converted into useable plans by local architect, the late Bill Durack. It was to be placed on the end of an island in the South Lake. Bench seats were built by two Field Nats., John Swarbrick and Mike Russell. A toilet, paved paths and picnic tables were provided by Council. The brick toilet was in my opinion out of character with the natural surroundings, but it proved to be quite functional. A novel feature, built by local Jaycees, were floating islands in two of the lakes. Volunteer groups and private citizens planted trees and shrubs, mainly around the perimeter and on the islands.

Important ‘small’ details included a gap under the internal fence to allow for the passage of ducklings from their nest holes to the safety of the water, the preservation of the flyway (gap in the trees) from the southwest to the northeast for larger birds with a shallow take-off trajectory, bench seats placed on the lagoon side of the pathway to preserve the view of bird watchers.

Eastern Swamphen