No.77 May 2003

Notes from Plant destroyer the Phytophthora cinnamomi is a destructive disease blamed for ‘forest dieback’ Editor throughout the world. It is thought to have been introduced into by early settlers and has since had a severe impact across much of southern In response to requests from readers, Australia and north . Forest dieback was first noticed affecting this Tropical Topics has a central native jarrah forests in Western Australia in 1921, but Phytophthora fact sheet on bush medicine. Natural cinnamomi was not identified as the cause until the late 1960s. medicines have been in the headlines recently and there is a growing Once thought to be a soil fungus, to a ‘virulent’ state which can kill all awareness that just because a Phytophthora cinnamomi is now infected plants: a dieback patch. medicine is based on a plant, this believed to be closer to some algal and does not necessarily mean it is safe. protozoan organisms. It feeds on plant Phytophthora was found by Many plants contain very potent tissue, killing its host by interfering researchers in with its ability to take in and circulate rainforests in 1975. However, apart chemicals and, as with bush tucker, water. It is spread easily by water and from causing isolated patches of experimentation can be dangerous. in moist, infected soil which may be dieback, it does not seem to have been carried on vehicles, earth-moving as destructive as elsewhere. As in pharmaceutical drugs, if taken equipment, footwear and by animals or Nonetheless, over 200 sites containing in low doses, a chemical compound with plants which are moved. Many dieback patches have been identified may be beneficial, but there can be dieback sites are near roads. Once in four main areas of upland forest; the serious consequences if excessive established it can form a ‘front of southern end of the Carbine Tableland doses are taken. Traditionally, while death’, advancing through forests and around Mt Lewis, the Lamb Range Aboriginal people used many plants heathlands killing all the vegetation in north of Lake Tinaroo, around Tully and many parts of plants externally its path. It has been dubbed the Falls/Koombooloomba and the crown-of-thorns of the forest. Kirrama/Cardwell Range. These sites as cures, they took relatively few vary from less than a hectare to over internally. Determining correct doses Four spore types are produced as part 10ha in size. Forests most at risk seem would have been difficult. of the Phytophthora lifecycle. Some to be upland rainforests, particularly can remain dormant in the soil for simple notophyll vine forests, between many years. Others – zoospores – can 750m and 1050m, on soils derived from I would like to thank Paul Gadek, swim through water trapped between acid igneous rocks. However, these James Cook University and Paul soil particles and are positively areas are where studies have been Davis, Department of Natural attracted to plant roots. True fungi do concentrated and Phytophthora has Resources and Mines, Atherton, not produce zoospores. Phytophthora also been found in other forest types, for their help with this issue. can be present in the soil without on basalt soils and at sea level. showing any obvious symptoms in the vegetation, causing low levels of root Awareness is the key to control. We Contents: infection which many species can can minimise the spread of this Page 1: Plant destroyer tolerate. However, it can be triggered dangerous disease by: Page 2: Can birds smell? • Not using unsealed roads in wet Creature feature: Echidnas The name Phytophthora means conditions. Page 3: Mabi forest ‘plant destroyer’. There are over • Following conditions on permits, Weed corner: Miconia 50 known species of Phytophthora, obeying signs regarding restricted Pages 4&5: Bush medicine 27 of them recorded in Australia. access areas and respecting locked Page 6: Questions & answers Phytophthora cinnamomi is gates. Sideline: Red leaves considered the most damaging. • Not transporting soil from one Tourist Talk Phytophthora can damage location to another. Page 7: Out and about vegetables, flowers, fruits, pastures, • Thoroughly washing down vehicles after using unsealed roads. Page 8: Bookshelf forage crops and ornamental as well as native plants. Worldwide, it costs • Cleaning boots and tent pegs many millions of dollars in damage to during and after bushwalking and horticulture. camping, and sterilising with metho at the end. Can birds smell? For many animals, a well-developed sense of smell is their main method for finding food, mates and home. So how about birds? On the whole, it is thought that birds rely on vision more than krill – the food of many seabirds. Visual cues are probably smell. Accordingly, the optic parts of their brains are generally also important but storm-petrels, in tests, were able to find much better developed than the olfactory ones. Since the pungent oil-soaked sponges at night, indicating that they brain uses a great deal of energy, most birds seem to have relied entirely on their sense of smell. They were even able to opted for vision development. However this is not a universal detect the lures from as much as eight kilometres away. Petrels rule and the size of the olfactory lobes varies. It tends to be have particularly well-developed nostrils and can distinguish larger in carnivorous birds than in those birds which eat seeds their own nest material, in a colony, in the dark. and fruit. In small forest-dwelling birds it occupies as little as three percent of the brain and in house sparrows just eight Kiwis use smell to locate food, such as earthworms, during percent, whereas in kiwis it is as much as 33 percent and up to nocturnal probings with nostrils located near the tip of the bill. 37 percent in some seabirds. However, there is evidence that different birds are attuned to particular smells, which are Three species of new world vultures (Cathartes genus) have important to them, and may simply not perceive others. an extremely well-developed sense of smell. They have large nostrils on the side of the bill and unusually well-developed Many seabirds, particularly the olfactory regions of the brains. They rely on their sense of ‘tube-nosed’ ones such as petrels smell to find food – rotting carcasses – in the forest and are and shearwaters, rely on smell to able to locate even small rodents and birds. find their food in the open ocean. They are attracted to odours produced The sense of smell in other birds is uncertain and we may by microscopic plants when they are have underestimated it. Homing pigeons, deprived of their being eaten by small animals such as sense of smell, were unable to find their way home, whereas unaltered pigeons had no problems with navigation. Birds also produce odours as part of social communication, Frogmouths produce extremely smelly particularly at breeding time, so are presumably are able to faeces which they spray on intruders – detect them. but can the frogmouth smell it? Creature feature: echidnas Echidnas and platypuses are the only egg-laying mammals – monotremes – in the world. There are two species of echidnas, the larger long-beaked sense of smell, but research has shown that, along with the echidna* found only in the highlands of New Guinea, and the platypus, it also possesses unique sensory capabilities. These short-beaked echidna, which lives in Australia and the New include specialised nerve endings at the tip of its snout which Guinean lowlands. Like the platypus, they are considered to are sensitive to tiny electric currents. These enable it to detect have an ancient lineage and to have been around for over 100 the minute electric signals produced by moving prey. million years. Their peculiar egg-laying method of reproduction is thought to demonstrate the descent of Another feature the male platypus and the male echidna have mammals from reptiles. in common is a spur on the ankle of the hindleg. Whereas the spur of the platypus male contains a poison gland and can The short-beaked echidna is found in all habitats in Australia, inflict some damage, the male echidna’s spur is not venomous. from desert to snowy mountains to rainforest. Its abundant sharp spines, which mean the echidna has few predators, are The female echidna produces one marble-sized, soft-shelled consolidated hair. Softer fur grows between the spines and in egg at a time, about two weeks after mating. It is probably laid colder areas may be long enough to almost hide them. directly into a shallow depression on the mother’s underside, a type of pouch. It hatches in about 10 days and for the next The echidna gets out and about to feed mainly at dawn and 50 days the baby is carried around, feeding on milk which dusk. Top of the menu are termites and ants. It breaks into exudes from pores on the mother’s two mammary glands. At the nests of colonial insects, demolishing even the hard mud the age of three months, the baby has a covering of short walls of a termite mound with its strong front feet. It pokes its spines and is deposited in an underground burrow for the next long nose into cracks and extrudes an enormously long seven months. At one sticky tongue to which the helpless insects are glued like flies year old it makes its first on flypaper. Not only does the echidna have an excellent foray into the world.

*Different forms of the long-beaked echidna were once found all over Australia and New Guinea until late Pleistocene times (about 11,000 years ago). 22 Mabi forest Mabi forest is a special type of forest which grows on the fertile basalt soils of the . When ecologists Len Webb and Geoff Tracey originally classified the forests of the wet tropics in the 1960s, they categorised this forest as complex notophyll vine forest – type 5b – basing their description on Tolga Scrub, near Atherton. Their system took into account physical/structural characteristics and species composition.

Mabi forest grows only in areas of high rainfall (up to 1600mm This allows light to penetrate to the forest floor, annually) on soils derived from basalt rock. These soils are the encouraging the growth of a dense 1-3m high shrub result of volcanic activity on the Tableland millions of years layer with gingers and ferns. ago when shield volcanoes spilled lava across the landscape. Alkaline (basic/non-acidic) and rich in iron and magnesium, The word Mabi is one of the local Aboriginal names they are very fertile. for Lumholtz’s -kangaroo (right). This is a particularly appropriate name since these rare animals are This is both the strength of Mabi forest and its weakness. most likely to be found in this type of forest. Because the chocolate-red soils make good agricultural land, growing on poor soils derived from granite or metamorphic much of the original forest cover has been cleared. Although rocks produce leaves which are tougher, less nutritious and it once covered the Atherton Tableland, to the north and west contain more toxins than those growing on basalt. This is an of Malanda, less than two percent now remains, growing in important consideration for leaf-eating animals such as isolated patches such as Tolga Scrub, Wongabel State Forest, possums and tree-kangaroos and it is perhaps not surprising Hallorans Hill and at the Curtain Fig Tree, near . In that they are much more abundant in forests on basalt. October last year it was added to the national list of critically endangered ecological communities under the Environment Volunteer members of TREAT – Trees for the Evelyn and Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999. Atherton Tablelands Inc. – have devoted many hundreds of hours to rehabilitating and replanting patches of Mabi forest. Mabi forest is characterised by clusters of trees up to 45m If you would like to get involved in their activities you can high with an uneven canopy. Trunks vary in size, many of contact them on Ph: 4091 3474 or PO Box 1119, Atherton, QLD them sporting buttresses. Some of the trees are deciduous or 4883. Their website is: www.treat.net.au semi-evergreen and tend to drop a lot of leaves in dry times. Weed corner: Miconia Miconia calvascens is known by various common names – miconia, velvet leaf, currant bush and, most appropriately perhaps, purple plague. Native to Central America, this troublesome plant has been introduced to a number of tropical countries and grown for its attractive foliage. It is now considered one of the worst weeds on many Pacific islands, notably French Polynesia and Hawaii.

Miconia is a shade-tolerant tree growing to about 15m. It has Unfortunately miconia plants had already very distinctive large leaves which can grow to 70cm in length been sold and planted, forming the source for – the length of an adult arm. Glossy green on the upper side, localised infestations, chiefly around Kuranda, but also these leaves are purple below and have three distinctive in , Mission Beach, Innisfail, El Arish, Whyanbeal, cream-coloured veins running along their length. White north of Mossman, and other places. This enormously pesky flowers are followed by numerous dark purple, fleshy berries, plant is difficult to eradicate – its preference for shade means each about 10-15mm in diameter and containing up to 200 it can establish itself in dense rainforest, so it can be difficult seeds; one plant can produce up to 3 million seeds, several to find. times a year. Unfortunately the fruits are very attractive to birds which spread the seeds in their droppings. Growing It is essential that we all look out for miconia. Please remove easily in shade, the saplings flourish in rainforest where they any plants that you find but please also report them so that can form dense stands, shading out native plants and tree authorities can be aware of potential outbreak areas. Contact saplings and threatening the long-term viability of forests. Sid Clayton at There are many different Shire Council, Ph: 4092 species of miconia. Miconia In May 1997, all species of miconia were declared under the 4311, Pat Lawler at Douglas racemosa was found in Queensland Rural Lands Protection Act (categories p1 and Shire Council, Ph: 4098 3104 Kuranda last year. It is similar, p2) making it an offence to introduce the plants into or your appropriate local but smaller, growing to 2-3 Queensland or to sell them anywhere in the State. government pest metres. Its leaves have five management officer. prominent longitudinal veins. To view a hillside covered with miconia in Hawaii, and to read more about problems in a place where it has become seriously established, see www.hear.org/pier/mical.htm 33 Bush medicine Hyoscine is the Curiously there is little evidence that chemical which Aboriginal people used tea tree oil for its achieved sudden powerful anti-fungal and anti-bacterial notoriety recently when properties. The species used commercially for larger than normal this purpose is Melaleuca alternifolia, a small doses in Travacalm tree found in northern New South Wales tablets caused severe and southern Queensland. Its germicidal illness in a number of properties were discovered in the 1920s. people. Interestingly, this Cajuput oil is made from the weeping chemical is found in a common rainforest tree known paperbark (M. leucadendra) and the as soft corkwood (Duboisia myoporoides). Indeed, when cajuput (M. cajuputi). In northern Australia, this tree was hybridised with a closely related species last the leaves of several Melaleuca species century the result contained more hyoscine than any other have been used traditionally for treatment of known plant. It was grown commercially to make coughs, colds and on sores and burns, either ophthalmic and sedative drugs, before synthetic versions crushed and inhaled or soaked in water to of the compound were developed. Extracts from the plant create an infusion. The aromatic oils stimulate cells in the dilate the pupil – useful in eye surgery – and during World throat to produce more lubricating fluids thus easing War II considerable quantities of hyoscine were exported irritations which cause coughs. to treat travel sickness in troops and shell shock. In Hyoscine is an alkaloid, a group of 1989, 500 tonnes of dried chemicals which are found in a number Barringtonia racemosa is known as the fish and powdered leaves were of plants and which have a potent effect poison tree because chemicals, saponins, in exported to pharmaceutical on the human central nervous system; the bark stun fish when put in the water. This companies in Germany and well-known alkaloids include strychnine, tree was also used in India as a fever Switzerland. morphine, cocaine and nicotine. treatment and is now known to have Alkaloids in native plants do not seem properties similar to quinine, the anti-malarial Soft corkwood is poisonous to have been important as traditional drug extracted from South American trees. to stock and has been medicines, perhaps because of the blamed for at least one difficulty of determining safe doses. human death, in 1987, when Cycad plants are very toxic although the seeds a man experimentally ate some leaves. Interestingly, it is were an important traditional food, when properly treated. closely related to a desert shrub, pituri (Duboisia The seeds of some species, however, contain an antibiotic. hopwoodii) which was valued as a narcotic and widely traded by Aboriginal people in days gone by. The large leaves of the cotton tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus) can be used as dressings on wounds. The leaf is simply heated over the She oak (Casuarina fire and pressed on to the injury until it equisetifolia) grows commonly sticks, stopping the flow of blood. The flower along the back of beaches. The inner bark, buds of this tree are used in Hawaii as a mild which is a pinkish colour, can be ground up laxative for children. For older children and and used to relieve the pain of a toothache adults the little white, dome-shaped ‘bump’ when pressed on to the affected tooth. When inside the bottom of the flower is used for infused in water, it can be used as a same purpose. The bark of the stem is used mouthwash to relieve a sore throat – but should for congested chests and for a mother not be swallowed. delivering a baby. Cheesefruit (Morinda citrifolia) is Stinging trees (Dendrocnide bottled in Fiji and other Pacific Islands to spp) are to be avoided, due to be sold commercially as ‘cheesefruit juice’, the pain caused by the fine earning over US$1billion over five years hairs in the leaves. These hairs for the company named after the plant, have cell walls full of silica and Morinda Incorporated. The contain a sap which acts on the juice is sold as a performance nerve-endings in human skin, enhancer and antioxidant. causing pain for many months. However, the leaves were Commercial drugs derived from used traditionally as a cure for rheumatism. They were the roots and trunk are used to applied directly to the affected area, but, perhaps less treat high blood pressure. painful, were sometimes pounded and boiled first.

The ripe fruit has an unpleasant smell so, not Banana bush surprisingly perhaps, this is when it is used as a Latex from a number of plants, medicine – as a treatment for common cold, ’flu, diarrhoea including figs and banana bush and asthma as well as for wound treatment. It is said to (Tabernaemontana have a slight anaesthetic effect which provides instant pandacaqui) (left) has been relief for sore throats. Mixed with coconut milk, it is given used traditionally on as a relief from ciguatera in the Torres Strait. Leaves and sores and wounds. fruit can be crushed and inhaled or rubbed on the chest. Recent studies have The bark of this tree is used to reduce fever and the shown that these plants leaves as poultices. In Hawaii, where it is known as contain potent compounds by the ‘noni’, the unripe fruit is pounded with salt and the name of proteolytic enzymes. There is a mixture put on deep cuts. Ripe fruit has also been used as fine line between harmful and helpful chemicals. Latex a poultice to draw out pus. Even more claims are made for from many plants can cause blindness. The banana bush this plant, but as with most ‘magical cures’ they have is related to the highly poisonous oleander and the attracted scientific controversy. For more information on ‘bananas’ are named for their shape, not their edibility. this see www.sgapqld.org.au/bushtucker.html Latex from macaranga (Macaranga tanarius) is very sticky and waterproof. It can be used on deep cuts, The core of the trunk of Owning the knowledge holding the skin certain pandanus trees, An international study found that about three-quarters together like notably screw palm/pine of plant-based drugs developed by pharmaceutical stitches. (Pandanus spiralis) was companies had already been known and used as traditionally used for a traditional medicines. When looking for sources of new number of complaints. drugs, pharmaceutical companies often rely on indigenous knowledge – it saves a lot of time. Having Pounded and/or boiled, it Sandpaper was particularly used for found an organism, the companies must break it down fig The diarrhoea and stomach pain into its various components and search for the one sandpaper fig ( but also for mouth sores and which is active. This may then be made into a drug. This opposita) has, as the name toothache and to relieve process can be time-consuming and expensive. suggests, leaves which are headaches and ’flu. In some Nevertheless, in the end it is usually only the drug as rough as sandpaper. They cases the pith from the prop company which makes the profit – sometimes enormous are used, traditionally, to roots, which support the – while the people who made the initial discoveries gain treat fungal skin infections main trunk, was used. There nothing. The company may even take out a patent on such as ringworm (which is are records from Groote the plant in question and it is not unknown for the not a worm). The affected Eylandt, in the Northern traditional owners to be then charged a royalty for using skin is abraded with the Territory, of pandanus seeds it. Referred to as biopiracy, this trend is on the rise as leaves until quite raw and being consumed for companies increasingly take out patents on organisms, the area then covered with contraceptive some of them common traditional food and medicine the milky latex from the plant. qualities, plants. See http://twm.co.nz/CptHook.htm for more Alternatively the area may but no information. be covered with a green evidence ants’ nest. The stings and to support An ABC Radio National Background Briefing program the formic acid from the ants their on October 13 2002 looked at the problems associated are very painful but effectiveness. with bioprospecting and indigenous rights. A transcript apparently a very effective of the program can be found on www.abc.net.au/rn/ cure. talks/bbing/stories/s701553.htm QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q What spiders make the webs on the inhibition of plant growth is not clear. Sideline ground that I see early in the morning Certainly mycorrhizal fungi have been in May. One small paddock had discovered in rhododendron species. Red leaves thousands. These are symbiotic fungi which attach The spectacular red and pink new themselves to plant roots, obtaining foliage produced by many rainforest A The webs belong to a small spider carbohydrates from the plants but, in trees is a particularly attractive feature in the family Lycosidae, which return, supplying extra water and of our rainforests – and a selling point includes the more familiar wolf spiders. nutrients from the soil (see Tropical for many species, such as syzygiums, They belong to the genus Venonia. Topics 72, p2). These mycorrhizal types popular in native gardens and parks. These spiders make small webs with are specifically associated with However, the question is often asked – central tunnels. Approach one quickly heathland plants and give them a why? and you will see the tiny spider retreat competitive advantage in nutrient-poor from the entrance. soils over plants which do not have The red is caused by the pigment Acknowledgements to Eric Vanderduys of them. However, little seems to be anthocyanin, the same pigment which the Inquiry Centre, Queensland Museum known about direct effects on other colours many flowers and fruits and plants. which gives beetroot its wonderful hue. Q In the TV series ‘State of the The actual shade – pink, red, brown or Planet’, David Attenborough On the other hand, many purple – depends on the pH of the fluid mentioned the devastating ecological rhododendron species, including in the cells of the leaf. Various theories effects rhododendrons have had in Rhododendron ponticum, produce have been suggested. It was thought Britain. He said this plant shares a toxins. These are even found in honey that anthocyanin might be off-putting symbiotic relationship with a soil created from the flowers and are for animals which eat leaves – but in fungus which kills all other plant blamed for human poisoning (not reality young red leaves are quite species and that even after the plants usually fatal) known as ‘Mad honey heavily damaged by predators. It was had been poisoned or physically disease’. It is possible that these toxins thought that red might raise the removed, the fungus continued to kill prevent other plants from growing but temperature of the leaves, speeding up other plants for a further six years. it is also possible that they poison the their development, but experiments have He said that the fungus is associated mycorrhizae needed by other plants shown this not to be true. It has also with all rhododendrons. Is it before they become established. been suggested that anthocyanin might associated with Australian native inhibit fungal attack. species? We have only one native One likely theory is that anthocyanin A There are about 600 species of rhododendron might protect the developing rhododendrons in the world. species, photosynthetic mechanism in young David Attenborough was Rhododendron leaves. Studies have shown that these referring to a species which was lochae (left). It grows leaves are not yet actively introduced to Britain in the late only above 1000m in photosynthesising and may need a 18th century, possibly from Spain and the wet tropics. It is not ‘sunscreen’ to protect them from Portugal – Rhododendron ponticum. It known whether this harmful light. Anthocyanin absorbs is extremely invasive and severely species has the same light from the blue/green part of the reduces biodiversity by excluding effect on other plants. spectrum, reflecting away red. other species, taking over large areas, For more information on British providing little food for animals and invasions see the websites: As the leaves mature they develop even diverting bees from their www.offwell.free-online.co.uk/ chloroplasts which are responsible for pollination duties on other plants. rhododen.htm and www.spri.cam.ac.uk/ absorbing red light for photosynthesis – The exact reason for continuing people/ojm21/rhodo.htm to convert the sun’s energy into stored energy. Green light, which we see, is reflected away.

Levels of anthocyanin are TOURIST TALK high both in young ENGLISH GERMAN JAPANESE leaves and in those under stress. The medicine Medizin kusuri pigment is also visible latex Gummimilch shokubutsu in old leaves such as those from quandongs and the bleeding heart no nyueki tree (above). As the leaves age, useful cough Husten seki materials in the leaf are reabsorbed by cold Erkältung kaze the tree. Green chlorophyll is one of the first to break down and disappear from wound Wunde kizu the leaves. Again, anthocyanin may fungal pilzartig kinsei no serve to protect the diminishing infection Infektion kansen chlorophyll as it is breaking down. juice Saft shiru Acknowledgements The Lake Lake to inhale inhalieren kyunyu suru News (Tablelands National Park Volunteers newsletter) Vol 5 No 8 August 1997. 66 Out and about Wildlife Rescue Ospreys nest between Association is ten years old. It boasts August and November in over 200 members, many of whom are southern Australia but in active carers located as far south as the north they do so Figbird Cardwell, as far north as Thursday much earlier. Their nests Island and all over the Tablelands area. are bulky structures Last year alone, 1370 birds and 388 other created from sticks and sick or injured wildlife species were lined with grass. Celerywood brought in or reported to the FNQWR Cliff faces and trees Centre in Cairns and passed on to trees are natural (Polyscias carers. Many more were taken directly to nesting sites, elegans) fruit vets or carers. In just the last five but human during the months, 837 calls were received on the structures are often used. A few years winter months, to the delight of birds, after-hours phone line. ago, in Cairns, a pair of birds built a nest such as brown pigeons, bowerbirds, New carers are always welcome; ‘hands- on top of the transmission tower at the currawongs and figbirds which are on’ training is provided. Otherwise you Ambulance Station on Anderson Street. attracted in flocks. This is a common could assist financially by becoming a Last year the nest was mysteriously pioneer tree, which springs up readily in member and/or giving donations. destroyed. Since the tower is well rainforest regrowth areas. It grows only Indeed, if you have a lot of time to offer, fenced, it was thought not to be the in Australia, at both high and low the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cairns is work of human vandals but possibly altitudes, from Queensland to south- looking for a new manager. caused by unruly behaviour of fledging eastern New South Wales. Reaching Please report sick, chicks. In the end, the platform, which about 10m in height it creates a shady injured or orphaned had been provided specially by canopy. Small purple flowers, produced wildlife as soon as Ambulance Station staff to keep the in summer time, are followed by crowds possible. In Cairns birds above the tower, was entirely of small, 5mm, ridged, black fruits which call (07) 4053 4467, devoid of nest material. Happily, within are borne in conspicuous bunches in Townsville, Ph: the last couple of months the ospreys above the leaves. They are sticky when 0414 717 374 or have rebuilt the nest and are presumably squashed. In spite of their popularity 0412 123 783. planning to breed again. with birds, these fruits are not suitable for human consumption. Coming Together... is the title of the Courting ospreys perform spectacular National Conference on Wildlife dives and swoops above the nest. The The common name of this tree comes Rehabilitation to be held at Victoria female osprey then lays two to three, from the fact that the bark, when cut, University Werribee Campus, and sometimes four, eggs. She does smells and tastes of celery. , 30 June - 2 July 2003. For most of the brooding, the male visiting more information contact the conference from time to time with a fish for which convenor, Greg Gordon, at: the female begs with a high-pitched call. [email protected]; Ph: (03) 9216 After the chicks have hatched, their 8113 or (03) 9216 8139. mother stays with them, protecting them from the sun for about a month until Wombat berry (Eustrephus latifolius) a twining they grow their feathers. It will be vine, produces fruit between March and another month before they leave the September. This scrambling, wiry-stemmed plant is nest. common in rainforest and in nearby open forest, at all altitudes. It grows as far south as eastern Victoria and is also found overseas. During winter the vine is covered with fleshy Urban Wildlife Forum orange fruits, about 1.5cm across, which hang for a long time. The Wildlife Preservation Society of These fruits eventually split open to reveal shiny black seeds Queensland which are partially surrounded with a white aril, or outer 14-16 June 2003 coating. This strategy is often employed by rainforest fruits to attract the attention The Bardon Centre in ’s of birds, the dark seeds highlighted against the brightly-coloured fruit. Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. Enquiries and registration: WPSQ, The bright green leaves, 3-12 cm long, spring almost directly from the branches, with 95 William Street, Brisbane, 4000 minimal stalks. Fringed, pale pink flowers are produced in spring. The plant has Ph: (07) 3221 0194; Fax: (07) 3221 0701; fleshy roots which are apparently a popular food for wombats, where the two e-mail: [email protected]; species coincide. The fruits are not edible for humans. Website: www.wildlife.org.au 77 BOOKSHELF

Bush Medicine Rainforest Department of Natural Resources and Tim Low Cheryll Williams Mines leaflet Angus and Robertson (1990) Miconia Nature Australia Vol 25 No 3 Summer Available from NR&M offices This is the standard reference on bush 1995-96 medicine from the author of ‘Bush The truth about tea trees Birds: Their Habits and Skills tucker’. It deals with bush medicine Tim Low Gisela Kaplan and Lesley Rogers from around Australia. Allen and Unwin Website – of the Society for Growing An excerpt on smell was reproduced in Bush Medicine of the Northern Australian Plants, Queensland Region Interpretive Birding Bulletin Vol 5 No Peninsula Area of Cape York has lots of interesting information, 2 September/October 2001 Sandyl Kyriazis including bush tucker and bush Nai Beguta Agama Aboriginal Corpo- medicine at www.sgapqld.org.au/ Nature Australia Vol. 25 No. 11 ration bushtucker3.html Summer 1997-98 Echidnas on the nose Many of the plants and animals are Using rainforest research Uwe Proske found in the wet tropics. CRC Rainforest leaflet: Rainforest masks a deadly disease WellBeing Magazine No 70 May 1998 Plants, Poisons and Survival in the A leaflet on phytophthora

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