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The Mosses of the Yarrangobilly Caves District, New South Wales, Australia a Review of the Mosses Collected by the Reverend W W Watts in 1906

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The Mosses of the Yarrangobilly Caves District, New South Wales, Australia a Review of the Mosses Collected by the Reverend W W Watts in 1906 J. Hattori Bot. Lab. No. 82: 105- 121(July 1997) THE MOSSES OF THE YARRANGOBILLY CAVES DISTRICT, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA A REVIEW OF THE MOSSES COLLECTED BY THE REVEREND W W WATTS IN 1906 1 1 ALISON J. DOWNINa1, PATRICIA M. SELKIRK AND RONALD J. 0LDFIELD ABSTRACT. In 1906, Reverend W. W. Watts collected mosses in the vicinity of Yarrangobilly Caves, a limestone area in the Southern Alps of New South Wales and in 1912, with Brotherus, published a list of these species. This study updates the taxa recorded by Brotherus and Watts and compares the species collected by Watts in 1906 with our own recent (1993) collections. Most of the mosses collected by Watts are still present in the area. The few species no longer found in the immediate vicinity of Yarrangobilly are known from other locations in the Southern Alps of eastern Australia. Certain bryophyte taxa were not collected by Watts in 1906 but are now conspicuous components of the bryofiora at Yarrangobilly. Changes to the moss assemblage at Yarrangobilly are attributed to a range of environmental changes resulting from European settlement and development. KEYWORDS. Australia, bryophytes, calcareous substrates, limestone, mosses, Watts, Yarrangobilly. INTRODUCTION In the northern hemisphere it has been possible to document changes in bryophyte as­ semblages at particular locations by comparisons of studies at various times (e.g. Jones 1991 ; Bates 1995). This has not been the case in Australia, where, until recently, there have been few published species lists. In January, 1906, Reverend W. Walter Watts collected mosses at Yarrangobilly Caves in the Southern Alps of New South Wales. The published species list from his collections was one of the earliest Australian bryological studies for a given location and certainly the first record of mosses on limestone in Australia (Brotherus & Watts 1912; Ramsay 1980). Although a detailed description of the geology of the Yarrangobilly area was included in Watts' paper, it is not possible from the information given to determine the nature of the substrate rock, whether calcareous or non-calcareous, from which each species was collected. We have re-examined the bryoftora of Yarrangobil­ ly and adjacent limestone areas and compared our recent collections with those of Watts of 1906. The Yarrangobilly Caves are located in a belt of massive Silurian limestone (Yarran­ gobilly Limestone) 12 km long and 1.5 km wide (from 35°38'S, 148°28'E to 35°44'S, 148°29'E) in a montaii.e to sub-alpine area of the Southern Alps of New South Wales. The limestone occurs on the western side of a plateau (average 1100 m altitude) through which the Yarrangobilly River cuts a spectacular gorge so that the river bed is 200 m below the top of the plateau. Came & Jones (1919) have assessed the limestones as 98% calcium carbon­ ate. Bordering the limestone to the east are the Silurian Gooberaganda Volcanics of por- 1 School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, N. S. W. 2109, Australia. 106 J. Hattori Bot. Lab. No. 82 I 9 9 7 phyritic dacite and rhyodacite (Wyborn et al. 1990). Karst, the characteristic landscape where rock has been d.issolved by water rather than eroded, is well developed in the lime­ stone with numerous sink holes, caves and underground streams (Lishmund et al., 1986). At Yarrangobilly _C.aves, tall, open Eucalyptus forest dominates the vegetation includ­ ing Eucalyptus delegatensis R. Baker, E. viminalis Labill., E. dalrympleana Maiden, E. ru­ bida Deane & Maiden, E. paucifiora Sieber ex Sprengel and E. stellulata Sieber ex DC. with Leptospermum lanigerum (Aiton) Smith as an understory. Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) has become naturalised in some areas. Numerous exotic trees and shrubs have been planted in the vicfo.ity of Caves House. At Yarrangobilly village, approximately 8 km north of the Caves, pine forest was es­ tablished in the 1920s and 1930s. The timber is now being cut and the area revegetated with local native species. The last residents of the village left in 1970 (New South Wales National Parks & Wildlife Service 1990). Some native grassland and Eucalyptus woodland occurs on limestone in the vicinity of the village. Yarrangobilly enjoys cool summers (mean summer temperature approximately 18°C and cold winters (mean approximately 5°C), with numerous frosts and some snow in win­ ter (Bureau of Meteorology, 1989). Rainfall is high, averaging 1150 mm per annum and is distributed relatively evenly throughout the year (Rainfall records maintained at Yarrangob­ illy Caves, unpublished). Aboriginal people are known to have occupied the areas surrounding Yarrangobilly Caves although it is believed that the caves were too cold and wet for habitation (New South Wales National Parks & Wildlife Service l 99la). The first European record of Yarrangobilly Caves is their discovery in 1834 by John Bowman while searching for cattle. Development of the area for tourists began in 1879 and over the next 70 years, e;ictensive building and road and path construction took place. Tourists came to Yarrangobilly, not only to visit the spectacular caves, but also to bathe in the thermal pool. This was con­ structed in 1897 around a natural hot spring which was held to have therapeutic qualities. Grazing probably began on the treeless, high altitude plains to the east ofYarrangobil­ ly in the 1840s. Stock was moved here from as far away as the western areas of New South Wales. Stock was excluded from alpine areas in 1944 and from other areas of the National Park by 1969 because of damage caused by grazing and potential contamination of dam catchment areas (New South Wales National Parks & Wildlife Service 1990). Mosses were also collected from Devonian Lickhole Limestone at Ravine (43°25'S, 146°53'E), lOkm south-west of Yarrangobilly Caves. Here the limestone is well-bedded limestone with interbedded calcareous shale (Lishmund et al., 1986). Along the road to Ravine, loose, nodular limestones form conspicuous terraces down the west facing slopes of Round Top Mountain, 996 m alt. down to 600 m alt. at Ravine village. Eucalypts are ab­ sent from most of the hillside terraces of nodular limestone at Ravine, although Eucalyptus woodlands and forests dominate adjacent non-calcareous substrates. The calcareous ter­ races are almost devoid of natural vegetation and have been invaded by introduced weed species, such as Hypericum sp., Rosa sp., Rubus spp. and Verbascum thapsus L. A. DOWNING et al.: The mosses of the Yarrangobilly Caves district, Australia 107 METHODS In order to compare our records with those of Watts, we determined synonyms for the taxa recorded by Brotherus and Watts by reference to Streimann & Curnow ( 1989). A study of Watts' collections at the National Herbariurn of New South Wales (NSW) was also undertaken, and Watts' specimens checked against modern keys such as Beever et al. (1992), Catcheside (1980), Scott & Stone (1976) and recent taxonomic publications includ­ ing Lewinsky (1984), Spence (1996), Spence & Ramsay (1996) and Sollman (1996). After some consideration of Zander (1993), we have decided to retain certain genera, such as Tortu/a rather than Syntrichia and Barbu/a rather than Pseudocrossidium for their relevant species in order to simplify comparisons. We considered some specimens be more appro­ priately assigned to taxa other than those used by Brotherus & Watts. Authorities are in­ cluded in Table 1 or in the text ifthe taxa are not included in the table. In December 1993, we collected mosses from the vicinity of Yarrangobilly Caves at locations specifically mentioned by Watts. The nature of the substrate from which each species was collected, whether calcareous, non-calcareous or epiphytic, was recorded. Ad­ ditional collections were made from calcareous and non-calcareous substrates at Ravine, and also from pine plantations, established on limestone north and east of Yarrangobilly village. These collections were returned to the laboratory for determination. We did not at­ tempt to locate two species recorded by Watts from the Turnut River, Brachythecium rivu­ lare and Eurhynchium cucul/atum, as we do not consider this to be part of the Yarrangobil­ ly district. We were unable to locate one of Watts' specimens, Funaria (Entosthodon) sp. (Watts 8910). Reference was made to recent collections of H. Streimann in the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra (CANB) to determine whether taxa collected by Watts in 1906, but not by us in 1993, are present in the Southern Alps of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Our examination of Watts' collections and its terminology showed it to contain 95 taxa from 64 genera, somewhat Jess than his original 118 species from 61 genera (Table 1) . Some taxa proved particularly difficult to resolve. For example we have tentatively included his species of Campylium and Sciaromium in Cratoneuropsis relaxa, and we have lumped together numerous species of Philonotis as P. tenuis. These groups are in urgent need of re­ vision and our allocations of specimens to these taxa should not be seen to have taxonomic significance. Although most of the species collected by Watts at Yarrangobilly are not uncommon in south-eastern New South Wales (Ramsay l 984a), his collections included some unex­ pected and unusual taxa. Two species of Tortu/a, T. anderssonii and T. phaea are rare in Australia, and until recent collections from the Southern Alps were determined by Sollman ( 1996), T. phaea (as Syntrichia phaea (Hook. f. & Wils.) Zand.) was considered to be a New Zealand endemic (Fife 1995). Although Watts listed only 3 species of Orthotrichum in his species list, his collections included 4 species, 0. cupu/atum var. cupu/atum, 0. hort­ ense, 0. rupestre and 0. tasmanicum var. tasmanicum. In addition to these species, a fifth species, 0. assimile, is now not uncommon on the bark of some eucalypts and exotic tree 108 J.
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