Brigalow Belt Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens

Self-guided walk Adaption and survival strategies The Brigalow Belt Bioregion encompasses In addition to low rainfall, plants of much of Queensland’s the Brigalow Belt cope with other lower rainfall country. extremes of nature - hot summer It takes its name from forests and days, cold to frosty winter nights, woodlands of Brigalow - Acacia fl oods, fi res and droughts. harpophylla, that grow on clay Adaptations and strategies soils and originally characterised that help them and their large areas of this bioregion. species to survive include: Much of it has now been cleared for agricultural and pastoral • deep root systems that search production. out and make the most of that transpire very little available moisture moisture Landscapes within the Brigalow • dying back to underground • hairy, light coloured, pendulous Belt range from undulating plains storage systems such as tubers or small leaves that refl ect more to rugged ranges. and bulbs that lie dormant until or absorb less heat the next favourable growing • seasonally shedding all or most Life in a harsh and season of their leaves (being deciduous dry climate • dormant leaf buds, protected or semi-deciduous), to conserve by thick bark or within woody moisture and energy The Brigalow Belt contains a tubers (lignotubers), that enable • producing large quantities of variety of plant communities – plants to re-generate after fi re longlived seeds that remain from grassland to vine thickets or other damage viable in the soil seed-bank until to tall open forests - that support • spreading vegetatively by favourable conditions trigger many different kinds of plants. means of suckers or layering, germination. Some are common and grow therefore not relying on seed well beyond the Brigalow Belt; germination some are rare, while others grow • leaves with a thick skin nowhere else on earth. (epidermis) and pores (stomata)

There are examples of many of different soil types is yet to be An overview of the Brigalow Belt these adaptations and strategies determined. This is an important Garden can be seen by taking a here in the Brigalow Belt Garden. role of the Mackay Regional walk around the outer edge of the See how many you can identify. Botanic Gardens. garden. Wildlife shares the area. Your safety is our concern, but The Brigalow Belt Garden has This manmade seasonal ‘creek’, your responsibility. been developed to showcase and is the focal centre of the Brigalow trial plants from neighbouring Belt Garden. It was created from Enjoy your walk! areas of the Brigalow Belt in a a deep straight-sided, featureless ‘natural’ setting. Some species drain. It not only looks like in this garden do extend into many of the ephemeral water the Central Queensland Coast courses of the Brigalow Belt Bioregion, and some have been but also functions in a similar used as ornamentals for many manner, carrying storm-water years. However, the potential and wet-season run-off from the of others and their adaptability surrounding catchment. to wetter conditions, and/or

Brachychiton acerifolius

Your guide to Mackay Regional Council’s Botanic Gardens Brigalow Belt

3. Snow in Summer or Flax- leaf Paperbark - Melaleuca linariifolia, is another smallleaved tree that has been grown as an ornamental for many years. Its masses of fl uffy white 1. Pretty Wattle - Acacia 3. Paperbarks and Teatrees - fl owers give rise to one of its decora, with its bluish-grey Melaleuca spp, often delineate common names. foliage it is an attractive shrub creek banks and drainage lines at any time of the year but it in the Brigalow Belt. You can see really ‘shines’ in winter when it is a number of species along the covered in bright golden balls of ‘creek’. Leaves of different species perfumed fl owers. may look quite different but they all contain essential oil. At certain times you may be able to smell 4. Mat Rushes - Lomandra their distinctive aroma. Note the spp, have dark green strappy bark on these and other trees leaves and robust root systems. along the trail. Many trees that They are often mistaken for grow in fi re-prone communities grasses. They have many have thick bark that protects and horticultural applications but are 2. Sally Wattle, Cooba or insulates their trunks. Paperbarks used here to help control water Willow Wattle - Acacia have many layers of papery bark erosion as they do along natural salicina, is a widespread tree and only the outer layers are burnt waterways. that often grows near seasonal in a fi re. watercourses. Long drooping branches and pendulous pale 3. Black Teatree - Melaleuca bluish-green foliage make it an bracteata, that has tiny dark attractive drought resistant shade green hairy leaves and small fl uffy tree. It has pale lemon ball fl owers white fl owers. Its common name but be on the lookout for newly refers to its hard dark bark. opened woody seedpods. Shiny 5. Small-leaved Ebony - black hard seeds are attached by 3. Pendulous Paperbark - Diospyros humilis, is a small, bright red threads. Most wattles Melaleuca fl uviatilis, will slowgrowing tree. Bark is smooth have hardcoated seeds that eventually become a large and dark grey initially, becoming remain viable for many years. Sally stately tree with pendulous rough and almost black. Note Wattle suckers profusely if its roots foliage, similar to the better- how the small shiny leaves are are disturbed. known Weeping Paperbark markedly convex. Small male - Melaleuca leucadendra. It can and female fl owers are borne on be distinguished by its hairy new separate plants but these plants growth and usually narrower haven’t fl owered yet. When fully leaves - 5-19mm wide. (All leaves ripe, the small orange-red berries of Weeping Paperbark are hairless of this species are edible and (glabrous) and 10-20mm wide.) sweet.

6. Scaly Bark Ironwood - 8. Burdekin Plum - 10. Black Ironbox - Backhousia kingii, is another Pleiogynium timorense, Eucalyptus raveretiana, is a small to medium tree of vine eventually becomes a large large tree thatm only occurs along thickets and dry rainforest. Have tree with a rough-barked and rivers, creeks and adjacent fl ats a look at the bark on these trees sometimes buttressed trunk. It is in eastern central, Queensland, - on older plants it peels in strips. very drought resistant. There are primarily in the Brigalow Belt so Mauve coloured new growth is separate male and female trees it has a Threatened Status of particularly attractive and, like its and this one is a female that’s Vulnerable. Its common name relatives, the leaves are distinctly already produced edible, purplish refers to its extremely hard timber aromatic when crushed. Plants ‘plums’. Perhaps you’ll see some of and the dark scaly ‘box’ bark on here have not fl owered and the distinctive hard bony structures the trunks of mature trees. Upper apparently this species doesn’t (endocarps), protecting the seeds, branches have smooth, silvery- fl owers regularly. However, it often on the ground. Germination is white ‘gum’ bark. Look out for spreads by layering or from root often sporadic over several years any of the tiny seed capsules that suckers rather than from seeds. with the little seedlings emerging follow showy sprays of fl uffy white roots fi rst, from the ‘portholes’. fl owers. They are probably the smallest fruit of all Eucalypts. Just imagine how tiny the seeds are!

7. Orange Thorn or Wallaby Apple - Pittosporum 9. Native Holly - Alchornea spinescens, was previously ilicifolia, is a prickly-leaved called Citriobatus spinescens. This shrub that usually grows on upper 11. River Oak - Casuarina shrub to small tree often grows banks of seasonal creeks. Note cunninghamiana, is a in vine thickets. Watch out! It how thick and tough its mature characteristic tree of many has very sharp prickles and small leaves are. creeks where it towers over its leaves – like many other plants of neighbours. Its large root system the Brigalow Belt. Perhaps not for helps to hold stream banks. If general horticultural use, except there’s a breeze blowing, stop a as in barrier planting, but it does moment and listen to it whispering provide good cover for small birds. through what appears to be leaﬂ ess foliage. Have a closer look. You’ll need good eyesight to

Facts published by Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens | © 2014 Brigalow Belt see the ‘leaves’! They are reduced when they fall. In summer, masses name refers to the broad shape of to tiny teeth along the needle-like of pale pink fruits that follow tiny the mature leaﬂ ets that are thick branchlets that do the work of ﬂ owers are a feature of these and leathery.Showy sprays of leaves. trees. But watch your step – fruit small white lowers are followed live up to their name! by one-seeded fruit with an expanded long papery wing, clustered in twos or threes.

We’ve looked at just some of the species in this garden - but take a look at the others and notice 12. Northern Swamp Box - many of the same adapations to Lophostemon grandifl orus, 14. Tree Omphalea - the dry and harsh climate of the is a large tree that grows along Omphalea celata, is something Brigalow Belt. seasonal creeks and water of a curiosity. All other Omphalea, courses. It is closely related to the including two other Australian Then, compare the Brigalow Belt Swamp Mahogany or Messmate species, are large woody vines Garden to the adjacent rainforest - Lophostemon suaveolens, (lianes). Tree Omphalea is only themed gardens representing that is common in this bioregion known from three small isolated the wetter and lusher plant and can also be seen in this populations in central Queensland communities of Reliance Creek, garden. Although both species and nowhere else in the world, Koumala Range and the Pioneer look similar, mature trees can be so it also has a threatened status Peaks of the Central Queensland easily distinguished by their bark. of vulnerable. It has soft drooping Coast Bioregion that surround Northernleaves. Swamp Box has foliage, large fruit and marble- Mackay. What can you see that rough dark scaly sized seeds that germinate readily. is different about these plants leaves, form, fruits and fl owers? bark whereas Swamp Mahogany Even seedlings start off with a has softer fl aky-fi brous brown to thick carrotlike root that continues grey bark. to enlarge –probably a survival References: adaptation. Harden, McDonald and Williams (2006) Rainforest Trees and Shrubs. Melzer and Plumb (2007) Plants of Capricornia. Census of the Queensland Flora (2010)

13. Glue Berry Tree - Cordia Acknowledgments: 15. Broad-leaved Whitewood- dichotoma, is a deciduous or Irene Champion Atalaya multiﬂ ora, is a tree of semideciduous tree that is often Images by Dale Arvidsson found along creek banks. Leaf dry rainforest and vine thickets. shape varies from one tree to Juvenile and coppice leaﬂ ets are another but they all turn black long and narrow but its common