A Survey of the Flora of Remnant Vegetation Within the Marchagee Catchment - Second Report
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1 A SURVEY OF THE FLORA OF REMNANT VEGETATION WITHIN THE MARCHAGEE CATCHMENT - SECOND REPORT Stephen Davies, Phil Ladd and Danika Loomes for the Marchagee Catchment Group of the Coorow Land Conservation District in conjunction with the National Heritage Trust April 2001 2 CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Methods 5 Results 5 Discussion 32 Acknowledgements 34 Appendix 1 - List of plants collected in the Marchagee Catchment 35 References 44 3 INTRODUCTION In early 1997 the Marchagee Catchment was selected to be a focus catchment as designated by Agriculture WA under the State Salinity Action Plan. The Marchagee Focus Catchment is just less than 100,000 hectares and contains 32 land holdings. Since 1997 the catchment group has been undergoing an intensive farm and catchment planning process. In conjunction with landowners a "focus catchment support team" has brought together information and recommendations on hydrology, remnant vegetation and revegetation, nature conservation, drainage, agronomy and soil types. On the basis of this information the Bushcare Project Officer, Glenn Yeatman, selected 11 plots of remnant bushland on private farms to be included in the 2000 flora survey. The present report is based on visits to these 11 remnants that lie on 10 of the 32 farms in the catchment. The surveys are intended to provide information about the biodiversity of the various remnants with the aim of establishing the priority for preservation, by fencing, of the remnants and to determine the value of linking some of them by the planting of corridors of vegetation. At most sites the local landholder(s) joined the survey and provided invaluable background information about the history of the remnants. The 2000 survey complements that undertaken in 1999, when 20 remnants were covered. Two of the remnants surveyed in 2000 had also been examined in 1999. The vegetation of this part of the northern wheatbelt is known to be very diverse. The Marchagee Nature Reserve, lying partly within and partly without the north west of the catchment, was surveyed between 1975 and 1977 (Dell et al. 1979). The area was covered by Beard in his vegetation mapping project (Beard 1976, 1979), and part of the north of the catchment was covered in a report on Koobabbie Farm in 1990 (Davies 1990). Other less formal surveys have been conducted and the results of these have been consulted where possible. The Marchagee Catchment is near the western edge of the Yilgarn Block, at an altitude of between 250 and 300 m above sea level. The streams in the catchment drain into an extensive system of salt creeks, lakes and pans, that flow through the catchment as a horseshoe-shaped ephemeral watercourse. This rises in the east of the catchment, flows south, turns west and then north, to leave the catchment in the north west. Many of the remnants are on the upper slopes and rocky watersheds of the landscape, but special efforts were made in 2000 to cover run-on sites. The salt creek system provides an existing, continuous corridor of remnant vegetation that will be of great value in the rehabilitation programme. The climate is Mediterranean; of cool wet winters and hot, dry summers. Rainfall is about 400 mm per year, of which about two thirds falls from May to August. Only three months, June, July and August, have a mean relative humidity above 50%, with an annual mean of about 35%. Evaporation at Carnamah (35 km north west) is 2125 mm per year. Mean maximum temperature for the hottest month at Carnamah is 35.8oC and mean minimum temperature for the coolest month is 18.0oC. Extreme temperatures are 45.7oC and 0oC. Frosts are rare, occurring on average three days a year. Prevailing winds are from the south east in 4 summer and the north west in winter, and are light, except when the area receives the impact of a cyclonic disturbance. Marchagee Catchment lies within the Irwin district of the South Western Botanical Province of Gardner and Bennetts (1956). Figure 1 shows the classification of vegetation of Beard (1976, 1979) and the location of the remnants surveyed in 1999 and 2000. The abbreviations on the map are: anSc Acacia thicket of shrubs >1 m tall with Allocasuarina c3Sc Shrubland with scattered trees (Allocasuarina campestris thicket on stoney and lateritic ground) c3Sc/xZi Thicket with patches of heath on sandplain (Allocasuarina campestris thicket on stoney and lateritic ground with shrubs >1 m tall, an incomplete canopy, projective foliage cover 10-30% and, on sandplain, mixed vegetation of dwarf shrubs <1 m tall with Allocasuarina) 6 e 8Mi Sclerophyll woodland (Eucalyptus loxophleba/E. salmonophloia of 10-25 m with an incomplete canopy, projective foliage cover 10-30%) e6Mi Sclerophyll woodland (Eucalyptus loxophleba of 10-25 m with an incomplete canopy, projective foliage cover 10-30%) e8Mi Sclerophyll woodland (Eucalyptus salmonophloia of 10-25 m with an incomplete canopy, projective foliage cover 10-30%) m5Sc.k3Ci Salt Country - Teatree thickets and samphire (Melaleuca thyoides as shrubs >1 m tall, with Casuarina, succulents and halophytes; canopy incomplete 10-30% projective foliage cover) x7SZc Scrub heath - Actinostrobus - Banksia alliance on sandhills (shrubs >1 m tall and dwarf shrubs <1 m tall with Allocasuarina) x8SZc Scrub heath - Banksia - Xylomelon alliance on sandplain (mixed vegetation of shrubs >1 m tall and dwarf shrubs <1 m tall with Allocasuarina) 5 Figure 1. Vegetation map of the Marchagee Catchment showing the sites at which the flora was sampled during the surveys 6 METHODS Three visits were made to the Marchagee Catchment to conduct the flora survey. These took place on June 19-21, July 29-31 and November 13-15, 2000. Rainfall had been light in the 2000 winter and few daisies (Asteraceae) and herbs were present, compared with the wet year 1999. At each site two or more people walked through the remnant for several hours, usually either a whole morning or a whole afternoon, identifying and recording the plant taxa. Where identification was not possible in the field, specimens were collected under CALM Licences No. SW005713 and SW006455 and taken to Perth for subsequent identification in the WA Herbarium. Introduced plants were not systematically recorded but are marked with an asterisk (*) in the lists. RESULTS The lists of plant taxa identified in individual sites are given below. A composite list of the 406 plant taxa found in the sample sites on the whole catchment is given in Appendix 1. Of these 15, have been given a Priority listing by CALM and three are declared rare flora. The present section gives a brief description of each site, numbered 3, 5, and 21-29, and a composite list of the plant taxa found at that site. Where new taxa were identified in 2000 a cross (+) has been placed in front of the plant name in the composite list in Appendix 1. Introduced plants were not systematically recorded but are marked with an asterisk (*). 7 Site 3 Graeme Maley - "Garden Remnant" A low granite hill, with dense heath vegetation. Fenced for many years because poison is present. 75 native plant taxa. CUPRESSACEAE Actinostrobus arenarius CASUARINACEAE Allocasuarina acutivalvis Allocasuarina campestris Allocasuarina drummondiana LAURACEAE Cassytha glabella form dispar AMARANTHACEAE Ptilotus polystachyus DILLENIACEAE Hibbertia pungens Hibbertia rostellata DROSERACEAE Drosera erythrorhiza Drosera macrantha MIMOSACEAE Acacia acuminata Acacia blakelyi Acacia dilatata Acacia lirellata P3 FABACEAE Daviesia dielsii DRF Daviesia hakeiodes subsp. subnuda Gastrolobium adpressum DRF Gastrolobium calycinum Jacksonia foliosa Jacksonia pungens DRF Mirbelia trichocalyx PROTEACEAE Banksia sphaerocarpa var. sphaerocarpa Conospermum stoechadis Dryandra fraseri Grevillea biternata Grevillea paniculata Grevillea paradoxa Grevillea thyrsoides P3 8 Hakea circumalata Hakea incrassata Hakea preissii Hakea scoparia Isopogon divergens Isopogon scabriusculus var. stenophyllus Petrophile shuttleworthiana Synaphea spinulosa Xylomelum angustifolium MYRTACEAE Baeckea crispiflora Baeckea grandis Calothamnus gilesii Calothamnus quadrifidus Calytrix leschenaultii Calytrix steigosa Eucalyptus pyriformis Melaleuca cordata Thryptomene racemulosa Verticordia endlicheriana SANTALACEAE Santalum acuminatum RHAMNACEAE Cryptandra myriantha Cryptandra pungens Cryptandra spyridioides POLYGALACEAE Comesperma scoparium Comesperma stocechatis Comesperma volubile RUTACEAE Boronia coerulescens ssp. coerulescens APIACEAE Platysace effusa GOODENIACEAE Dampiera lavandulacea Lechenaultia linaroides Scaevola canescens RUBIACEAE Opercularia vaginata ASTERACEAE Senecio glossanthus 9 PHORMIACEAE Dianella divaricata Stypandra glauca ANTHERICACEAE Borya sphaerocephala Laxmannia paleacea ORCHIDACEAE Diuris ? porrifolia HAEMODORACEAE Conostylis androstemma CYPERACEAE Gahnia trifida Lepidosperma costale Mesomelaena pseudostygia RESTIONACEAE Ecdeiocolea monostachya POACEAE Aristida contorta Austrostipa elegantissima Austrostipa semibarbata Triodia plectrachnoides 10 Site 5 Jack and Kathy Stone - "Block West of House Remnant" Red gravel slope with granite outcrops, covered with dense heath and mallee. Previously grazed but never cleared. 58 native plant taxa. ADIANTACEAE Cheilanthes austrotenuifolia CASUARINACEAE Allocasuarina acutivalvis Allocasuarina campestris DILLENIACEAE Hibbertia ? commutata Hibbertia inconspicua Hibbertia lividula Hibbertia rostellata DROSERACEAE Drosera macrantha EPACRIDACEAE Astroloma serratifolium MIMOSACEAE Acacia acuminata Acacia andrewsii Acacia assimilis Acacia daviesoides Acacia