Newsletter 1

Welcome to our very new webpage. It is so exciting to finally see this part of our travels in print, electronically speaking.

I have always had an interest in our native plants and as we travelled I collected quite a portfolio of photos of the flowers and plants that we saw. Being quite mad, I also started photographing some interesting grasses, trees, fungi, lichens and more. I found this wasn’t sufficient. I decided I needed to know what they were called and more about them. So I started researching to try to identify my finds.

So went many happy and also frustrating hours, on line and in books, looking for a name or a clue as to what they were. In some instances I resorted to pestering anyone I thought might be able to help. To these people I say a big thank you as in the main they were extremely courteous and helpful.

The Nomads Botanist is the result of my efforts.

During our travels I have met and spoken with like-minded people and thought my efforts may assist others. So we have attempted to provide a site where you can look and search through the specimens that we have found and photographed, to hopefully provide a name and identification of your own plants.

This has entailed naming, editing and sorting through many thousands of photographs and attempting to arrange them in a way that will assist you with a name at the least, allowing you to investigate further if required. The photos are what we have taken. Some are not great but they allow you to see the flower and maybe match it to your sighting. Hopefully the photography has improved a bit along the way

We are aware that we may not get everything right the first time and the website will be constantly updated and reviewed as time goes by, including the uploading of further snaps as we continue our travels.

We hope it is of assistance to you and look forward to maybe meeting you in the back of beyond
as we all check out this amazing country we call home.

State Folders:

The photos depicted on each State folder on the website home page, represent a range of vegetation types found throughout Australia, and in particular, but not exclusive to, that State. I have included some descriptors of these types of vegetation below.

New South Wales, Mount MacKenzie

Tall open forest. Usually dominated by evergreen eucalyptus trees. You may also find different varieties of Casuarina. I find these trees very interesting, particularly the ‘socks’ they have at the end of their leaves. Some of the flowers you may find in this area include orchids; caladenia, calochillus and thelymitra to name a few, interesting grasses, grevilleas and many, many more.

Northern Territory, Chambers Pillar

Hummock (spinifex) grasslands. Tussocks can be up to one metre in diameter, growing outward and leaving the centre dead, forming a ring. The interspaces between the hummocks are virtually bare, though small, seldom seen plants and flowers may appear after rain but just as quickly disappear.

We have also discovered that some of the grasses found here are very interesting in their own right, with many varied and interesting seeding displays e.g. Triraphis mollis and Eriachne aristidea. One of my favourite plants, Polycalymma stuartii (poached egg daisy), is an everlasting daisy and they provide quite a show. In these areas there are a number of varieties of Ptilotus or mulla mulla and members of the Chenopod family which includes Maireana (bluebush) and the very interesting Sclerolaena (prickle bushes). Unsurprisingly, the main grass species is Triodia (spinifex).

Queensland, Keating’s Lagoon, Cooktown

Swamp tea-tree Forest. These areas usually comprises low open to closed forest, closed scrub or thickets dominated by Melaleuca (tea-tree) with or without an emergent tree layer of scattered eucalypts. Generally it is a damp to wet habitat with a dense canopy so that little light penetrates to the lower strata. They occur in the coastal and near- coastal areas of monsoonal northern Australia.

There are a number of melaleuca varieties that thrive in these areas, each with their own interesting blooms. It was here that we found the very attractive Asteromyrtus anguvstifolia which is endemic to North-East Queensland. And a range of sedges in the cyperaceae family.

South Australia, Gluepot Reserve

Mallee Woodland. This vegetation occurs in the winter rainfall belts of semi-arid areas in southern Australia. Mallee eucalypts are multi-branched from ground level, usually with a flattened canopy rarely exceeding 6m in height. They grow from a woody underground rootstock called a lignotuber and are generally found on harsh sites.

The flowering plant life found here is varied and complex, with small quick flowering plants taking advantage of rain to longer lasting flowering saltbush and other shrub and brush varieties. We have spent many a happy and interesting hour, wandering through these areas, seeing what there is to discover. Lots of chenopods – Dissocarpus paradoxus (cannonball) and Maireana, (blue bush); acacia and the unusual Pimelea trichostachya (spiked riceflower). It was while looking down at these great plants, that I found myself lost in the mallee woodland.

Tasmania, Blue Tier

Lichen carpet. The magical subalpine landscape of the Blue Tiers are a veritable haven for lichens. The understorey of the subalpine heath is teeming in mats of Coral lichen (Cladia retipora) and Reindeer lichen (Cladina confusa), in some parts looking like snow patches. Other varieties found in this higher, cold altitude include mosses e.g. Austrolycopodium fastigiatum (club moss) and Polytrichum juniperinum (juniper haircap), Cladonia (pixie cups), and the unusual Heterotextus peziziformis (jelly bells) fungi.

Victoria, Murray Sunset National Park

Low scrubland, samphire flats and chenopod shrublands are widespread in southern arid and semi-arid rangelands on extensive clay plains, undulating gibber hills and hypersaline flats including salt lakes and the coastal fringe. The heavy subsoil texture, sometimes in combination with high soil salinity, largely prevent the development of tree dominant vegetation. Apart from the samphire varieties we found here there were also other hardy species such as Teloschistes chrysophthalmus (golden eye lichen), Dodonaea viscosa ssp. angustifolia, and the very pretty frankenia.

Western Australia, Morawa

Wildflower country. Eucalypt woodlands account for a substantial proportion of the native vegetation of the Western Australian wheatbelt, and is often termed the wheatbelt woodland, due to human impacts such as clearing for cropping. Here you will find large areas of many and varied wildflowers, creating stunning vistas. Each bend in the road can lead to further wonders (as can be seen in the photo). Also through these areas you may be lucky enough to spot some of Australia’s many native orchids such as Diuris (donkey orchids) and Pterostylis pyramidalis (snail orchid), or the renowned Leschenaultia Macrantha (wreath plants). There is also a great variety of Verticordia (feather flowers), and Petrophiles.

Plant Spotlight

Leschenaultia divaricata, commonly called Wire-bush or Tangled Leschenaultia, is the plant we have chosen for our logo. The bush is a messy tangled shrub that grows to approximately 60 cm high, and is endemic to the arid and semi-arid areas of central Australia. It belongs to the family Goodeniaceae. Divaricata is a Greek word meaning ‘branched’, that refers to the growth habit of the plant. We found this plant while camped on the banks of the very dry Strzelecki Creek while traversing the Strzelecki Track. Like most plants in this area it is at its best in the early hours of the morning, before the sun gets too high. We were especially happy with this discovery as it is a rarely seen flower, due to its location in a small, dry and isolated area of Central Australia.