Peggy Fiedler, Director of the Natural Reserve System, has long time friends in Perth. She sent an email of introduction to Kingsley Dixon, who is the Director of the Science Division of Kings Park. He and Ben Miller, who works for Kingsley, invited me to accompany them to a Banksia woodland site about an hour north of Perth near the small town of Gin Gin where they needed to conduct some surveys.
Kingsley and Ben picked me up at the Mounts Bay Waters and we drove out to a wonderfully diverse woodland site with eucalyptus and banksia and wide variety of otherworldly plant species from Gondwanaland and beyond.
 |
| Christmas Tree (from http://www.willgoto.com/1/145032/liens.aspx) |
My favorite is the Christmas tree. This species is a mistletoe that has re-evolved the ability to make a trunk, but like other mistletoe, it's a parasite. Its roots grows out towards the roots of other species. When it reaches them, it surrounds the roots (up to a pencil in diameter) and within 3 hours cuts through the root and grafts onto it, collecting the water and nutrients. So each of these trees is actually connected to all of the plants nearby. Needless to say, it stays greener longer than the rest.
 |
| termite mound |
I really had a wonderful trip. Practically a personal tour of a beautiful woodland. We saw 2 kangaroos and 2 emus, my first in western Australia!
 |
| Kingsley and Ben at the end of the day |
Ben Kingsley! 3 hours?! Horrifying!
ReplyDelete