Ormeau myrtle

I have made some interesting observations over the years regarding the Brachychiton endemic to the Ormeau area, Brachychiton sp, ormeau myrtle. It is listed as critically endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act

Last weekend I was with two other plant enthusiasts walking through the bush in a remote gorge between the suburban sprawl of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Our aim was to increase the knowledge of and try to save a little known bottle tree species which occurs no where else on earth. Many of these majestic trees are in land earmarked for a Gravel Quarry so we were counting, measuring and mapping each tree with GPS. While searching for these odd pot bellied trees I noticed a shrub up to 2. The shrub grew on a rocky scree slope on the edge of the gorge under a dry rainforest canopy with emergent Ormeau Bottle Tree, the canopy included Huer Dissilaria baloghoides Yellow Tulip Drypetes deplanchei and Peanut Tree Sterculia quadrifida.

Ormeau myrtle

This incredible tree is a cousin of the more familiar Queensland Bottle-tree Brachychiton rupestris and other bottle-trees such as the Kurrajong B. It also appears not too dissimilar to the fascinating boab trees found throughout southern Africa, Madagascar and Western Australia. Indeed our native bottle-trees share the same genetic family group as the boabs; the Malvaceae family, and together they all bear varying degrees of plumpness around the waist! Without sounding too discouraging, these guys have a characteristic swollen midriff, which is a fantastic evolutionary trait developed for water storage! Both the boabs and bottle-trees generally live in arid and semi-arid environments and so, perfecting the art of water storage, certainly has its benefits in times of drought while surrounding plant species often die off due to dehydration. Zooming into the Ormeau Valley on the Gold Coast in the s, Janet Hauser, a local botanical illustrator and amateur botanist, discovers what looks like a young Bracychiton, or bottle-tree species, growing in wet sclerophyll forest near a popular route she often took with fellow nature enthusiasts. While observing the plant with fellow amateur botanist Glenn Leiper, a lightbulb suddenly came on in their heads. Could that very tree, a tree which always did seem a bit out-of-place to the group, in fact be a mature specimen of the young bottle-tree they were looking at at their feet? The group raced back to the main road, out of the forest, to the old tree they thought they knew so well, and lo and behold, upon closer inspection, it was a bottle-tree! So what species was it… exactly? Well, a gentleman by the name of Lloyd Bird collected the first specimens of the tree with the group and sent them off to the Queensland Herbarium, where experienced botanist Dr Gordon Guymer pondered over it. After testing and comparing it with other bottle-tree specimens Dr Guymer is the Queensland expert on these trees it was decided by the experts, that what had just been found, not far from the urban center of the sprawling Gold Coast, was absolutely a brand new species to science! The trees were, over the succeeding years of ventures out to the valley to find them, found to grow to over years old, up to 35m in height and over 1m in trunk diameter. They produced lovely velvety starfish-like male and female flowers and were pollinated by small insects.

Tools Tools. There may be some seedlings also, but as mentioned it is generally reluctant to set seed.

Brachychiton sp. Ormeau is a rare and endangered rainforest tree found in Queensland , Australia. A species of tree belonging to the genus Brachychiton , it reaches up to 25 metres in height. The leaves are dropped during the dry season, a time of year the species favours for reproduction, and return as pale to coppery coloured new growth. The flowering period is during September, the profuse display of green to white bell-shaped flowers appearing at the terminus of the branches;the width of each flower is around 10 mm. Fruiting pods appear from January to February, these are 3 cm long, brown, and boat-shaped.

Ormeau, a residential suburb on the Pacific Highway in the Gold Coast hinterland, is 42 km from central Brisbane and 30 km north of Southport. Its northern boundary adjoins Yatala and its southern boundary is the Pimpama River. Ormeau was named after an early sugar plantation c owned by A. The birthplace of Boyd's wife was apparently Ormeau Road, a main south-eastern thoroughfare of Belfast, Ireland, that leads to a bridge and a park of the same name. Ormeau was one of the numerous stopping places on the South Coast railway , set among farms that were transferring from sugar, maize and arrowroot to dairying. A school, opened in , was on the South Coast road just north of Pimpama Creek. Situated between Yatala which had a hotel and a store and Pimpama, Ormeau had few facilities.

Ormeau myrtle

I have made some interesting observations over the years regarding the Brachychiton endemic to the Ormeau area, Brachychiton sp. It is listed as critically endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act Fairly typical to many of the Brachychiton species, it will go through an array of morphological changes before it reaches mature foliage, which is simple; however, juvenile foliage is deeply lobed with long fingers. Flowers are greenish white and pods are brown and mm long. Pods generally contain one to five bright yellow seeds, but I have observed up to The seeds are covered in a hairy exotesta, the hairs are easily dislodged and cause some irritation.

Historias bakudeku

While observing the plant with fellow amateur botanist Glenn Leiper, a lightbulb suddenly came on in their heads. This all led to an exciting survey conducted in by Healthy Land and Water. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Both the boabs and bottle-trees generally live in arid and semi-arid environments and so, perfecting the art of water storage, certainly has its benefits in times of drought while surrounding plant species often die off due to dehydration. The seeds are covered in a hairy exotesta, the hairs are easily dislodged and cause some irritation. The major threats identified are habitat loss, fire, insect and weed infestation and the low genetic diversity of those populations that remain. For example, many Acacia species wattles that, if sown in open grassland, will quickly transform that grassland into a scrubland. A bumper year of seed production was followed by what would appear to be extremely unfavourable recruitment conditions. View Full Newsletter. On closer investigation and trials, I found this to be quite the opposite. Pods generally contain one to five bright yellow seeds, but I have observed up to Read Edit View history.

This incredible tree is a cousin of the more familiar Queensland Bottle-tree Brachychiton rupestris and other bottle-trees such as the Kurrajong B.

Crushing the leaves yielded a typical myrtle or Eucalyptus smell while B. Article Talk. Download as PDF Printable version. This work remains to be completed by the experts at the Queensland Herbarium and other local academics. Hidden categories: CS1 errors: missing periodical Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use dmy dates from July Articles with 'species' microformats Automatic taxoboxes using manual parameters. Our aim was to increase the knowledge of and try to save a little known bottle tree species which occurs no where else on earth. One, that the tree was doing better than originally thought during the s and s, with over juvenile trees now being found during the latest survey, which added to the adult trees known to exist prior. Doing well on mudstone enriched by basalt. And two, that the young trees were not recruiting in the cool, dark rainforest that the adult trees were surrounded by, but were in fact growing underneath large perch-trees such as Brush Boxes Lophostemon confertus , in much dryer, open forests. Retrieved 21 March Ormeau ". Brachychiton sp. This implies habitat and climatic limitations and intolerances for the species.