​Tutanning Nature Reserve is a 2381 area of remnant vegetation on a broad ridge 25km east of Pingelly. This relatively infrequently visited reserve offers a remarkable and diverse display of flora and fauna for visitors, and short stay camp style accommodation or camping for limited numbers at the Percy Marshall Study Centre.

It is a great place to

• Enjoy the  peacefulness and solitude of a secluded area with basic facilities.
• See a wide range of plants, animals and birds.
• Walk the Tutanning walk trail and internal roads
• Go spotlighting for animals on foot or by 4WD vehicle.
• Drive or ride your mountain bike on internal roads. 4WD vehicles with good clearance are strongly recommended when driving in the reserve. Internal roads are narrow and often rough, with some very sandy and rocky sections.

Cars and wagons can drive in but the entry may be too narrow for large caravans and large RV campervans.
​As this is a class A nature reserve, pets are not permitted.
See this website for more information on accommodation and activities at Tutanning

The reserve is elongated with a very uneven boundary because it is the rocky remnant of a divide between  the Avon and Hotham River catchments called the Dutarning Range. Farmers have cleared most surrounding arable land leaving an undulating rocky and gravelly upland. A relatively recent addition is the Annexe, which was purchased and connected to the main block by a narrow corridor. Apart from an impressive grove of Red Morrell trees, the landscape is similar to the main block. There are some winter wet areas so use a 4WD if going there.
This blog describes the southern part of the main block, which is easily accessable from the house and is fairly representative of the reserve.

Granite basement rock varying in quartz (sand) content, has been intruded by lines (dykes) of dolerite and then cracked by continental movement to create (mainly) southwest-​northeast and northwest-southeast patterns. You can see this from river flow directions. About 100 million years ago a lateritic gravel surface formed. In succeeding dry and wet weather cycles the laterite eroded and reformed many times to create an upland with ironstone and gravel ridges and breakaways, kwongan gravelly sand upland bowls and mixed soils on slopes and valleys.
Soil and landscape variability underpins the amazing 750 species of native plants, and the many birds and animals in the reserve. Diversity is greatest in the upland kwongan heathlands, which have mixed shrub communities.
Vegetation is a good indicator of soil type, although Rock Sheoak trees (Allocasuarina heugelii) are gradually invading other plant communities

Click this link for a  Google Photos album

The map below shows internal roads and the walk trail. The roads are fire access tracks, which are annually maintained, and many no longer have signposts. My 2-wheel drive ute can negotiate most of them, but some sections marked in red are only suitable for 4WDs. Many are narrow, rutted and stony and it is difficult to turn around if a problem is encountered. If you are unsure, it is a good idea to walk or ride your bike ahead to avoid getting stuck. I get good WIFI reception with my Telstra phone , but the nearest reliable assistance is in Pingelly.

Tutanning is excellent hiking country, and internal roads make good (occasionally bumpy and sandy) mountain bike trails for the moderately fit. The map below shows three interesting circuits. 

A 3km Class 3 walk trail (yellow), which crosses Bandicoot Road takes up to 2 hours to complete. You may encounter minor natural hazards such as short, steep sections, steps, shallow water crossings and unstable or slippery surfaces. A good level of fitness is recommended.
As the southern section, which is mainly lateritic breakaway and gravel country  is more difficult and has less wildflowers, many prefer to only walk the northern section and return via Bandicoot Road (2.2km).

​A longer but easier (green 3.5km level 2) walk along Bandicoot, Possum and Echidna Roads.features many shrub wildflowers on wite and yellow sand and gravel kwongan shrubland.

The south-eastern corner of the reserve is interesting country, which features relict jarrah trees, impressive breakaways,  granite outcrops and attractive views of neighbouring farmland. A 6km level 2 circuit via Jarrah Road and the southern boundary (blue) is a good walk to see this country. The length of the walk can be reduced by cutting south down Numbat Road or a poorly marked track at the jarrahs. Bandicoot Road up to Jarrah Road is car friendly, but do not drive down Jarrah Road.

​Greetings fellow foxies,

Every year, tourists flock north to see mass everlasting displays in the Northern Wheatbelt and pastoral areas.
Narrogin district has many of these wildflowers, which belong to the Asteraceae (daisy) family, also known as Compositae.  Patches of colourful spring everlastings occur in most years, particularly in wandoo-sheoak woodland, and in wet areas.

​​Asteraceae includes spring flowering annuals, which flower in groups and perennials which often occur as scattered plants.
Flowers in this family share the following characteristics:
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Deceptive flowers occur as a group on a single stem, which looks like a single large flower.
​Think of a sunflower head, which comprises a cup-shaped calyx of scale-like leaves (bracts) enclosing numerous tiny flowers. Flower petals are fused into a tube (corolla) with tiny triangular ends. These are called disk flowers. Often the outer row of flowers has a single large petal-like lobe, which extends out so the flowering head resembles a single flower. These are called rim flowers.
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Each tiny flower has numerous hairs surrounding the corolla. which enable the dry seeds to blow away easily. 

I have created three categories to illustrate the variation in design of the flowering head.
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1. Rim flower species in the Narrogin district. There are also several weed species, which are not shown.

The following two groups lack rim flowers in the flowering head.
2. Disk flowers only forming a button-shaped head. 

Stamens are not visible in Antheraceae flowers, because they use secondary pollen presentation.
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​Stamens remain in the base of each flower with the pollen bearing anthers facing the style in the centre. As the plant develops, the style pushes up and collects pollen, which sticks on hairs below the end (stigma). Pollen remains viable on the style for up to a week, after which it dies. Stigma lobes at the end of the style then open out to expose the active female surface to be fertilised by pollen from other flowers

Individual flowers produce a drop of nectar at their base. They don't all mature at once, but start on the outside and mature inwards often in a spiral fashion. This induces insects to repeatedly visit the flowering head and visit each flower as it changes from pollen presentation to the pollen receiving phase.

• ​Most acacia flowers lack nectar and rely on scent and a dazzling yellow colour to attract pollinators. I think that most pollination is done by pollen-collecting bees. Birds, flies (particularly hover flies), and pollen-eating wasps may also be involved. The taxonomy literature is so confusing, I couldn't work out which subgenus a species belongs to, or their pollinators.
• Most acacias secrete nectar from special glands on stems and phyllodes (flattened leaf-like stems) to attract ants, which keep parasites away.
• Despite producing thousands of flowers, relatively few produce their pea-like pods. I suspect this may be because the seed is very long lasting and requires fire to germinate. Some seeds have a fleshy part (aril) to attract ants, which take the seed down their burrows away from predators.
• Noongars collected acacia seeds as bush tucker. A wacky friend of mine was going to make a fortune selling acacia flour noodles - until weevils crawled out of the seeds :) .

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Further reading
A Simple Botany of Wattles
Pollination Ecology of Acacias

Greetings fellow foxies,
About 33 years ago I planted a Eucalyptus caesia subspecies caesia (gungurru) mallee in my front yard, which has grown into a magnificent specimen that produces cascades of beautiful pink flowers. It is great bird attractant, particularly New Holland honeyeaters and western wattle birds, which claim ownership at various times of the year. Lately most flowers (and my wife's roses and geraniums) are lopped by ### twenty eight parrots. Very occasionally red-tailed black and Carnabys cockatoos chew the nuts, but not red capped parrots. Plenty of honeybees.
Eucalyptus caesia is a rare bird-pollinated species that is endemic to 25 granite outcrops in the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia, but is widely grown in native gardens. Every surviving flower on my caesia develops into a nut even though the nearest other caesia is over 200 metres down the road, and I see the same with single eucalypt species in Foxes Lair. Evidently most eucalypts can self pollinate!

This study of E. caesia pollination at Boyagin Rock revealed some amazing information.

• The large flowers are mainly pollinated by birds, which regularly  transmit pollen up to 120 metres.
• On average there were three genetic groups at each mallee patch, which minimised damaging inbreeding. Insect-pollinated plants would have less diversity
• Clumps often had a group of clone plants which developed into individual plants as the lignotuber (mallee root) expanded then rotted between suckers. The largest  clonal patch comprised 55 stems over an area 8.8 m wide and 11.5 m long. This patch may be thousands of years old and among the oldest known eucalypts. I was impressed by the 80cm diameter root on my 33 year old plant before reading the paper.
• At natural Caesia locations, there hasn't been a surviving seedling for over 50 years. Fire is required to remove competition.
• The paper provides an opportunity to revise your knowledge of statistics and  words like cleistogamy and kurtosis.

I collected flowers at varying stages of development for examination. Pollen develops early in the flower's development, and is actively collected by honeybees as soon as the bud cap is shed, and inward-facing stamens still formed a tube down to the flower base. Soon afterwards bees crawled down into the base where nectar was being produced. Honeyeaters also started feeding as the stamens folded out and fully opened.

​ Bees vigourously wiggled their way across stamens, stuffing pollen into their leg-sacs.The anthers seemed to be sticky and didn't spontaneously shed pollen like most other flowers.

I noticed bees still licking nectar from the flower base in mature flowers while anthers were declining. This indicated that the later maturing stigma on the end of the style was still receptive to pollen. It is a logical way to prevent the flower pollinating itself.
Signs of stigma maturity were subtle, but images show it changes from being hidden in the bud cap,then a fold at the tip (non-receptive), to a moist receptive bulge.

​Honeybees are larger than most native bees, but it was evident that they rarely contacted the stigma due to large flower size. They just stole pollen and nectar while birds, small animals, (large flower wasps?) did the pollination.
Apart from stink bugs, which routinely remove growing points from most seedlings I try to rear in Foxes Lair, few insects bother my street tree. This little fellow is tolerated.