In February 2009 an arson fire swept through the western part of Foxes Lair and killed a stately centuries old Marri tree. This tree was on of several photomonitoring points I established to monitor recovery after the fire. The dead branches sagged a bit in following 15 years but the tree stayed largely intact.

Yesterday I discovered it after it had blown over during one of the strong southerly winds that we have been having this summer. What a magnificent tree, and what a loss to the birds and animals that rely on it for habitat.

One would think that a stag like this would last for decades before it rotted enough to blow over, but the upturned roots reveal a familiar story of a tree with multiple large side roots and an insignificant tap root. The soil  here is also shallow ironstone.
I have witnessed a large increase in dead and living trees toppling over in our bush in recent years.

This marri has witnessed several changes. In the early 1920's it amongst a small settlement for workers who excavated the Bottle Creek Dam, and much later a small road workers camp with a small fireplace still in place and then a part of the Banksia Walk Trail. The only surviving Banksia grandis plants adjoin it.

This summer there are many more Red-tailed black cockatoos and Carnabys cockatoos feeding in the Narrogin townsite. Whie being a lovely sight for Narrogin locals I fear that these are birds that have lost their habitats due to widespread bushfires and that their population will fall further.

Many  plants flower in our bush at a similar time, so how do plants of an individual species manage to pollinate with minimal pollen wastage.
Buzz pollination is one method used by about 5% of the Western Australian flora.
​In brief, plants with flowers that lack nectar rely on specially adapted generalist bees. The bee bends over anthers and briefly vibrates like a tuning fork (sonification) causing pollen to shoot out of terminal pores or slits and lodge in bee abdominal hairs. Pollen already on the bee from other plants shakes loose to pollinate the flower. The Blue banded bee  shown here repeatedly bangs its head on the anthers to release the pollen.
This blog gives a great description of the process.
Note. European Honeybees can't do this.

Buzz pollinated plants generally have these characteristics

• They lack nectar or aroma which attract other insects. I rarely see insects on these flowers because of this, because pollen release occurs in the early morning, and Blue Banded Bee (Amegilla cingulata - the main pollinator) is very fast.
• Flowers have bee-attracting colours, such as yellow, blue, and white, often with  contrasting patterns. They often have bright yellow anthers and blue or purple petals.
• Flowers are open and symmetrical with the stigma and stamens sticking out together.

Tomatoes (Solanum family) have the classical flower shape of anthers clumped in a cone around the style on short filaments and held above radial petals.
A local species is Solanum symonii, a fire ephemeral, which is uncommonly seen on red clay soils after fire. A similar flower form is seen in Halgania anagalloides (Boraginaceae family), Thomasia, Guichenotia,  Lasiopetalum (Malvaceae family), and Cyanostegia lanceolata (Lamiaceae family)

Tetratheca flowers also have the typical anthers although it isn't obvious because these stunningly beautiful flowers droop.

All Hibbertia species lack nectar and are buzz pollinated, but stamens and pistil stick straight out at visiting bees. Despite being amost blindingly bright yellow to humans, insects don't see differences in colour intensity , and I rarely see any insects on them.
​The uncommon Labichea lanceolata the only local buzz pollinated Fabaciae flower has clear nectar guide patterns, which I suspect are deceptive.

Chamaescilla (Blue Squill, Curly Squill), and Tricoryne species have nectar to attract bees and coat them with  pollen the 'normal' way from side opening anthers.  However they have no aroma to distinguish them​ from buzz pollinated neighbours.

Patersonia and Orthrosanthus lilies lack nectar, and aroma but are not buzz pollinated -  their anthers open inwards through slits and flowers only stay open for about half a day. I don't understand why this has evolved  as it doesn't appear to be a successful strategy: Perhaps hoverflies visit to eat their pollen As it turns out Orthrosanthus laxus is self pollinated!

​I can't understand the reason for these functional variations in similar looking flowers. Why would a bee visit a specific species? I wonder if they all rely on buzz pollinating generalist bees that take both nectar and pollen, and whether the different techniques deposit pollen on different parts of the same bee?
any ideas?

Red flowers in our wheatbelt come in a range of shapes and sizes, but they are nearly all pollinated by birds. Some red flowers also pollinated by marsupials such as the honey possum, but this fascinating article describes how the colour red looks more vivid to birds than to mammals and marsupials.
Worldwide indicators of a bird-pollinated plant are
• Bright red, white, (which most insects can’t see well) or yellow flowers.
•Tube-shaped flowers with abundant nectar at the base, and adjoining stamens and pistil projecting about 3 to 5cm out from the nectar source.
• Sturdy flowers that can support birds 
• Little or no aroma, but lots of dilute nectar

​Here are local examples of tube shaped flowers from a range of genera.

Most bird-pollinated flowers are large, but there are exceptions like these red astrolomas (now Styphelia species) that provide nectar to very small honeyeaters like the Brown Honeyeater, and the Western Spinebill. Note the hairy flower entrance, which is designed to discourage nectar-stealing insects like ants. White-flowered members are often pollinated by insects like butterflies and moths that have with long feeding tubes. 

Bird pollination is particularly important in this area because there are so many flowering species, and which are often in specific locations or soil types. For example Eucalyptus caesia mallees occurs on separate granite outcrops. Birds suit these plants because they can carry pollen further, particularly after large bushfires.

Millions of years of relative stability have allowed the evolution from bee to bird-pollinated flowers. The process has led to variations from the applying to bird pollination in other parts of the world.
Bird-pollinated flowers here can have a range of shapes, be scented, and be located close to the ground. Genera such as Eucalyptus, Banksia, Hakea, and Grevillea may be pollinated by more than one animal as well as insects. 


Grevillea and Hakea flowers have superbly adapted long and curling styles, which deliver and accept pollen (using secondary plant pollination) on specific points of a honeyeater's head or beak. Some are highly scented which suggests alternative pollinators. A good example is beetle-pollinated Grevillea eryngioides at Harrismith Nature Reserve.

Insect pollinators become more important with smaller Grevillea/Hakea flowers. Plants are often very spiny,and flowers are strongly scented. A good example is Hakea lissocarpha which has profuse groups of flowers with short straight styles and a strong almost cloying aroma. In this Foxypress I describe the variety of insects and a honeyeater I observed on a plant one July.

Bird pollination is most common in  WA in brush-shaped flowers such as bottlebrushes and Calothamnus, which coat a bird with pollen when it lands and feeds, and bowl-shaped eucalypt flowers.

Most eucalypts are pollinated by birds, but the bowl shaped base provides access to a range of pollinators.The Purple Crowned Lorikeet uses its brush-tipped tongue to gather nectar from massed bunches of eucalypt flowers. Unfortunately I infrequently see them in our bush, and hope that the introduced Rainbow Lorikeet doesn't establish here. Honeyeaters and Western Silvereye are very common.

Note. Australian plants evolved in the absence of introduced European Honeybee which have advantages that enable them to strongly compete with native insects, birds and animals.They are a communal species fostered by humans, operate continuously, and are larger than most native bees. The damn things are everywhere!
A walk through the Narrogin Arboretum reveals a range of eucalypt flower adaptations, which have evolved to favour birds. Many flowers have white or yellow stigma and stamens, but the bud caps and flower cups are often red. Several red-flowering species also have white-flowering variants..

Other adaptations are drooping flowers, crowded stamens, and ball shaped flower clusters, which favour bird access rather than insects.

Other genera have only a few bird pollinated members such as the large-flowered fire ephemeral Kennedia Prostrata, which germinates profusely after fire then dies back to a few plants after 5 years or so. Bright red blooms against black ash attract birds which can fly the distance into large burnt areas.

The small Red Leschenaultia flower doesn't look typical for bird pollination, unlike the uncommon Lechenaultia tubiflora. Most other species use insects.

Exceptions?
There are a few that may cause confusion.
Drosera menziesii Pink Rainbow can have bright red flowers, but they are mostly pink to shiny magenta colours, which are highly UV reflective colours for insects.

​Ptilotus mangesii Pom Poms, and Ptilotus declinatus Curved Mullah Mullah. There are also magenta Pom Pom versions that are very UV reflective, and they flower late in the season often against a yellow or brown background which insects see better.

This 470 hectare reserve 8km from Piesseville on the Piesseville Jaloran Road is wonderfully diverse bush on a high ridge between the Arthur and Buchanan rivers. It stands as a lone remnant of an ancient gently sloping upland lateritic upland, which is shown in green and black colours on the radiometics image. Waterways leading away from it in all directions have eroded the surrounding landscape away, often down to more fertile soils formed from the underlying granite and dolerite bedrock.

There are no trails in the reserve apart from a short dead end road and a boundary track,which is suitable for 4 wheel drive vehicles. I can drive my 2 wheel drive ute on the boundary south of the main road, and for much of the northern side but am stopped by a steep breakaway on the western side and deep white sand on the east. It is a long walk to Wagin or Narrogin if you get stuck
It is a wonderfully diverse reserve, which reflects the immense age of our lateritic landscape where different plants have adapted to changes in soil type that may not be noticeable at the surface.These adaptations are so specific that I can predict the soil type as I walk through the bush. There is no sudden flush of wildflowers. One sees a scattering of different species, which change from place to place and month to month from July to November.  A  moderately fit person can experience these changes by walking along the boundary track.
To fully appreciate the landscape I walked through the reserve about every 3 weeks using Google Maps as a guide.
The underlying geology is  reflected in landscapes and native vegetation in the reserve. There are several mafic stony/loamy laterite areas, which have eroded into steep breakaways and valleys covered in Brown, Blue, and Silver Mallet, dense mallee thickets, and Red Morrel trees. These starky beautiful areas with almost no understorey plants are particularly common on the west side of the reserve and the northern side of the road.
The following image shows them dominating the ridge which runs in an arc on the north side of the Jaloran Piesseville Road. They correspond with brown shaded bush areas.

A small stony mesa in the southeast corner has a grove of  Labichea lanceolata, which I have only seen before in Tutanning Nature Reserve and interesting lichen covered niches amongst the ironstone.

The northeastern edge is a good spot to see vegetation changes where a breakaway has cut into the lateritic upland. You can drive around the edge with a robust vehicle. The following landscape image shows a typical bowl-shaped lateritic breakaway, which has cut back into a sandy and stony gravel upland. 

Picture1 on the landscape image shows the edge of a breakaway, which has formed from erosion of a sandy gravel plain to the right of the image to form a kwongan gravel slope that changes in plant species as the soil becomes sandier downslope. In the background one can see a mallet thicket where the breakaway has entered a mafic ironstone/ loamy gravel area.

Pictures 2 and 3 show vegetation on the gravelly upland area.

The slope on the top most edge of the breakaway has a grove of mallees on sand over clay soil.

The breakaway bowl valley has cut into the mafic bedrock to form red brown loams and loamy gravels that support Brown, Blue and Silver Mallet, Red Morrel, mallee woodland with little shub cover apart from patches of Melaleuca broombush.

The breakaway bowl ends mid slope and a narrow Wandoo covered waterway passes in a narrow channel down a gravelly slope, and then widens to an attractive mixed vegetation spot adjoining the road. 

This area is a good Spring wildflower spot.

The western side of the reserve consists of a north-south lateritic ridge, which has been eroded on its western edge by Newman Brook to expose the underlying bedrock. A track from the road leading north on the western edge  is a bit rough but is accessable for most vehicles up to the edge of a steep breakaway. A side track near the entrance leads to a parking spot in pleasant woodland. After  passing this turnoff the track passes through sandy, loamy and rocky soils formed from granites and dolerite with attractive orchids and other spring wildflowers - particularly where the track enters Jam-Rock Sheoak bush and turns left.
​ (Pic X)

I drive to one of my favourite spots by continuing uphill and parking in the corner where the track turns left again. A walk east into the reserve reveals an ancient lateritic landscape, which is shown on the following oblique image.This is a wonderful remnant of a subdued landscape of a North-South  gravelly ridge merging into a sandy gravel and sand side slope, an ancient shallow waterway to the west, then another ironstone ridge.  Distinct vegetation types, which can be seen on the map resemble a  native garden as one walks through the bush.

The steep breakaway is part of a stony gravel rise with open Wandoo, Brown Mallet, Silver Mallet, mallee woodland, which is beautiful to walk through on a misty July morning.

After weaving through the prickly scrub, you come to a faint hollow of an old waterway bounded to the east by a gentle prickly gravel slope at the base of a stony gravel ridge. The waterway meanders downhill before merging into Wandoo-Rock Sheoak sandy patch, which has Cowslip and Green Spider orchids in September

To the east the sandy woodland opens up into a gentle kwongan sandplain slope containing a range of shrub and herb species and the occasional Rock Sheoak, Nuytsia florabunda and Banksia attenuata trees. To the south the sandplain ends abruptly at a breakaway down to woodland below.

Going upslope to the north a circular Eucalyptus adesmophloia patch stands out from the sandplain vegetation which changes to prickly Dryandra kwongan gravel.

A north-south ridge upslope to the east from the mallee thicket is the oldest land surface of gravel with circular patches of Silver Mallet.

I was stunned to find a large mallet, which had toppled over recently to reveal a root system that grew almost entirely in 40cm of soil over a dense ironstone pavement. See more information on this amazing plant in this Foxypress.

The reserve on the south side of the Piesseville Jaloran Road consists of a patchwork of lower slope, and sudued upland lateritic soils. Much of it is easy to walk through and attractive woodland or kwongan, which is good birdwatching and mixed wildflower country. The reserve has not been burnt for many decades, and has retained rare sights like coral lichen growing below local sedges on sandplain. 

Summary

• A wonderfully diverse reserve in good condition with a mix of landscapes and vegetation.
  
• Good birdwatching.
  
• Difficult to access, no trails, no facilities. 

This 288 hectare DBCA reserve adjoins the railway line 21km east of Narrogin.The reserve is generally in excellent condition but has sensitive areas that could be destroyed by uncontrolled public access. Luckily this is unlikely because there is no road access without driving next to a railway line, and internal  tracks are only suitable for 4WD vehicles.

The reserve is a north-south ridge with a central east-southeast trending high point ridge and adjoining mafic dyke, which extends east to kwongan bush on the north side of Yilliminning Rock. The whole reserve is underlain by igneous bedrock with roughly east-west mostly granite bands with varying silica levels that have formed mostly sandy and loamy soils. Remnants of an ancient lateritic layer on central and southern uplands contain an interesting kwongan and woodland mosaic of sandy, gravelly, and ironstone soils.

Boundain is a wonderfully diverse reserve with a range of vegetation types that changes abruptly as one moves from one soil type to another.Because it is so changeable there is few mass flower displays, but there is a large number of flowering plants that vary as one walks through and change throughout the flowering season.
​It is great bushwalking country but has no trails apart from a rough central road, and perimeter track. I visited the reserve several times from July to November and was delighted each time. Landscape types are described below.

Zone 1 consists of granite outcrops and associated soils, which vary in sand content.  Overall there is little wildflower diversity, but I saw Cowslip,  Greenhood, Green Spider, Sugar, Donkey, and Little Pink Candy orchids.

​The northern edge of section1a is a low sandy ridge consisting of overgrown Rock Sheoaks with little understorey and open Wandoo woodland. 

​This merges into a mallee rise then a band of granite outcrops.
This then merges into a lower east-west line of reddish loamy soil, which also forms a steep breakaway marking a change to a lateritic upland pleateau (Zone 2)

Section1b is a large bare granite outcrop, which extends up the hill. This is an extraordinarily attractive and diverse spot., which has a range of ephemeral wildflowers, lichens and orchids, and interesting rock patterns.
The lichens and wetland plants are very delicate.
​Please be very careful when walking here and keep away when plants and lichens have dried up. 

Section1C is an east west line of high granite outcrops, which is bounded by the central access track on the north and lateritic soils of zone 3 on the south sides. Vegetation mostly consists of Rock Sheoak woodland.  Keep an eye out for signs with words of wisdom from the mysterious Boundain Philosopher.

A small stony laterite mesa bounded by a waterway with a narrow band of attractive Wandoo woodland crosses the track about half way up the slope of the track. By parking here and walking south one can see the dramatic change from granite country to species-rich lateritic kwongan of Zone 3 (No trail).

Zone 2 is an ancient lateritic mesa covered with prickly kwongan vegetation interspersed  with isolated mallees. The northern edge plunges down steep mafic breakaway containing Brown Mallet, Red Morrel and Wandoos. The western side is a Melaleuca Tea-tree and Wandoo woodland slope that merges into the granite outcrop below. This area has many wildflower species that range in flowering time from June to November..

​On the southern side is a less distinct breakaway covered with kwongan scrub that ends in a sandy Rock Sheoak hollow. Good spot for Green Spider Orchids in September.

Zone 3 is a wonderful example of a variable  lateritic landscape, that covered all of the uplands in this area for millions of years, before it was eroded away as a result of geological uplift. The oldest spots are silver mallet mafic stony plateau remnants, separated by gentle upland kwongan gravel hollows.A change of slope on the west was an ancient low breakaway that separates this upland from a sandy kwongan- mallee - wandoo slope. Another steep Brown Mallet breakaway on the southern side leads to a a varied lansdcape with some granite, a mafic loam valley, and a sandy rise. Very scenic country with many eucalypt species.

Section 3a at the top of the slope consists of Silver Mallet ironstone islands with a few areas of mallee and Red Morrel, which are separated by Dryandra prickly kwongan. Very scenic but not many wildflowers 

Section 3b is the southern edge of section 3a. If you walk in from the southern boundary you will pass through a patchwork of shallow granite woodland, a Brown Mallet breakaway with a Red Morrel valley, mallee woodland, tea tree thicket, prickly kwongan and sandy kwongan upland. 

Section 3c is a lateritic sandy gravel slope below the upland. Vegetation ranges from a species-rich sandy kwongan scrub merging downslope into wandoo woodland then the granitic Rock Sheoak sandy soils with poison plants and spring everlastings.
​
There is a marked change of vegetation on the northern side  where section 3c kwongan meets section 2b granitic rock sheoak woodland.