Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About
    • About Foxes Lair
    • History
    • Landscape and Soils
  • Things To Do
    • Scavenger hunt
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walking Tracks
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Geocaching and Orienteering
    • Ride Your Bicycle
  • Things To See
    • Birds
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • Vertebrates
    • Fungi and lichens
  • Foxes Lair seasonal guide
    • December to March
    • April - May
    • June-July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
  • Other great reserves
    • Railway Dam
    • Yilliminning Rock
    • Old Mill Dam
    • Yornaning Dam
    • Contine Hill
    • Highbury Reserve
    • Boyagin Rock
    • Barna Mia
    • Toolibin Lake
    • Newman Block
    • Harrismith Nature Reserve
    • Candy Block
  • 1Foxypress
    • Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
  • Contact

North Yilliminning Reserve

25/10/2021

0 Comments

 
North Yilliminning reserve is 22 kilometres from Narrogin on the Narrogin-Kulin Road. The road roughly follows the ancient Binneringie dyke, which has been the catchment divide between the Hotham and Blackwood rivers for  hundreds of millions of years.
​Coming from Narrogin prepare to turn off into a rest bay under trees on the right, soon after passing Taylor Road. Armstrong road marks the eastern side of the reserve.
Picture
The Binneringie dyke is the catchment divide between the Hotham and Blackwood river catchments
I didn't explore this reserve for years because initial forays showed a landscape that hadn't been burnt for decades. I saw areas littered by dead sheoaks, and bare areas because fire dependant plants had died out.
This changed in 2021 when I discovered the wide range of Cowslip /Little Pink Fairy orchids, which have multiple forms and colours. There was a devastating bushfire in 2022, and it is well worth visiting the reserve to see the amazing wildflower regeneration.
​This blog shows the large number and range of hybrids at this reserve.
PictureArrow shows track to hybrid location from picnic area
 The best time to see the hybrids is about the third week of August and early September depending on the season. Interior track have been blocked following the March 2022 severe fire.
To see them park in the parking bay and walk up the hill from the picnic table to the closed road on the left (eastern) side. The hybrids begin over the ridge on a gentle sandy gravel slope. 
 Elsewhere these hybrids are uncommon (only two groups in Foxes Lair).
Orchid hybrids tend to be more common in spots where there are lots of one parent and fewer of another. Here cowslip orchids greatly outnumber little pink fairy orchids, and normally flower for much longer. I noticed that hybrids are much more common on shallow sandy gravel slopes, where soils hold less water than deep sands and sands over clay.  I think that hybidisation is enhanced by periodic water shortages. which reduce the flowering period in these soils. In drier seasons, the flowering period for the cowslips on these soils is shortened to that of earlier flowering little pink fairy orchids. Here pollinators are more likely to visit both species together and create hybids.
Hybrids are generally sterile, but expand asexually from root tubers into clumps.

Picture
Picture
Picture
I have a good sense of direction and love wandering through observing different patterns of regrowth and associated wildflowers and can use Google maps to find my position (Telstra phone), but some may get lost and stony gravel areas can be a bit hard on the ankles.
​The reserve is underlain by granite bedrock, mostly hidden under pale sandy, gravelly, and ironstone soils. Most of the reserve is a gently sloping upland with old and infertile soils. Topsoils on the ridges are stony and shallow, with white sandy topsoil on lower slopes and valleys. An old vegetation map of the reserve had colourful descriptions, such as 'poor wandoo' and 'useless plants and dryandra'.
Radiometric imagery has produced colours on the coloured photo, which show general soil types. Orange-brown indicates brownish fertile York gum, jam and rock sheoak soils. Green indicates gravels. Darker colours indicate paler and deeper sand. ​
A breakaway following the highway on the northern edge of the reserve is a contact zone between dolerite to the north (fertile york gum farm land), and granite (sandy soils) to the south. The breakaway originally has brown mallet and red morrel woodland with sparse understorey at its base and patchy lateritic woodland at the top.
​Now, the woodland is a mass of dead trees and vigourous regrowth.
Picture
Image of bare soil after fire. Pale = sandy surfaced soil
Picture
red orange=loam, green=gravel, dark=sand sandy gravel
Picture
October 2021
Picture
2022
Picture
2023
There hadn't been a fire here for decades. In some areas before the fire, fallen trees (mostly sheoaks) made walking difficult, and plant diversity was reduced as fire dependant seeders have died out. Wow thing have changed now
There is attractive bushwalking country. Being a sandy block, there is a multitude of cowslip orchids. Litttle pink fairy orchids also occur with sugar, snail, greenhood, jug, and donkey orchids, and a patch of purple enamel orchids. Unlike many surrounding reserves there are very few spider orchids.
​Following images show regeneration in part of the reserve
1on  a stony sandy gravel slope on the northen side of the reserves where hybrids are most common.
2 The fire was not so severe in the red morrell valley, which had almost no understorey. It burnt the base of the trees and caused a leaf drop. Many trees have resprouted from the base and understorey seedlings are growing.
Picture
2022 burnt leaves in tree canopy
Picture
Fallen leaves in April 2022
Picture
2023
3 Wandoo - sheoak woodland on a north-south upland stony, sandy gravel plain bouded by a breakaway to the west was completely incinerated. many burnt wandoos are resprouting and there is a germination of seedlings, which will provide a rejuvenated understorey in a few years.
Picture
Mesa upland plain devastated 2022
Picture
Mesa upland plain regrowth 2023
The eastern edge of the reserve has pockets of deep white sandy soil, which supports remnants of more westerly occurring plants. Of particular note are Jarrah, Candlestick Banksia Banksia attenuata, and Christmas Tree Nuytsia florabunda.The understorey containe some lovely plants;- Purple enamel orchids (October), stilit walker triggerplant Stylidium araeophyllum, Eremea pauciflora, and Calytrix flava.
The fire devastated the Jarrah and Banksia woodland, but the understorey is strongly regenerating (unfortunately including some weeds)
Picture
Jarrah grove 2021
Picture
Jarrah grove 2022
Picture
Jarrah grove 2023
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

    Categories

    All
    Animals Other
    Birds
    Disorders Plant Animal
    Fungi Lichens
    History
    Insects Bugs Other Arthropods
    Landscapes Soils
    Other Reserves And Places
    Reptiles
    Spiders Other Arachnids
    Tree
    Walks Other Facilities
    Wasp
    Wildflowers Orchids
    Wildflowers Other Summer Autumn
    Wildflowers Other Winter Spring
    Wildflowers Parasitic

    Archives

    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    May 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011

© 2015 All Rights Reserved. Doug Sawkins, Australia.