Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About
    • About Foxes Lair
    • History
    • Landscape and Soils
  • Things To Do
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walk Trails
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Ride Your Bicycle
    • Scavenger hunt
    • Geocaching and Orienteering
  • Things To See
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Birds
    • Vertebrates
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • 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
    • Tutanning Nature Reserve
  • 1Foxypress
    • Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
  • Contact

Yilliminning rock in early-mid November

26/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Greetings fellow Foxies, 
Yilliminning Rock in November wasn't on my visiting list until I heard that the Elbow orchid was flowering, and was really glad that I went back. I went there about 7am which is a great time to see the morning light painting the shrubs and fluffy grass (species?), and to climb the rock when it is cool. The glowing yellow-green shrub patches amongst the salmon gums/wandoos are Leptomeria pauciflora (a native currant), yet another hemiparasite plant in the same family as quandongs. As I learn more about insignificantly flowered plants, I realise how many hemiparasites there are.
Picture
Leptomeria pauciflora
Picture
Fluffy grass in the sunlight
The prickly carpets of Pincushions/Borya sphaerocephala,in rock depressions, also known as resurrection plants have dried off to an attractive orange before they green up again in the next growing season.
Picture
Dormant pincushion bush
Picture
Moss patterns
In deeper soil areas November-flowering shrubs and herbs that don’t occur off the rock make a wonderful show. The most spectacular is red-flowering Kunzea baxterii with bonsai-looking contorted stems that hangs on to cracks in the rock. Larger soil areas have large Hook-leaved thryptomene/Thryptomene australis shrubs that are a mass of delicate white flowers, and Goodenia helmsii herbs with tiny white flowers.
Picture
Hook leaved thryptomene/ Thryptomene australis
Picture
Kunzea baxterii
Picture
Goodenia Helmsii
Picture
.A highlight was the beautiful but uncommon Pimelea graniticola that only occurs on granite rocks.
On the north and southern slopes where it is too steep for 4WDs (but I expect to see one in a heap there one day), you can still see the shelves and plates of sheet rock that are a feature of large granite domes.
For the geologically minded (as one should be!) these domes called plutons formed hundreds of millions of years ago from molten rock that forced its way up as geological plates were colliding and solidified some kilometres below the soil surface. As the rock above gradually eroded away and sediments were taken to the sea, these domes were exposed. The surface cracked in sheets that themselves split into jointed blocks from removal of the weight above them and weathering (exfoliation). Ice crystals formed from frost affected seepage can cause splits. More information here.

Rock sheets make a prime habitat for the fascinating Rock Dragon/Ctenophorus ornatus that nod at you before scuttling off. Alas my smartphone couldn’t get a better shot, but check out the great images on the hyperlink above.
Unfortunately the rock sheets are also greatly desired in gardens. I even have one in my garden that was left by the former owner. Keep vehicles off this rock.
Picture
Left: Rock Dragon if you can see it Right: weathering granite profile
I became aware of another form of rock 'weathering' after huge wildfire in February 2022.  The intense fire caused the equivalent of thousands of years of rock 'weathering' in a single event when flakes up to one centimetre thick fell off to reveal unweathered underlying granite.
Picture
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

    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    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.