Drosera peltata at Simmo's Beach, Ingleburn, NSW

Simmo's Beach is a small reserve squeezed between the western Sydney suburb of Ingleburn and the George's River. It is quite popular for many people because it is a nice, peaceful patch of forest with two BBQ areas, some walking paths and a sandy 'beach' on a very tranquil, almost non-moving section of George's River. I like the area because it has two species each of Drosera and Stylidium, all of which can be relatively easily accessed. There are also large populations of D. peltata in adjacent reserves, where there are also significant populations of the endangered Sydney plains greenhood, Pterostylis saxicola. Populations of the latter are fortunately not easy to access. I've been visiting this reserve for a number of years now, and continue to visit there regularly, so I will aim to provide regular updates of these plants' progress over the course of their growing season.

Drosera peltata are widely distributed in the Eucalpyt forests here, but I like a small site on the side of the road because the plants here are surrounded by small herbs, making for interesting photos. Elsewhere, they tend to be more obscured with dead Eucalypt leaves, making photography a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately, someone seems to have lit a small fire that burned out much of the adjacent bush, which is busily regenerating. Fire is an important part of many Australian ecosystems, and the plants in particular are generally well adapted to this distiurbance. As a case in point, note the new growth of a Eucalyptus coming up from its rootstock.

As it is still Autumn, I found only a very few D. peltata breaking dormancy. All were in the rosetted stage and had not made any progress towards making a climbing stolon yet. This form of D. peltata is very different to the truly alpine form here in Canberra (f. gracilis) and the one in south-eastern Queensland (f. nipponica).

Just as a teaser, here is a landscape shot of D. peltata in full cry elsewhere in the George's River reserve. Now I have a dedicated macro lens, expect better shots than this in a few months (this was taken with a point-and-shoot on a very clumsy 'manual' focus mode)!

There are a lot of other nice plants in the bush here - growing right above the now rosetted D. peltata was a Banksia, which had a beautiful flower only recently opened.

Another feature of the bush here are Pultenaea, the so-called bacon-and-egg flower. They are of course a member of the pea family (Fabaceae). Their lovely yellow and red flowers are borne on racemes and make a dazzling display. The plant itself is a small scrambler.

And of course there are Pterostylis saxicola. I won't let on where these photos were taken, but they are currently in rosette form. I really like the crystalline-looking 'rivers' that run through the plants' leaves; I assume they allow the plant to make better use of dappled sunlight in the same way some Begonia do in the tropics. I have never quite managed to hit these plants in flower, but will hopefully have better luck this year. Other orchids in this area include at least one more Pterostylis species and the mosquito orchids (Acianthus spp.).

New photos added to Tuggeranong Drosera post...

After a long absence, I found some time to update the Drosera peltata 'Tuggeranong' post with photos of plants in habitat. Except I missed some:

Drosera peltata var. gracilis flower (note hairy sepals). Smoker's Gap, Brindabella Range, ACT.
Ca. 1400 meters.

  Stylidium graminifolium, Corin Forest, Brindabella Ranges, ACT, 1400 meters elevation. Note glandular hairs shown in the photo at left.

The habitat of Drosera peltata var. gracilis, 'Tuggeranong ACT alpine form'

Recently, I noticed that people all over the world are growing a plant called Drosera peltata var. gracilis, 'alpine form, Tuggeranong, ACT'. This amuses me, because I actually live in the Tuggeranong Valley of the Australian Capital Territory (or ACT). As it turns out, I live only a few kilometers from the place where the Tuggeranong plants originated. Access to the site is relatively easy - I only had to walk some 1500 meters through a pine forest and I was at the site.
The first thing that struk me about the habitat was its small size - the plants mainly occur in a roadside seep less than 10 meters square! I am not sure whether or not the seep is spring fed - someone told me it was only rain fed - but it is wet enough to allow a variety of bog plants to grow.

It is also important to note that this site is not alpine - the seep is only 750 meters above sea level. It is on the western flanks of a hill and gets full exposure to the hot summer sun. Like my place a few kilometers away, it gets hot and dry here - it will likely get hotter than 35*C (95*F) here at least one day every summer, with 29*C the average maximum (85*F). Humidity on these days averages around 30% at 3 PM - this is comparable to 3 PM humidity in the Sahara desert! In winter, frosts are common but snow rare - it might snow here once a year, but it never gets cold enough for the snow to form drifts or even last long on the ground.

Both D. peltata and D. auriculata occur here. Growth varies year to year with rainfall - plants can come up quickly once it is wet, but can quickly be set back if it then dries out. This year, we had a wet spring and early summer, so the plants grew quickly. But it then became very dry for a few weeks, so the plants were visibly set back when I visited. But it did rain a few weeks earlier, so there were lots of seedlings growing, taking advantage of the wet. Some older plants showed signs of a second growth spurt as well.

Most of the D. aurculata also grew in the more open, grassy areas of the seep, with the D. peltata mainly growing under Kunzea shrubs. I am not sure what altitude D. auriculata grows to in the ACT, but I have seen D. peltata growing right up to 1400 meters in Corin forest. In this area, I have found D. peltata growing in what seems to be a permanant seep on the side of a hill at Smoker's Gap (photo at left; note clump of Sphagnum cristatum at top center). The plants themselves again occur in a relatively small area here. It is very easy to overlook them because of the amount of grasses and herbs they grow with. Their leaves also tend to be rather small and few traps are active at any one time - most have already become exhausted from prey capture.

Drosera peltata var. gracilis at Smoker's Gap, ca. 1400 meters elevation.

The photo below shows an important diagnostic feature for Drosera peltata that is useful in separating it from D. auriculata in many cases. Note the fuzzy or hairy appearance of the sepals? The fuzzyness is caused by trichomes that are present, for the most part, only in D. peltata and not in D. auriculata.

Also present here are Utricularia dichotoma and Sphagnum cristatum. This area is sub-alpine, dominated by snow gum open forest and grasslands. It also gets a genuinely cold winter, with periods of snow on the ground and many days of frost.

Utricularia dichotoma flowers at Smoker's Gap, 1400 meters.

I am reasonably confidant that both Drosera will also occur much higher up. I am also hopeful that another, as yet unrecorded species for the ACT region (D. arcturi) will occur there as well. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to get up into the mountains in coming weeks. I tried to yesterday, but a severe thunderstorm hit just as we got to where the D. peltata grow. We turned around when 2-3 cm (1") hail started falling - I had no intention of ruining my car! We got home just as the storm hit the Tuggeranong area, but only pea hail fell here.

**Update from 24 April 2011***

I took a quick trip up to the high alpine in the Brindabellas and walked down to the Sphagnum cristatum heath at the foot of Mount Ginini. I had hoped to find Drosera arcturi here, but the habitat is entirely different to where I have seen D. arcuturi in Tasmania. Instead of open, low heath (tarns), the Ginini wetlands are comprised of dense Sphagnum hummocks (many of which were killed in the 2003 bushfires) and dense heath vegetation up to 1 meter in height. I have not given up on finding D. arcturi there yet, but it will take a lot of fieldwork next season to be sure if it is not there.