Vegetation

Plants continued (Page 2); Vegetation types.

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Globules of sticky fluid adorn the leaves of a sundew Drosera sp. growing in low nutrient sandy soil. Small insects trapped in the fliud are externally digested by enzymes and the nitrogen and phosphorus is absorbed by the plant to supplement mineral nutrients. SW113.12s

Regrowth of Livistona palms after fire, NT

Fresh growth of Fan Palm Livistona humilis frond continued after seasonal fires of early Dry Season, Gurig National Park, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (Australia). Fire shapes the vegetation in much of the world's dry tropics. N87.22s

Foxtails Ptilotus polystachyus in Mulga/Bimble Box woodland, semi-arid western division of New South Wales, Australia. Many ephemeral plants germinate, flower and seed after rain, and their seeds lie in the soil until the next rain, part of so-called soil seed bank. S24.21s

Paperbark trees beside perched lake, Fraser Island

Stunted Paperbark Tea-trees Melaleuca quinquenervia grow on the sandy shore of Lake Mackenzie, a perched dune lake on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia. Fraser Is.is a huge sand island & World Heritage. F16.17s

Nypah Palm Nypa fruticans grove, one of only a handful in Australia, in remote upper reaches of tidal wetland wilderness in Gurig National Park, Cobourg Peninsula, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Nypah Palm are common in SE Asia rivers. N80.8s

Showy flowers of the Turkey Bush Calytrix exstipulata blossom in the dry season in wet/dry monsoon tropics (Gurig National Park, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia), adding splashes of colour to the drying landscape. N80.9s

Bottle Tree in softwood scrub, Ka Ka Mundi

Bottle Tree Brachychiton rupestre in softwood scrub of 'Brigalow Belt', central Queensland, Australia, a belt of distinctive vegetation with endemic species occupying fertile soils (named after dominant Acacia). Bottle Trees are sometimes left during clearing of softwood scrubs because they can be fed to stock in drought.CQ11.14s

Yellow flowers of Mulga Acacia aneura give semi-arid mulga shrubland a golden glow in the brief summer season following good rains, Mulga Lands, SW Qld., Australia. Though mostly expanses of grey-green, mulga are valuable for timber, fodder, habitat. S96.2s

Colourful fruits of the Bead Bush or Square-stemmed Broom Spartothamnella juncea, a tangled almost leafless shrub of open forests which transforms into a decorative understory when it fruits, attracting berry-eating birds to distribute its seed.6x6cm SW10Ae

Delicate wildflower of Velvet-leafed Hibiscus H. sturtii belies the rugged rocky semi-desert habitat of this low herb, here adding colour to fissures in a rock outcrop in Currawinya NP, outback SW Qld., Australia, in the Mulga Lands biogeographic region. S93.10

Poisonous but colourful fruits of the Crab's Eye Vine Abrus precatorius hang in the dry season understory of monsoon woodland in Gurig National Park, Arnhem Land, Australia, their colour warning of their toxicity, but used as beads by indigenous people. N25.9s

River Buttercup Ranunculus inundatus growing in a boggomoss, an artesian-fed mound spring perculiar to the Dawson River near Taroom, central Queensland, Australia, with flowering sedge Schoenoplectus litoralis - two common plants of moist places. CQ60.8s

Fern fronds shoot from floor of sclerophyll forest, SE New South Wales

Germinating fern fronds emerging from the forest floor leaf-litter, in undisturbed old-growth temperate rainforest, Nalbaugh National Park, south-east forests of New South Wales, Australia. L4.13s

Native hibiscus on floor of wet/dry monsoon forest, Arnhem Land

Wet season flower of the scrambling Bush Hibiscus Abelmoschus moschatus, a ground creeper of the monsoon open forest of Gurig Nat. Park, Arnhem Land, N.T. . A vegetable for indigenous people, closely related to the edible Okra. N3.17s

Contorted forms of ancient myrtle trees (family Myrtaceae) caused by harsh mountain environment in high altitude valley near 2400m Gunung (Mt) Mutis, Timor, Indonesia (Wallacea), and covered in epiphytic lichens, mosses & orchids in the damp air. T2.14s

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