It was a great pleasure to join with the Friends of Kurth Kiln on Saturday 13th November, to participate in their meeting, morning activity and barbeque lunch. We had been asked to identify the plants along the track beside the Tomahawk Creek so a pamphlet could be prepared which would point out the interesting features to visitors to the park. It was a perfect day to be out in the bush as it was pleasantly warm and sunny before the impending cool change. We made very slow progress, as to amateur botanists the area was full of interest, with many plants in flower to identify. We concentrated on the shrubs and small flowering plants, although we did note the fine clumps of Tassell Cord Rush around the dam. The Common Froglet, Crinia signifera , could be heard calling here with it's distinctive ratchet-like croak. Huge thickets of Coral Fern (often called umbrella fern)were in many places along our walk, and we found there were two varieties - the pouched and the scrambling. They look the same unless examined closely, when it can be seen that the small segments of the pouched variety curl under whereas the scrambling one is quite flat. Along the creek the main fern appeared to be Fishbone Water Fern, whose fronds resemble the backbone of a fish.
Blue Dampiera was flowering profusely and seemed to grow nearly everywhere. It is a spreading, low growing shrub with a pretty, sky blue flower. The lovely blue Tall Sun Orchid was found in many places too, and this was the only orchid we saw, apart for some bird orchids which had just finished flowering. There were a number of shrubs of the pea family, which have the 'egg and bacon' flowers, but the most widespread and showy one was the Handsome Flat-pea. Halfway along the upper part of the track we came across Pink Bells (Tetratheca ciliata) and they slowed our progress quite a bit as we puzzled over their exact identification. Some plants seemed to have few leaves along their flowering stems and we thought they may be the rarer species (Tetratheca stenocarpa).
There were quite a few patches of Creamy Stackhousia, or Candles, which are creamy coloured 5-petalled little flowers which grow plentifully around the top of a bare stem. Trigger Plants were not quite as common, and they resemble Candles somewhat, but are mauve coloured. They derive their common name from their method of pollination. When an insect reaches into the nectary, a spring loaded column flies up and hits in on the back, depositing pollen on it, to fertilise the next flower it visits.
There were many Tall Sundews along the track (the tall part is relative to the other sundews, as they are only about 10 - 15 cm high). These are insectivorous plants which usually grow in nitrogen deficient soils and supplement their diet with insects caught in sticky hairs. Another interesting plant we found was the leafless, parasitic dodder-laurel, which looks like string tangled over and around the shrubs. It has small suckers which we could see attached to the stems of it's host, and the one we saw had round green fruits on it.
Prickly Teatree was plentiful, and the Woolly Teatree grew near the creek along with the Scented Paperbark, which was flowering with lemon bottlebrush flowers. As we neared the bridge crossing the creek, we came across Burgan (Kunzea ericoides). It looks a bit like a Teatree, and has fine leaves and an almost weeping habit. It can take over in some areas, particularly where disturbance has occurred, and can almost assume weed status. The fact that there was only a small patch seemed to indicate that there was a good balance of natural vegetation in the area. Tall upright club mosses (Lycododium species) grew thickly in one area. Although they resemble ferns, they are fern allies, and in the past formed an abundant section of the world's flora. The clubs refer to their reproductive arrangement, and these looked almost like long cones held upright above the plants.
Two yellow flowering shrubs were conspicuous right beside the bridge - the Yellow Riceflower and Hop Goodenia. These can be very plentiful, but we only saw one plant of each. Walking back beside the creek along the other side, brought us to a spot where there were some new plants, which grow in moister areas. Musk Daisy-bush, with large shiny green leaves with silver backs was growing near the creek, as well as Mountain Pepper. It has smaller shiny green leaves and reddish stems, and is quite peppery to taste. Some large clumps of the uncommon King Fern grew here. It resembles the well know tree ferns at first glance, but has a much shorter trunk which is less noticeable, and leathery, bright green fronds.
There were a number of pretty spots beside the creek like this one, with large moss-covered rocks and ferns growing in the shade. Meinhard came along armed with his axe, and put it to good use clearing saplings which had fallen over the track. Riet photographed the more conspicuous flowers with Ursula's very fancy digital camera. Jackie provided entertainment by discovering a leech too far up her trouser leg to reach from the bottom. Leeches have an uninhibiting effect on Jackie as we discovered when she removed it without delay.
Ken had set off to look for birds while we concentrated on the plants, but was a bit disappointed in the small number of species spotted. The windy conditions preceding the change could explain this.
Our barbeque lunch was very welcome after such a long walk, as was the time we spent chatting in the picturesque surrounds of the old buildings, and sampling Ursula's excellent cooking. The plants we have listed are only those which we identified in the time we had available, and were identified to the best of our knowledge. There would be many more not in flower, or which we couldn't identify quickly.
The plant list supplied from the Victorian Flora Information Systems, Natural Resources & Environment was used as our reference. We look forward to returning to look in more detail at another time of year.