Linda and Roger's Bunhybee Grasslands
Rainer Rehwinkel's Visit – Monday 22 October 2012


This is a page within Roger and Linda's Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site.
Bunhybee Grasslands is a 49 hectare / 120 acre conservation property.
It is 35km south of Braidwood, in southern N.S.W.
You can follow through the internal links, or you may find it easier to use the Site-Map.


Rainer Rehwinkel, of the NSW Department of the Environment in Queanbeyan, has something approaching godfather status for Bunhybee, having been the person who recommended to NCT in September 2007 that they acquire it for protection and re-sale.

Rainer Rehwinkel, Kathy Wells of the Dept and K2C, plus friends Helen and Rick Jones visited Bunhybee on 22 October.

It was a remarkably cool day, with a couple of sleet-showers driving up the Tallaganda Range and drifting across to us. The dam was full and the waterlines were wet. Gilston's rain-gauge showed only 260mm for the 6 months Apr-Sep 2012 (80% of average), but the effects seem to still be being felt from the 380mm in Feb/Mar 2012 (cf. 150mm average).


A chilly but sheltered lunch at Picnic Corner

In better light, Rainer's Canon hard at work

Mid-afternoon: Helen, Rick, –, Roger, Rainer, ...

... and a far better shot of Kathy

1. Species Recognition

To the extent practicable, we now have this pretty much under control; so it's no longer top priority. But there are a few species that we had remaining uncertainties about, so we asked Rainer to keep his eye open for them. The list at the bottom shows how successful he was!

2. Plant Community Recognition

We'd gone through the relevant sections of the excellent Departmental publication that Rainer had pointed us to: Plant Communities of the South Eastern Highlands and Australian Alps within the Murrumbidgee Catchment of N.S.W. (v.1.1, February 2012).

Woodlands:

Grasslands:

We wanted to note on our maps the areas of the property that are good exemplars of each of the relevant categories, but Roger's note-taking was deficient.

[Rainer, is it feasible for you to plot some plant community areas onto this sketch-map?]

An important additional category of information that we need is soil-types and/or underlying geological strata, because that is an important factor in which community types occupy which segments.

3. Diversity-Threatened Segments

We sought Rainer's thoughts on which areas have dominance, or emergent dominance, for which we need to develop and implement thinning plans. The three categories that we're watching are:

4. Control Methods for Particular Introduced Species

We have Weed Control Plans in place, and implemented, for most key weeds.

We were particularly concerned about Holcus lanatus / Yorkshire Fog, which has prospered in a lot of the moisture-lines, and seems to us to have worsened considerably since the end of the drought.

Rainer suggested that we should spend more time on the Anthoxanthum odoratum / Sweet Vernal Grass.

5. Treatments for Diversity-Threatened Segments

For both Themeda and Poa areas, we've been considering:

Rather than the Poa-lab areas, the higher priorities would be:

Appendix: Needing-a-Check Species-List – Click on the links below for the photographs

Agrostis muelleriana. Rainer found and we photographed a poss. specimen of this species, two, three. Or is it a Lachnagrostis filiformis?

Allocasuarina distylla and littoralis. Rainer identified both species, and we photographed them – a (shrubby) A. distylla east of the track 75m from the gate, and a (slender tree-form) A. littoralis along the fenceline south of Peppermint Corner.

Arthropodium milleflorum and minus. Not seen.

Austrodanthonia - are any recognisable in the field rather than only in the laboratory? Probably not.

Carex gaudichaudii and tereticaulis. Rainer found for us and we photographed a C. gaudichaudii in the main northern waterline near the dam, but we didn't find a C. tereticaulis.

Centella sp. poss. asiatica. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but Rainer pointed one out, and said that the leaves are quite variable, and we photographed it, one, two.

Centipeda cunninghamii and minima. Not seen.

Cerastium glomeratum and drummondii. Not seen.

Crasula helmsii and sieberiana. Not seen.

Deyeuxia sp. poss. quadriseta. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but Rainer found a very old seed-head (not worth photographing). And we discovered that we had never put up our photos from Feb 2012 (one and two), and nor had we added it as a new species, despite ANPS Friday Grasses Group having id'd it as Deyeuxia, confirmed later by ANBG. We need to collect another in Feb 2013, for checking by David Mallinson at ANBG, who will be back by then.

Diuris chryseopsis / behrii. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but we had classified this species as D. chryseopsis, whereas Rainer thought it was D. behrii, two, which is the later-flowering of the two.

Elatine gratioloides. Not seen.

Eliocharus gracilis. Not seen.

Eragrostis parviflora and trachycarpa. Not seen.

Eucalyptus rubida. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but from the A. distylla, Rainer saw an E. rubida up on Echidna Ridge, on schist. But we forgot to check it later when we were up there.

Eucalyptus. In Peppermint Corner, Rainer reckoned the eponymous tree is actually a E. pauciflora ssp. pauciflora x E.viminalis, rather than a Peppermint. Directly to the North he thought the large smooth-bark was an E. dalrympleana, and that the rest in that corner are generally E. dives.

Eucalyptus ovata. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but Rainer id'd a group of these halfway along the fenceline North of Peppermint Corner, in a drainage line, and we took photographs.

Euchiton involucratus and sphaericus (the latter seems to be subject to debate). Rainer found two Euchiton sp. (native), but wasn't sure which species, and we photographed them: specimen 1, specimen 2.

Exocarpos stricta. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, and it's just over the fence to the North, but Rainer said it was an E. stricta, two, or poss. Choretrum candollei.

Fimbristylis dichotoma. Not seen.

Gamachoeta sp. (which is it?) [I]. Not seen.

Gnaphalium americanum (cf. Gamachoeta?) [I]. Not seen.

Juncus filicaulis, fockerii and planifolius. Rainer found J. fockei in the pool at the very top of the main northern waterline, with other J. sp. which were very tall and not id'd. Close by, up on the side of Echidna Ridge, Rainer found a J. filicaulis, which only grows to about 30cm – not as large as we'd previously thought, and not in water, where we'd expected it. No J. planifolius was (knowingly) seen.

Lepidium africanum. Not seen.

Leptospermum polygalifolium. Rainer found a specimen for us in the northern waterline near the dam, and we photographed it, one, two.

Luzula densiflora and flaccida. Rainer found a specimen of L. densiflora near the A. distylla (near the track 75m from the gate). He also found another L. sp., and Linda is now satisfied that the second was indeed L. flaccida.

Opercularia hispida. Rainer found one for us and we photographed it.

Paronchia brasiliana [I]. Rainer found one for us, tucked away in a rock-fissure, and we photographed it.

Pimelia glauca. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but there were two large patches in full flower at the head of Gate Gully's southernmost branch, and we photographed them, close-up, and with view.

Plantago gaudichaudii, hispida and varia. Rainer found for us and we photographed a P. varia, two, three, and detail; and later another, and another, two, with considerable intra-species variation. Rainer found for us and we photographed and pegged a P. gaudichaudii, two. We didn't find a P. hispida.

Plantago coronopus [I]. We didn't have this Introducted Species on the Needing-a-Check List, but Rainer pointed out a small one.

Poa clivicola. Not seen, and Rainer says it's difficult to id in the field.

Poa sieb cf. Poa lab (location and recognition). In the rocks at the head of Gate Gully, there was a Poa sieb. with dark inflorescences, which Rainer said was a different sub-species to those on lower slopes.

Rumex dumosus. Not seen.

Solenogyne gunnii. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but Rainer found one along the fence North of Peppermint corner, which we photographed.

Tetratheca sp. poss. thymifolia. We didn't have this on the Needing-a-Check List, but then nor did we have it on the Species List before! But Helen pointed one out at the head of Gate Gully's southernmost branch, and Rainer id'd it. We photographed it, two, cropped, three, but didn't peg it. A second specimen was nearby.


This is a page within the Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site, home-page here, and site-map here

Contact: Linda or Roger

Created: 23 October 2012; Last Amended: 24 October 2012