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Category: photographs

“Old Bones” (“Aspects of Waychinicup” # 12)

 

Waychinicup National Park is a place of remarkably diverse flora – wildflower-wise, it has few peers, anywhere.

It is not a place of very big trees, although less than one hour’s drive away is a much wetter place whose towering Eucalypts are among the world’s tallest flowering plants.

Porongurup’s’ “island” of Karri forest is utterly unlike Waychinicup.

However, the little valley in which sits the Waychinicup access road’s river crossing is home to some venerable, substantial trees.

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Watching the river flow (“Aspects of Waychinicup # 10)

 

As you can see, the Waychinicup River is in at least reasonably good health.

As you will see in a future post in this series, the appearance of its surface can be remarkably different, depending on exactly when and where an observer looks at it.

(Bob Dylan has never watched the Waychinicup River flow. Tim Winton has, many times)

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Trees and “trees” (“Aspects of Waychinicup” #8)

 

Where the access road crosses the river is more “well-wooded” than is most of Waychinicup National Park.

This little bit is sheltered from the wind, enjoys more shade, and the topography and the river offer plants a moister, calmer environment than is available in most of the National Park.

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Up the creek (“Aspects of Waychinicup” #7)

 

The Waychinicup River is in fact a modest creek – of approx 17 kilometres, from its headwaters near the Manypeaks townsite to its petite estuary, just before it meets the inlet which is Waychinicup National Park’s signature feature.

The photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken circa 2ks upstream of the inlet, at the point where the access road crosses the river.

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Hakea in bloom (“Aspects of Waychinicup” #5)

 

The photos in #2 through #4 in this series were all taken in Spring 2020 – in a section of Waychinicup that had been burnt some time in the preceding several months, probably, via a Summer lightning strike.

Today’s Hakea was blooming on the very windy afternoon of 07 February 2022, in a different part of Waychinicup.

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Serotiny, illustrated (“aspects of Waychinicup” # 4)

In most cases, serotiny – retaining the seeds in a hardy capsule or cone, which opens in response to a particular “trigger” – is an adaptation to ensure a plant species’ survival in a fire-prone environment.

Serotinous plants exists in both the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere, but Australia is home to the overwhelming majority – WA most especially.

More than 75% of the world’s known serotinous plants are endemic to WA, mostly to southwest WA.

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