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This post’s Drosera species really “look the part” – as meat-eaters, who kill.
Plants in general – not just sundews and other carnivorous plants – are a deal less “peaceful” than many humans imagine.
Plants’ “race” for light, space, water and nutrients is not an “everybody wins something” event,
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Even within a single vicinity, different Drosera species can be remarkably different from each other – in size, colour, and general appearance.
However, this description fits all “sundews”:
Sundews are “flypaper” plants that trap prey in sticky hairs on their leaves. They make up one of the largest groups of carnivorous plants. Long tentacles protrude from their leaves, each with a sticky gland at the tip. These droplets look like dew glistening in the sun, thus their name. The glands produce nectar to attract prey, powerful adhesive to trap it, and enzymes to digest it. Once an insect becomes stuck, nearby tentacles coil around the insect and smother it.
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Q: what does this post, the previous post, and the next several posts in this series all have in common?
A: all of their “stars” eat meat. If you look closely at the featured image, you should be able to see some “victims” being devoured, slowly.
The overwhelming majority of this forest’s carnivorous individuals have neither fur nor feathers.
If all appropriately qualified individuals were to join “The Deep Creek Terrestrial Carnivores Club”, its insect, amphibian and reptile members would dominate it.
Although a relatively small minority within the club, its carnivorous plants would outnumber the remainder of its (primarily, mammalian + avian) fauna membership.
You are looking at one of the Drosera – a genus whose members are commonly known as “sundews”.
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Q: if you walk in Deep Creek Conservation Park’s old-growth stringybark forest, what is the largest carnivorous (as distinct from omnivorous) fauna species that you are highly likely to see at close quarters?
A: Dacelo novaeguineae, pictured above, in said forest at 11 am on 20 June 2023. (photo is ©️ Doug Spencer)
Better known as “the laughing kookaburra”, this usually-sedentary tree-dweller lives and hunts in woodlands and forests.
It is the world’s largest kingfisher, albeit one that generally never – or very rarely – is able to hunt fish. (however, any human silly enough to place a lidless aquarium on an exposed verandah, within range of any kookaburras’ very acute eyesight…)
Most Australian humans’ attitude to this bird is anthropomorphic, sentimental, and unconnected to its actual behaviour/intent.
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Yes, these ‘roos reside a long way east of Australia’s great “treeless” plain, but they are definitely not Eastern greys.
All of the ‘roos in Deep Creek Conservation Park are Western greys.
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At least one member of each of the two then visibly-present mammal species had a good look at each other.
Deep Creek Conservation Park’s stringybark forest is rich in both flora and fauna…and in other living things.
Humans aside, Deep Creek has at least eleven mammal species, but most human visitors see only the one you are now looking at: Macropus filiginosus, the western grey kangaroo.
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Whenever you are walking in a forest, there is one thing you should always remember to do, at least every few minutes: look up.
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I am sure that many who have walked In Deep Creek Conservation Park’s stringybark forest would agree that its grass “trees” are as striking as are its actual trees.
The former are examples of Xanthorrhoea australis, the most commonly seen & widely distributed of Australia’s Xanthorrhoea species.
All members of the “grass tree” genus are endemic to Australia; this one is found across a deal of southern Australia, including Tasmania.
It’s known as the “southern grass tree”. In South Australia it is commonly called “yakka”/ “yacca”, a word probably borrowed/mangled from its local indigenous name.
As was generally true of Xanthorrhoea species, many non-indigenous people used to call members of this one, “black boys”.
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…and ferns.
However – as later posts will reveal – although “the greenery” is lovely, what makes this particular forest’s “floor” so amazing are its non-photosynthesizing, legless, living beings.
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…where the walking is easy, and highly rewarding.
Much of the “Adelaide Hills” and Fleurieu Peninsula is “highly picturesque”.
However, only a very tiny portion even remotely resembles its “natural” or “original” state.
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