President:
Dave Liddle
Vice President:
Russell Dempster 8983 2131
Secretary:
Sue Mckinnon
Treasurer:
Robyn Liddle
Publicity:
Louise Finch
Publications:
Sarah Hirst
Public Officer:
Helen Spiers
Librarian:
Ingrid Nadjarian
General Committee Members:
Sylvia Hurse
Barry Smith
Webmaster:
Dave Liddle
May 2015 Newsletter
General Meeting Times
The next TENPS meeting will be held on Thursday May 21st 2015.
Meetings are usually held at 7:30 pm on the third Thursday of each
month at Marrara Christian College, on the corner of Amy Johnson
Avenue and McMillans Road. The meeting is followed by a chance to
meet with other members and access the TENPS reference Library
over a cuppa. Bring your plants along to swap, sell or have
identified. The guest speaker presentation commences around 8pm.
All are welcome.
Field trips are usually on the weekend following the Meeting
however this month the field trip was held on May 16th in
conjunction with GANT at the Howard River Sand Sheet.
What’s in Flower?
PO Box 135
Palmerston NT 0831
Or email us:
[email protected]
Utricularia dunstaniae is a threatened species on
the Howard Sand Plain photographed by Sarah Hirst
during the open day on May 16, 2015.
Natives mean more!
www.topendnativeplants.org.au
Upcoming TENPS Speakers
TENPS Field Trip & other events
May 21st: Louise Finch
In May 2014 Louise Finch and five other walkers
joined Andrew Harper’s Outback Camel
Expeditions for a two-week walk in the Simpson
Desert. Eighteen camels carried the group’s
food, water and camping gear. Andrew guided
and six cameleers prepared meals. The walkers
learned to load and unload the camels each day.
The rhythm of each day and the camels’ steady
pace limited opportunities for ‘botanising’ so
Louise took pictures when she could and tried
to identify plants on return. It was a day’s drive
to the start of the walk at the Hay River floodout south-east of Alice past the Mac Clark
Acacia Puce Reserve and a two-day drive back
north along the Coulson Track. We were in
sand-hill country for the duration. It felt like
walking through an extensive garden. The
country had greened up after rain with no recent
fires. We saw flowering Eremophilas, Grevilleas
and Triodia in the swales, Portulacas and Acacias
on dune flanks and Cane grass on the tops.
Many of these plants are found only in this
sandy desert.
Unfortunately Andrew is no longer offering this kind
of tourist experience in the Simpson but TENPS can
offer members a glimpse of the Simpson Desert and
its wonderful plants when Louise speaks to us on
21st May about her walk.
May 30-31st: Tropical Garden Spectacular &
TENPS plant sale.
June 18th: Jamie Lewis will talk about the role of
native plants in the City of Darwin planting
program, how council has utilised natives in the
past and how we intend to utilise them in the
future. He will also talk about the roles of trees
in the urban landscape generally. Things like
heat mitigation, carbon sequestration and
providing a sense of community.
June 21st: Open Garden at Colliwobble Farm.
This is the start of a new program - TENGO
(Top End Native Garden Open) and will
include a TENPS plant sale, craft stalls plus
refreshments provided by Wildcare Inc.
…. HELP…. HELP…. HELP….
TENPS need your help at the following events
May 30-31st: TENPS plant sale at the Tropical
Garden Spectacular. This is one of the major
fundraising opportunities for TENPS. A
number of the regular assistants are
unfortunately away this weekend so we really
need your help to make this happen.
If you can help please contact Russell Dempster
on 8983 2131.
June 21st: Open Garden at Colliwobble Farm.
This TENGO program will help fill the void left
by the former Open Garden scheme which no
longer exists. We will need assistance on the
day to help with set up and pack up, to provide
information and collect entry on the gate, and
to operate the plant stall. If you can help please
contact Sarah Hirst on 0437886824.
Jamie Lewis is the Technical Officer with the Parks &
Reserves Department of the City of Darwin.
TENPS Committee Meeting
Committee meetings are held every second
month and members are most welcome to
attend. The next committee meeting will be on
Wednesday 3rd June 2015 at 7.30 pm. Venue
Electorate Office.
Sarah Hirst (left) received a certificate of appreciation for
her contributions to the TENPS newsletter,
photographed here with Russell Dempster (right), a
certificate recipient in 2014 and nominating member
Ingrid Nadjarian (centre) and others.
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NT Field Naturalist Club Events
Monthly Meetings are held at Charles Darwin
University, in Red Building 1, Level 3 room 1
(enter via stairs opposite the coffee shop), usually on
the second Wednesday of every month (except
January), starting at 7:45 pm.
Birdsong gully is a relatively open grassed
drainage area with monsoon forest escarpment
on one side and a few trees on the other adjacent
to housing. We walked up the gully to the
monsoon forest at the top noticing Maranthes
corymbosa and Alstonia actinophylla (Milkwood)
along the way (above).
Field Trips are a great way to explore the best of
Darwin area's nature spots in the company of
like-minded people. These are usually held on
the Sunday following the monthly meeting and
often related to the topic of this meeting.
Additional outings are held from time to time,
and everyone is welcome.
February Field Trip Report
Birdsong Gully, Botanic Gardens
Our field trip in February was to the Darwin
botanic gardens to look at the proposed
development sites in Birdsong Gully and the
land at the top overlooking the amphitheatre.
Dave Liddle led the trip with 7 of us in
attendance. We met at the base of the gully at 9
am on the Saturday morning of the 21st of
February.
Under another Milkwood we used the Plant Key
for Monsoon Forest Plants in the Darwin Region
with Dave’s expertise to help in the
identification of some of the species present
(above).
These included Myristica insipida (Native
Nutmeg), Polyalthia australis, Abrus precatorius
(Crab’s Eye Vine), Ficus aculeata (Sandpaper Fig),
Sterculia quadrifida (Peanut Tree), Terminalia
microcarpa, Canarium australianum, Albizia lebbeck
and Diospyros calycantha.
Then we walked across the open area at the top
through long grass past an old communications
tower and on toward the fence at the back of the
amphitheatre. We thought that a proposed
housing or unit development on this site could
put a dampener on performances at the
amphitheatre.
Some indigenous folk were sheltering in the old
Postal Institute of the Northern Territory
buildings, so we didn’t disturb them. We walked
back along the roadway and then into the
monsoon forest at the top of the escarpment
above the bottom entrance to the botanic
gardens.
There were a few weeds in the forest as well as
some rubbish, but we found some pretty fungi at
the base of an Albizia lebbeck (below). Albizia
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lebbeck has characteristic lenticels in the trunk
enabling movement of gases to and from the
tissue.
Intrepid butterfly catchers on the march, photographed
by Louise Becker near Bamboo Creek.
We adjourned back to the cafe for coffee and
cake after thoroughly enjoying the activities and
meanderings of the morning, and being very
appreciative of the leadership of Dave.
Article and photos by Russell Dempster.
Hawk Moth photographed by Russell Dempster at
Virginia.
April Field Trip Report –
Bamboo Creek and Butterflies with NTFNC.
On April 15 TENPS joined with the NT Field
Naturalist Club for the day with a joint butterfly
and habitat survey at Bamboo Creek off the
Marrakai Road. The trip was capably led by Dr
Michael Braby and Deb Bisa and was a declared
a great success. There was a huge turn out and
thanks to Michael Braby we are now all much
better informed about the wide range of nets
available to catch butterflies.
Plectranthus scutellarioides photographed by Sarah
Hirst near Bamboo Creek.
It was good to see TENPS members taking up
the challenge of butterfly catching (below) and
learning about their habitat and host plants.
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Thanks to all those who supplied the brilliant
morning tea and we look forward to many more
joint outings.
Article by Louise Becker and Sarah Hirst.
Robyn Liddle chasing butterflies, photographed by Louise
Becker near Bamboo Creek.
Butterfly pupae inside a grass leaf photographed by Louise
Becker near Bamboo Creek.
Lygodium and Dicranopteris ferns photographed by
Russell Dempster at Umbawarra Gorge April 2015.
There were still many interesting plants to
identify in this special area where the hilltop
woodland habitat meets riparian forest close to
Bamboo Creek. Species lists compiled for each
habitat on the day are shown on the following
page.
Blechnum fern photographed by Russell Dempster at
Umbawarra Gorge April 2015.
Thespesia thespesioides fruit photographed by Sarah
Hirst near Bamboo Creek.
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Bamboo Creek species list - Riparian Monsoon Forest
Taxon
Common name
Acacia auriculiformis
black wattle
Alstonia actinophylla
milkwood
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
yam
Artocarpus glaucus
Asparagus recemosus
Bambusa arnhemica
bamboo
Brachychiton diversifolius
kurrajong
Brachychiton megaphyllus
red flowered kurrajong
Breynia cernua
Canarium australianum
Carallia brachiata
carallia
Carpenteria acuminata
carpentaria palm
Cayratia trifoliata?
Clerodendrum costatum
Colocasia esculenta
taro
Corymbia bella
ghost gum
Crotolaria calycina
rattlepod
Denhamia obscura
Dioscorea sp
yam
Drypetes deplanchei
Embelia curvinervia
Ficus aculeata
sandpaper fig
Ficus virens
banyan
Flacourtia territorialis
native
Flagellaria indica
supplejack
Flemingia sp
Geodorum densiflorum
shepherd crook orchid
Glochidion sp
Helicteres isora
Horsfieldia australiana
Ichnocarpus frutescens
Litsea glutinosa
Livistona benthamii
Melicope elleryana
Euodia
Myristica insipida
native nutmeg
Pandanus spiralis
screw palm
Pavetta brownii
Pouteria sericea
Smilax australis
Stephania japonica
Sterculia holtzei?
peanut tree
Strychnos lucida
strychnine tree
Syzygium nervosa
Syzygium suborbiculare
red bush apple
Tacca leontopetaloides
native bat plant
Tarenna dallachiana
Terminalia microcarpa
Thespesia thespesioides
Timonius timon
Vitex acuminata
native grape
Bamboo Creek species list - Hilltop Woodland
Taxon
Common name
Ampelocissus frutescens native grape
Aristida sp
kerosene grass
Buchanania obovata
green plum
Buchnera sp
Calytrix exstipulata
turkey bush
Chrysopogon fallax
grass
Corymbia bleeseri
shiny leaf bloodwood
Corymbia confertiflora
(or polysciada?)
bloodwood
Croton arnhemicus
croton
Cycas armstrongii
cycad
Eucalyptus miniata
Darwin woollybutt
Gardenia megasperma
gardenia
Haemodorum coccineum bloodroot
Heteropogon triticeus
buch sugar cane grass
Livistona humilis
sand palm
Lophostemon lactifluus swamp box
Patersonia
flag flower
Persoonia falcata
milky plum
Planchonia careya
cocky apple
Plectranthus
coleus
Shizachareum
grass
Spermococoe sp
Terminalia ferdinandiana Kakadu plum (billy goat plum)
Thecanthes punicea
Open Gardens Revisited…
Do you miss the now defunct Open Garden
scheme?
Have you got a native garden with a variety of
native plant species?
Would you like to share your garden with
others?
Are you willing to participate in a new Open
Garden program this year by opening your
garden?
TENPS is starting a new Open Garden
program as TENGO - Top End Native Garden
Opens and we want more gardens for openings
this Dry Season. If you, your friends or family
answer ‘yes’ to any of the questions above we
want to speak with you. Please contact us at
[email protected]
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MAIL TO:
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Palmerston NT 0831
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