Flowering orchid up to 30 cm tall.
This orchid is pollinated by a species of fungus gnat, attracted to the flower by a chemical produced by the plant. The insect enters the flower, which temporarily traps it inside, and in attempting to escape, it comes into contact with the sexual organs of the flower and pollination occurs.
Leaves
Egg-shaped to elliptic dark-green leaves in rosette arrangement at the base of the stem, 3 – 9 cm long, 1 – 3 cm wide. Leaf margins wavy or crisped.
Flowers
Single flower ‘hood’ emerging on a flowering spike 8 - 30 cm tall. Flowers are 1.8 – 2.5 cm long, showing a strong ‘nodding’ position; and are a translucent white colour, with green stripes and orange/brown colouration at the tips.
A fleshy reddish wattle (skin flap) is on the side of the neck. Plumage is grey-brown on body, with prominent white streaks and yellow on belly. Face is pale and tail is long with a white-tip. Young Red Wattlebirds are duller than the adult and have a brown, rather than reddish, eye. The wattle is also very small and pale.
Its nest is an untidy saucer of sticks, leaves, and grass lined with bark-strips, fur, and hair; 2 - 16 m high in the fork of a tree or on a branch against trunk.
Size
33 - 37 cm long
The southern brown tree frog is native to southern Australia. Other common names of this tree frog are brown tree frog, whistling tree frog, or Ewing's tree frog.
Ranges from pale fawn, cream, or orange to light brown, although some individuals in western Victoria and South Australia are partly or completely green. It has a wide brown band that starts from between its eyes and runs down its back. Darker flecks are also scattered across its back. It has a narrow black or brown stripe that runs from its snout to its shoulder, and a pale stripe that runs from below its eye to the base of its arm. Its belly is white to yellow and breeding males have a light brown vocal sac (beneath their mouth).
Distinctive features
Its back is smooth with small lumps, its fingers have no webbing and its toes are half webbed.
Perennial, rhizomatous herb with strappy leaves.
Leaves
Glossy green, firm and flat. Long and thin up to 1 m long and roughly 1 cm wide. Leaves are usually taller than the flowering stem. Leaf base is broad with brownish edges. Tips of leaves have teeth.
Flowers
Grow in a whorled cluster attached to a straw-coloured bracts. Individual flowers are roughly 4mm long, but the cluster and leaf grow to 50 cm. Have a strong scent. Flower head is brown – during flowering petals are creamy yellow.
This spider is named for the cross the female weaves into the web. There are many theories about why the female does this including, strengthening the web, for camouflage, and for increasing prey catches as the cross reflects ultra-violet light which attracts insects. It may also deter predators which must go to the effort of cleaning off the extra silk after diving into the web.
The female has a silvery head with silver, yellow, red and black bands across its abdomen, and two yellow stripes running down its underside. Its legs are dark brown to black with one or two yellowish bands. The male and juveniles are brown and cream, with brown legs. It often appears to have only four legs because it sits with its legs in pairs along the stabilimentum.
Distinctive feature
The zigzag patterns (known as the stabilimentum) it weaves into its web to form an X or a cross, after which it is named.
The striped marsh frog or brown-striped frog is a common species in urban habitats It is a mostly aquatic frog native to coastal Eastern Australia.
A pale to grey-brown back with darker brown stripes. Usually also a pale stripe running down the middle of its back. Its belly is white and often flecked with brown, and there are dark spots and stripes on its limbs.
Size
4.5 - 7.5 cm
Males have a rich blue and black plumage above and on the throat. The belly is grey-white and the beak is black. In non-breeding plumage, called eclipse, he is very similar to the female.
Females and young birds are mostly brown above with a dull red-orange area around the eye and brown beak. Females have a pale green gloss, absent in young birds, on the otherwise brown tail. Both sexes possess brown legs.
The nest is dome-shaped consisting of grass, moss, rootlets, twigs, spiders webs and other bramble. Found low in tussock, shrub or bracken.
Lowland Leadbeater’s Possum and Helmeted Honeyeater feed on the flowers of this species, which flowers at a different time from the Mountain Swamp Gum. This overlap of flowering time provides food across an extended period for these creatures.
Small to medium tree, 20 m tall. Bark is variable, dark and rough at the butt; upper trunk and branches peel in ribbons.
Leaves
Juvenile leaves are short-stalked, almost circular. Adult leaves are thick, glossy, dark green, ovate shaped, usually has a wavy edge.
Flowers
White cluster of 3 - 10 (often 7).
A dense shrub with pale white peeling, papery bark and numerous branchlets. The Swamp Paperbark grows upto 9m tall and has long needle like leaves.
Leaves
Leaves are arranged alternately, dark green in colour and linear in shape 5-18 mm long and 0.5-1.7 mm wide. Juvenile leaves are typically bright green.
Flowers
Cream/white flowers usually clustered in heads or spikes to 17 mm long and 10 mm wide.
Fruit/Seeds
Small woody loculicidal capsule opening at the summit with 3-4 valves. Woody capsules are typically persistent year round with seed released in pulse events.
Evergreen tree, greyish-brown bark has oak-like appearance, branchlets spreading or drooping. Can be found solo or in dense stands.
Usually 8 – 15 m high. Can reach a maximum of 20 m high (rarely) and only reaches 2 m high on clifftops. The trunk can be up to 35 cm in diameter. This tree is also found in prostrate form (lying flat on the ground), reaching 30 cm high and 2 m wide.
Leaves
Segmented branchlets with very small teeth-like leaves (0.6 - 0.9 mm long), 12 – 17 leaves arise at the nodes of segments. New growth is strongly recurved (bent or curved backwards or downwards) and become erect as they mature.
Flowers
This species is dioecious (male and female reproductive structures develop on different individuals). Male inflorescences (arrangement of flowers) are spikes, growing 1.2 – long with 7 - 10 whorls per cm (ring of floral parts borne at the same level) and a 0.8 mm long anther (pollen-bearing part of the stamen).
Also know as Blackthorn.
A woody shrub to small tree, usually with thorny branches. Grows up to 5 – 10 m high.
Leaves
Glabrous, dark green, 20 – 44 mm long and 5 – 9 –mm wide.
Flowers
White, 6 – 10 mm wide, fragrant.
Evergreen shrub or small tree. Grows 1 – 6 m high.
Leaves
Bright yellow-green to dark green and paler underneath. They are 4 – 15 cm long and 1 – 3 cm wide, and generally have a toothed or curved edge. The leaves have a minty smell when crushed.
Flowers
Funnel-shaped and white, or pink to pale mauve, with purple and orange spots inside. They are about 2 cm long and grow in clusters at the end of branches. They are slightly scented.
Metallic blue-black on top and light to dark grey on its breast and belly. Its forehead, throat and upper breast are rust in colour. It has grey legs and feet, and its eyes and bill are black. A young Welcome Swallow has shorter tail feathers than an adult and its forehead and throat are a creamy beige (instead of rust).
Distinctive feature
A deeply forked tail with a white band or row of spots on the long tail feathers.
The White-browed Scrubwren is a small, drab bird which inhabits the dense undergrowth in many different habitats. The male has a blackish mask; cream eye; white eyebrow and bold curving silver-white whisker-mark; rufous rump; and a variable dark tail band. The female is duller and her whisker-mark is browner.
Distinctive feature
White-brow and curving silvery whisker-mark.
Mostly light blue-grey in colour. The forehead, crown, chin and upper throat are white. It has a long, slim neck and a pointed grey-black bill. The legs are long and dull yellow in colour. Easily identifiable when seen from below with the dark flight feathers of the wing contrasting with the paler grey plumage.
Males and females are similar. When breeding, the birds have long feathers (nuptial plumes) on the head, neck and back. Young are similar in appearance to non-breeding adults, with little to no white on the face; underparts often have a reddish colour.
Distinctive feature
Its characteristic white face.
A medium sized shrub standing upto 4m tall with stringy bark that often shreds in strips and numerous branchlets with consistent foliage
Leaves
Narrow and oblanceolate in shape, 4-20 mm long and 1.4-4 mm wide. Leaves are silky with a silvery sheen on both sides
Flowers
White flowers of approximately 15 mm diameter, occur densely along the branches.
Fruit/Seeds
Hemispherical woody capsule, 5-8 mm in diameter with a ‘woolly’ outer surface. Woody capsules are typically persistent year round with seed released in pulse events.
Dark grey-brown above with some brown streaking. It is paler below with lighter streaks and has a slightly down-curved bill. Young birds are paler.
Distinctive feature
A broad yellow facial stripe across its eye which is bordered with black.
