Medium-sized tree with long ascending branches forming a fairly large crown, grey fibrous bark on the lower branches and trunk. The upper branches have a smooth grey coloured bark. Commonly grows to 10 - 25 m tall.
Leaves
Juvenile leaves petiolate (a stalk that joins a leaf to a stem), are dull green, oval, usually 15 cm long and 5 cm wide. Adult leaves are narrow oval shape tapering to a point at each end, usually 8 – 15 cm long and 1 – 2 cm wide, clustered and dull green.
Flowers
The flower buds have cone-like caps. Flowers are cream to white which appear in late summer to winter (February to June).
Also known as Gum-topped Box. Tree to 25 m high.
Bark is rough on part or all of trunk, thin, box-type or tessellated (mosaic-like), grey or mottled with grey and white patches; smooth bark white, cream or pale-grey, often shiny.
Leaves
Adult leaves alternate, broadly lance-shaped, 7 - 17 cm long, 2 - 5 cm wide, green, glossy, concolorous (both sides of the leaf blade are the same colour).
Flowers
White and usually clustered in groups of 7. Sometimes there are more than 7 or there may appear to be less as flowers have dropped off. They occur in multiple groups at the end of small branches.
Flower buds are ovate (egg-shaped) to fusiform (spindle shaped; tapering at both ends), 5 - 9 m long, 3 - 4 mm diameter; scar absent.
Its head and upperparts are mostly dark grey, with a white eyebrow and throat, a narrow grey band across the upper breast and a creamy-buff belly. The feathers of its long tail have white edges and tips, and the tail is often fanned out.
Size
14 – 16 cm long
Large to small tree or shrub up to 25 m high (commonly around 5 m), branches, flower heads and lower surface of leaves greyish or silvery
Pneumatophores (erect, pencil-like aerial roots specialised for gaseous exchange) are numerous and project from shallow lateral roots.
Leaves
Leathery and measure up to 16 cm in length and 5 cm in width. They are ovate, pointed and arranged opposite one another on the stems. The leaves are glossy green above with a distinctive pale and slightly hairy, grey underside. Stomata (pores) and salt glands are scattered over the entire leaf surface but are more abundant on the underside. Leaves are often covered in crusted salt from the exuded secretions.
Flowers
Yellow-orange or golden. Flower clusters dense, arranged at leafy shoot tips; flower stalks 10 – 30 mm long. Flower 4 - 8 mm long with a corolla of four fused pointed petals 3 - 7 mm wide.
Dark grey to brown body, with lighter grey fur on its head and golden-orange fur encircling its neck. Its wings are black.
Distinctive feature
Fur on its legs that extends to its ankles.
Size
23 cm to 29 cm head and body length); wingspan over 1 m.
Gumblossom Reserve has about 5 ha of native vegetation typical to the area prior to the development of the Quinns Rocks townsite in the 1960s. The vast array of plant species exists due to the varied soils associated with two intersecting dunes systems. The reserve has two main plant communities: Banksia woodland and mixed shrubland and heathland.
Giant tussock-like, rosette plant. Grows up to 2.5 m high with a flower stalk up to 5 m high!
Its genus name Doryanthes (meaning spear and flower), and its species name excelsa (meaning high), both refer to its tall flower stem.
Leaves
Long, sword-shaped and forming a clump. Each individual leaf is 1 – 2.5 m long and about 10 cm wide. Shorter leaves up to 30 cm long are found along the flower stem.
Flowers
Located at the top of a single flower stem which grows from the centre of the tussock of leaves. The stem is 2 – 5 m high upon which the flowers form a cluster up to 70 cm in diameter. The individual flowers are bright red (or rarely white), trumpet-shaped and 10 – 16 cm long.
As part of a citizen science collaboration, we worked together with Greening Australia and Parks Victoria to create a ClimateWatch trail at Haining Farm.
In 1974, Sir John T. Reid gifted Haining Farm to the Victorian Conservation Trust for the people of Victoria to use for the purpose of education and conservation. Haining Farm presents an opportunity to transform a dairy farm into a public park, with habitat for endangered native species like the Helmeted Honeyeater and lowland Leadbeater’s Possum.
The Herdsman Lake trail takes about 30 minutes to explore between the two bird hides, and is at the northern end of Herdsman Lake near Jon Sanders Drive in Osborne Park.
Eretmochelys imbricata
Hoksbil Totel are found in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of the world, including several nesting areas in Vanuatu. The shell is olive-green or brown with reddish-brown, brown or black markings in a tortoiseshell pattern. The shell is domed and heart-shaped with overlapping scales. The hatchlings are brown to black above and lighter underneath.
Distinctive features
The Hoksbil Totel has a parrot-like beak and narrow head.
Size
Adult females weigh between 60 to 80 kg and have a mean curved carapace (hard upper shell) length of 82 cm, though this can grow up to 100 cm in length.
Behaviour
Movement
Before maturing, they spend the first 5 to 10 years of their life drifting on ocean currents. After this, they settle and forage in tropical tidal and sub-tidal coral and rocky reef habitats.
Diet
Omnivorous but, in many areas, they prefer to eat sea sponges.
Breeding
Night-time nesters. They generally lay 3 to 5 clutches in a season. Each clutch contains around 130 to 160 eggs.
There are a number of things that we look for when validating your observations. Here are some tips on how to be an expert ClimateWatcher.
Species
Some species are only located in particular regions of Australia. Check that you have identified the correct species by using the species profile information either on the website or in the app. Other mobile field guides available from your local museum could also help.
ClimateWatch is interested in the behaviour of a species as well as its location. Watch for species that are doing something particularly different to what you would normally see. For example, looking for nesting behaviour in the Black Swan, which generally happens during their breeding season (April to October in southern parts of Australia).
Smartphone or device
First, download the app and create an account.
Second, click the + icon to add your spot and take a clear and close photo of the species. The app will ask you to choose the species you are observing, fill in the required information, and bam! You’ve just contributed to climate change science and it's that easy.
In the near future, you can click on the different flora and fauna species for an in-depth description and photos to help with the identification of species. This information is in much greater detail on each of the species pages on the website. Familiarise yourself with just a few species at first to build your confidence.
Website
Search for species in the drop-down species menu. Once you have identified the correct species, click 'Observations' and this will take you to the map, enter your login details or register for an account on the left-hand side. Then add your spot and fill in all of the required fields for your sighting. Don’t forget to upload a clear photo and location of the sighting.
Dark grey to black on top and usually white on the belly. Humpbacks have very large, elongate pectoral fins, a small but prominent dorsal fin and a large, bushy blow (up to 5 m tall).
The large fins, dark tail with white underneath, active breaching and tendency to “hump” their backs and raise their tail out of the water before diving, distinguish humpbacks from other whales.
Size
Adult humpbacks can reach a length of up to 15 m.
On the website's sign-in page, click ‘reset password.’ This generates an automatic email that will have a password reset link. Click on that link and you will be prompted to enter a new password. Passwords cannot be reset from the app at this stage
Deciduous tree, up to 35 m high, but much smaller when grown in gardens and in cooler areas where it reaches a height of only about 10 m. It can take 5 – 8 years to flower if grown from a seed.
Leaves
Smooth, oval-shaped and can have three or five lobes (and sometimes more). Each leaf is 10 – 30 cm long. The tree loses some or all of its leaves at the end of winter, before flowering, and the leaves turn yellow just before falling.
Flowers
Bright coral-red and bell-shaped, they occur in clusters at the end of branches. They are 1 – 2 cm long and have a waxy surface. They appear after the tree has lost all or some of its leaves.
Project information
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Climatewatch |
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Earthwatch Australia |
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Project platform: |
SPOTTERON GmbH |
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Purpose of data processing of the app: |
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Data protection officers of project partners: |
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Contact: |
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (03) 9016 7590. |
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Locations of Data Savings: |
• SPOTTERON Server Cloud (AWS: European Servers) |
Want to get started with monitoring and recording species data for ClimateWatch but don’t know where to start? We have established trails in many botanical gardens throughout some Australian capital cities, which make it easy for you to get started! Many of these gardens offer guided walks that you can follow and record your observations. You can easily record through our ClimateWatch app, or you can download and print off a field guide and recording sheet from our website and then manually enter your data later. Our established botanic garden trails give our scientists a consistent, seasonal and reliable source of species data collection over a significant period of time.
Walking a trail is an easy way to get outside and involve your friends, family, students or colleagues in discovering your local environment while contributing to important research. Trails can be explored for short or long walks, daily or weekly or monthly, it’s up to you. Make sure you wear comfortable walking shoes, a hat and sunscreen, and have some water with you.
Australian National Botanic Garden (ANGB) - ClimateWatch trail
With previous generous funding from Friends of the Gardens, the ClimateWatch trail at the ANBG provides signage for the ClimateWatch plants found around the Gardens, as well as two ClimateWatch information signs. Trained volunteers help record observations of species and engage with visitors to the Gardens to become citizen scientists.
You can head to the ANBG trail page and download the appropriate field species guide, trail sightings and recording sheets to record your observations.
Testimonials
“It is another way that our visitors can engage with our collection of Australian native plants and contribute to valuable research in protecting our native plant species.”
ANBG General Manager, Peter Byron, 2010
Other Ways you Can Contribute
Participate in hackathon style events, solve data challenges that benefit nature
Host your own virtual "Data Validation Blitz" using the collateral below
In 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 1.5°C Special Report which reinforced the huge risks of global warming above 1.5°C, leading to widespread calls for greater climate action.
The IPCC Special Report shows the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
The differences between holding global warming to 1.5°C as opposed to 2°C are illustrated in a World Resources Institute infographic below.
Tree up to 35 m tall. The bark is rough over whole trunk and branches, thick, hard, grooved, black (ironbark).
Leaves
Juvenile leaves petiolate (have a stalk), are opposite for a few pairs then alternate, narrowly to broadly tapering to a point, to 17 cm long and 4 cm wide, more or less discolorous, green or greyish-green or glaucous (covered with a a greyish, bluish, or whitish powder or waxy coating).
Adult leaves petiolate, alternate, lance-head shaped, 9.5 – 22 cm long and 1 – 2 cm wide, concolorous (the lower leaf surface distinctly different in colour from the upper), green or glaucous; reticulation dense with numerous intersectional oil glands.
Flowers
It blooms producing inflorescences with flowers that are white, rarely pink. Keep an eye out for the flower caps that cover developing flowers and may fall on the ground at the end of flowering.
Check your spam folder. Check with your lecturer to see what email you have registered for your class to make sure it is correct. If the correct email has been used, but you still have not received an invitation, then register using another email. Contact the ClimateWatch staff directly to let us know which email address you have registered and what university you are recording with so that we can allocate you to the correct university group.
Deciduous tree, not native to Australia. Grows up to 15 m high and wide.
Leaves
Bright green, feathery and fern-like. Individual leaves are narrow and elliptic, 3 – 12 mm long and arranged either side of a 5 – 10 cm long stem. They turn yellow in autumn before falling from the tree.
Flowers
Blue-purple and trumpet-shaped, forming clusters that are 20 – 30 cm in diameter. Each individual flower is 2 – 3 cm long and about 1 cm wide. They are lightly fragranced and remain on the tree for about 2 months.
There are four stamens inside the flower which produce pollen, and also a staminode which doesn’t produce any pollen.
JCU Cairns is situated adjacent to two World Heritage Areas - the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. The campus is surrounded on three sides by rainforest-covered mountains and located near the northern beaches in the suburb of Smithfield.
We have worked together with James Cook University, Townsville campus to create this ClimateWatch trail.
The campus is surrounded on three sides by rainforest-covered mountains and located near the northern beaches in the suburb of Smithfield. It is an urban wildlife refuge in Townsville.
