A trip to Tasmania, early 2021

[Maggi Young]

Alan Ayton, from Victoria in Australia is  very enthusiastic about the  flora of Tasmania.  He and his wife  visited and hiked the Overland Track through the heart of Tasmania’s wilderness back in December 2019. They  saw  some incredible scenery and endemic flora,and Alan posted  many times  about  the things they saw on that trip on his  Facebook page ... https://www.facebook.com/alan.ayton.5
He also posts about  the  flora  encountered on trips on "mainland" Australia!

Earlier this  year   they  visitied Tasmania again , this time to  hike  in the  Cradle  Moutnain area - and  he  shares  his  photos of the trip here. It's quite a trip - only a short  break, but  Alan took loads of  photos!
May take  me  a while to get them all posted!   but - MANY Thanks for  sharing, Alan!


Tasmania, you are looking oh so fine! 

Tasmania-Meander Falls

A truly magnificent waterfall on the Meander river that tumbles down off the Great Western Tier.  Raging water certainly helped by lots of rain the night before we visited.  The track in was a 2 1/2 hour battle in over numerous flooded creek crossings that don’t normally exist, a track in many sections that were fast running creeks or massive still deep puddles, finding alternate routes or even using downed tree trunks to crawl/walk over, hanging onto trees to cross a raging creek, a climb over the route of 457m.  In all a magical experience to see a great waterfall.







Tasmania-Meander Falls, ‘The Track’  in to see the Falls
There was a lot  of water about  the route !

[Maggi Young]

Tasmania-Meander Falls, ‘The Track’  in to see the Falls

[Maggi Young]

Flora of Tasmania

Gaultheria hispida
Snow Berry
An erect, much branched shrub up to 2m tall, much smaller in exposed conditions. The midrib of the leaves and branchlets have reddish bristles, leaves are ellipse to lance shaped, 4-8cm in length.  Small white urn shaped flowers in terminal or axillary groups.  White sepals enclose the reddish capsule giving the appearance of a white berry.  Tasmanian endemic found in alpine heath and alpine sedgeland and at lower altitudes as well.

[Maggi Young]

Trochocarpa cunninghamii
Flat Heath
A spreading shrub, leaves oval shaped with a point about 10mm long,  arranged in two opposite rows.  Young shoots have a covering of dense short hairs. Pink flowers in a crowded terminal spike.  Found in the understory of coniferous heath, heath and deciduous heath, alpine sedgeland , rainforests and subalpine forests in the western and central mountains.  A Tasmanian endemic.

[Maggi Young]

Impressive boulder/scree fields in the Meander conservation area under the Great Western Tiers

[Maggi Young]

Trochocarpa thymifolia
Thyme leaf purple berry / Thyme leaved Heath.
A much branched shrub to 1 metre tall, leaves to 4mm in length, round and slightly convex.  Flowers pink, bell shaped in a nodding terminal spike, flowering during January-February , fruit is a blueish/purple drupe.  Found in montane and subalpine habitats .  Tasmanian endemic.

[Maggi Young]

more  Trochocarpa thymifolia
Thyme leaf purple berry / Thyme leaved Heath.
A much branched shrub to 1 metre tall, leaves to 4mm in length, round and slightly convex.  Flowers pink, bell shaped in a nodding terminal spike, flowering during January-February , fruit is a blueish/purple drupe.  Found in montane and subalpine habitats .  Tasmanian endemic.

[Maggi Young]

Some of the incredible undergrowth in Tasmania’s rainforests.

[Maggi Young]

Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia
Mountain Pinkberry, Crimson berry amongst others.
Dense prickly shrub to 1 metre tall, more often than not carrying long lasting colourful berries.  Leaves 6mm in length, linear-lanceolate with a point.  Small bell shaped cream flowers September-December.  Fruit-spherical berry , pink to red in colour.  Common on montane dolerite slopes and wet plains.  There are 3 sub species.  Use to be known as Cyathodes parvifolia.








A moody Ronny Creek in a wet and cold Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park  - Richea pandanifolia on the right and   Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus, button grass, knee to waist height, spikey  brute!

[Maggi Young]

Utricularia dichotoma
Fairies Aprons
Carnivorous, stoloniferous herb with an erect flowering stalk 5-30cm high, short in the alpine zone.  Quite often leafless, if present they are spatula like or linear - lanceolate.  Flowers purple, lilac or sometimes white during December to February.  Found in water logged soils, ditches, pools of water from sea level to alpine herb fields and bolster heath. It has small bladders on its roots close to the surface of the soil which trap small aquatic or soil animals and digests them.

[Maggi Young]

Baeckea gunniana
Alpine heathmyrtle
Variable low spreading or arching woody shrub, prostrate in exposed alpine conditions, size-prostrate to 1.5 x .5-2m, leaves are crowded, 5mm long, oblong, thick and blunt.  Flowers are small, white with 5 petals and with a red or green centre during summer, common in moist alpine habitats above 800 m in Tasmania.
Also in VIC, NSW.

[Maggi Young]

more  Baeckea gunniana

[Maggi Young]

Boronia rhomboidea
Broadleaf Boronia, Rhomboid Boronia
A small alpine shrub 20-75cm tall by 50-100cm wide, rhomboid shaped leaves to 13 mm long, stalkless, dark green with a reddish margin.  Flowers-deep pink buds open to white/pink with 4 petals.  Flowering during spring and summer.  Found in moist exposed subalpine areas to 1200m, mainly in the north and northwest of Tasmania, isolated elsewhere.  Also in NSW.  A lovely little shrub

[Maggi Young]

last image of Boronia rhomboidea

[Maggi Young]

Olearia persoonioides
Geebung daisybush
A woody shrub growing 1.5-3m x 1-2m, smaller forms at high altitudes, leaves variable 2-5vm in length, glossy green above, white to light brown below.
Flowers have 5-7 white ray florets with a yellow disc, with 3-5 per flowering stem from late spring initiative summer.  Found in moist well drained rainforest margins and sub alpine areas of Tasmania.
Unfortunately these had finished flowering.  Photos 3 and 5 show its habitat.










 Part of Crater Lake on the way up to Marion’s lookout in the Cradle Mountain Lake st Clair National Park. A truly remarkable landscape gouged out by glaciers in the last ice age in Tasmania.