These are not in Dick’s creek reserve but have been observed in abundance in nearby bush.
These species get confused with each other. Differences are discussed here: https://southcoast-nsw.naturemapr.org/species/747
The photos below was an immature tree in Glenrock State conservation park.
Persicaria strigosa/praetermissa;
Thomas Mesaglio from NSW plant identification group says: leaves look wide enough to me to be strigosa?
https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Persicaria~strigosa
It was a quick one today. Between Flaggy creek working bee and the Flaggy creek christmas get together, I was able to get in an hour long working bee.
No.1 priority was to get the ground cover plants that the Landcare nursery had given us a few weeks back. They really weren’t liking there current situation.
There were a few spots along the creek edge that were suitable. This spot was just buffalo grass:
I am hoping this native ground cover is as resilient as the buffalo grass I replaced it with. It will need to set root fairly quickly as this spot does get flooded when we get solid rain.
The other location I chose was on the other side but it was in much worse shape as palm grass was taking over.
I dug that out but left most other plants… which included some bleeding hearts, some young lilly pillies and a few other undesirables which I had to correctly identify before dispatching.
Here is an image of the ground cover after just being planted.
UPDATE (01.03.2025): It has now been over three months since these were planted and I can confirm that both plantings have prospered. As long as I can keep the weeds back for a while, they should extend their coverage.
Eupomatia laurina (Bolwarra tree)
Links:
https://gardeningwithangus.com.au/eupomatia-laurina-bolwarra/
Google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Eupomatia+laurina+%E2%80%93+Bolwarra
Melia azedarach – White Cedar
Location: At top of hill leading to Site A. Next to mature sandpaper fig on at Site A.
I came across some unknown plants during my working bee on the 17th of Aug, 2024. One was a vine which the facebook NSW plant identification group identified as Clematis aristata.
It does appear to match even though the documentation online for it is not extensive.
Here is the entry on the plantNET site: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Clematis~aristata
It does appear to be endemic to the area so I made the right call in leaving it alone. I’ll be interested to see it blooming come spring.
Scrub turkeys (otherwise known as Brush or Bush Turkeys) always seem to show up when we visit natural areas frequented by people. However, at the Dick’s creek Landcare site they are a rare sight, so we were very excited to see one flying up through the trees a few days ago. Normally they tend to walk rather than fly but it occurs to me that is probably because National Parks and the like do not allow dogs. This turkey could not rely on the absence of dogs and other nasty predators so it obviously decided the trees were the place to be.
I was able to take some photos of it while it did some calls (which I had never heard before). Here is a snippet of the video I took:
I imagine it was driven to explore up the creek for the sake of finding a partner. I hope it does find a partner and we get to see little scrub turkeys in the future.
