North Queensland Native Palms

[Daryl]

After we did the tour of Townsville public gardens, the Ratpack headed north to Rollingstone, home of Livistona drudei. These palms are very limited in their distribution, and this ia a very easily accessible population. The one thing we did notice was a large number of large snake tracks in the sand!

Growing right next to the road...very easy to find!

Young plants are very distinctive

One of the more attractive native Livistonas with a clean trunk and tidy crown.

Tall specimens growing amongst Melaleucas

[Daryl]

Heading north, the landscape gets much greener and lusher. Less than an hour north of Townsville, we reach the start of the Australian wet tropics.

This is where the Paluma Range starts, and we took a detour to the top via Crystal Creek, eventually reaching the village of Paluma.

The landscape at Crystal creek borders on rainforest, but is still dry, except for the watercourses. He we found Archontophoenix alexandrae, Ptychosperma elegans, Livistona drudei and Livistona australis 'Paluma Range' growing.

Ratpack Rob walks under the moss covered Alex trunks...it looked pretty dry there.

Ptychosperma elegans hiding in the forest

[Daryl]

Driving up to the top of the range, the rainforest got thicker, and we found three different palm species growing...

Calamus moti, Calamus australis and Laccospadix australasica

Young Laccospadix...

Young Calamus australis

Gnarly fig trunk, with little seedlings growing all around it...

A much older Laccospadix with Asplenium growing on its trunk...

[Daryl]

Calamus moti which is almost spineless in it's juvenile form.

More Calamus, this time it's C.australis

Laccospadix trunks

Leading up to...

Further north, the highway passes Hinchinbrook Island...this area is quite palm-rich, but most are off the beaten track. Ptychosperma elegans is common though.

Next we headed north to Tully...

[Daryl]

Up behind Tully is a population of Oraniopsis appendiculata. John Dowe had explained that there was a stand growing in the lowlands hills, unusual for this species which usually only inhabits highland areas. We drove to an area known as Alligator's Nest in the Tully Gorge National Park. We set off to look for the Oraniopsis with John's instructions in hand, but everyone had their own interpretation of them. And nobody could read a mud map obviously! This led us up the creek (literally) and after an hour or so of wading through water and climbing slippery boulders, we decided to tackle the creek banks. What a mistake...thick tangles of spiny Pandanus and lots of Calamus...very slow going!

The 'Creek'

Calamus moti can be very painful!

Linospadix minor? was growing here and there.

We headed back into the creek, only to discover that there was a dirt road 20 metres away that followed the course of the creek! This was brought to our attention by the noise of a truck driving past! So after battling the bush for what seemed like a couple of hours, we made our way to the road and continued forward...

The trucked turned out to be a local worker who maintained the water supply, and he told us where the palms were. He kindly offered to drive us the rest of the way, so we all hopped on board for the ride to the palms.

A couple of minutes later we were at the top of the creek and staring at some sickly Oraniopsis. These were very old plants growing on a small island in the creek. One had about 60cm of trunk...apparently this has hardly grown in 20 years.

[Daryl]

After we had taken a good look at these plants, we prepared to head back down the track. A quick glance into a gully had everyone jumping when we found some more Oraniopsis, much heathier than the plants a 20 metres away. Further investigation revealed the tallest Oraniopsis any of us had seen...

The trunk on the old palm must have been 25 metres tall...who knows how long it would take an Oraniopsis to grow that tall! At least several hundred years I'd guess.

We headed back down the hill to find out that the map provided by John Dowe was totally different to our little trek. The palms he had told us about were only 200 metres from the carpark...

I'll let Wal fill in all of the other photos...

[edric]

Very interesting fellas, thanks for sharing, Ed

[Walter John]

I'll take up this thread at the start of day 2, the Friday, the day we met mister Oraniopsis up in the hills at the back of Tully, regarded as the wettest place in Australia.

Firstly, I thought I best show you the caravan/cabin park where we stayed and some of it's wonderful palms, the cabins we stayed in and the cars we hired, always Toyota Taragos.

Here we are at the caravan park, preparing for the day with a bowl of cereal, there's nothing more regular than a ratpacker let me tell you.

The cars in front of the cabins

A couple of pics of the park and palms

On the road, on with it, on to it, on top of it, anticipation in the air and ELO in the speakers...

[Walter John]

What's this war in the heart of nature ?

Why does nature vie with itself ?

The land contend with the sea ?

ls there an avenging power in nature ?

The Thin Red Line - 1998

She said that it's your duty to save your soul

To save it for someone

Moment in paradise

Just a moment in paradise

Oh, yeah

Jeff Lynne - 2001

Travelling there.......

[Walter John]

Alligators Nest - some place near Tully, and some place near Hell or some place near Heaven, I had a dollar each way and took that cheapskate bookie to the cleaners. The question was, which way to Oraniopsis. The full details of this days adventure will be available soon in hardback and hardluck, pre-order your copies now.

Mark checks the creeks on the sign, our first mistake. The mudmap we had was correct, we just didn't read it for what it said, besides, it just wasn't as fancy a colour as this sign.

Which way ? Which creek ?

Did you find Hawkins?

Stay tuned for more "Predator versus Ratpack"

and the magic Oraniopsis palm of Tully

[brodklop]

Great photos Guys. Those L. Drudei are really nice. Any seed around.

Those Alexes look a little different with the longer petioles and darker green at the top of the crownsharft.

Did you get any more pics of some solitaires.

Keep the pics coming.

[freakypalmguy]

Excellent tour gents. I've heard Oraniopsis appendiculata has some cold tolerance. You guys have any idea how low? Frost?

Matt

[Walter John]

Excellent tour gents. I've heard Oraniopsis appendiculata has some cold tolerance. You guys have any idea how low? Frost?

Matt

Hi Matt,

Michael (aussiearoids) should have the best idea on that, he lives quite close to this spot.

[happ]

Thanks for the travel log of native palms. I am always amazed that tropic species like archontophoenix do so well in dry climates like California. Also eucalyptus.

[Walter John]

Meanwhile...back to the hunt for O.appendicula, and I promise palm photos very soon.

The group thought this might be the creek, and according to the instructions given to us by Captain Jack Black, we had to go up creek, in the creek and not go on the land due to drop bears, predator and enemy gun fire.

The rocks were extremely slippery, only very careful edge traversing was possible, some went barefoot for a better foot grip, risking severe stings from the local bullrout fish. We never knew about the bullrouts till after this incredible and sapping creek walk. Let's go to the video.

We're going in, first we'll try crossing to the other side, it wasn't in the script, neither were the "slippery as an eel in a bucket of snot" rocks, it took an age to move 5 feet.

the group began to break up, we were losing ratpackers every minute.

[Walter John]

In a short space of time, the team had dispersed, it got kinda cold and lonely, ratpackers out of sight, dissappeared around the bend of the creek or simply vanished into thin air and three of us Daryl, Mark and I decided to try advancing on land on the other side of the creek. A big mistake, way too much vegetation, scratching and pulling you down, thick with pandanus and calamus and various vine plants, it was unforgiving, it was really torturous.

We could see down to the creek every now and then and we spotted one or two of the others.

Ran across some interesting plants, cycads etc.

Then the 3 of us went back down to the creek and tried going up again, we lost Mark, gone...then I noticed a clearing over a shrub on the first bank and Daryl and I simply walked out and onto a clear gravel dirt road and walked up to where the others were still floundering, ha ha ...suckers...follow us men...they did, at least most did, that's another story.

[Walter John]

As we discussed our next step in this adventurous day, some decided to stick to the creek, the rest took to the road and we walked up hoping to find the elusive Oraniopsis. We could still see the creek down below as we walked and we began seeing more and more Calamus palms.

I began to wonder if we would see Oraniopsis at all this day, and we were just about to turn back when we heard the sound of a truck, it turned out to be a local authority dewd who knew about the palm and generously drove us up to where they were. Wow, what a relief, lady luck looked like she was finally smiling our way.

[Walter John]

Finally, up near the top, where the town water supply begins, Oraniopsis appendiculata in all it's glory, we almost cheered, no I think we did cheer, you bloody beauty, after all we've been through.

Cameras were a blazing, here's some glorious deep green Calamus nearby

Rob volunteered to cross where this stand grew on the islands in the stream of the purest and tastiest water you could imagine.

Here Rob shows the height level the creek can frequently rise to in the wet season, hang on, it's always wet season there.

The water was cold and rocks were still slippery, thanks Rob for the chance to show the sizes.

[Walter John]

Time to say goodbye, wave to Col, and time to move on, a big thumbs up from Michael who had been doing it tough with a few body cylinders missing the beat.

As we headed down the road we spotted more of these palms.

Some of the group never left the creek, here's Darren and Nashy, lost boys now found.

[Daryl]

Great photos Guys. Those L. Drudei are really nice. Any seed around.

Those Alexes look a little different with the longer petioles and darker green at the top of the crownsharft.

Did you get any more pics of some solitaires.

Keep the pics coming.

Brod,

Unfortunately there was only a handful of seed on the ground near the drudei. After we saw all of the Taipan tracks, we decided not to push our luck! We did get a few lanuginosa seed too, but most were not quite ripe.

Daryl

[palmtreesforpleasure]

For those of us who went up the creek without a paddle, bare feet was the order of the day, Rob, Mike (who had the flu) and his brother Andy (who was recovering from an operation, tough blokes those green brothers, eat nails for breakfast ) and myself, were rewarded by finding 2 Oraniopsis appendiculata in a side creek, ithere was lots of jungle around us. Hopefully mike can post the pictures. The bolders in the creek were granite, round and slippery, in between was a little river sand, so we got lucky now and again with some some sand to step onto. Phill, Nashy and David came back down via the creek as they had ventured further into the wilderness, by swimming with the running water and sliding gingerly over the rocks, they look liked drowned river rats, another fantastic aussie rat pack adventure had, getting a ride on the truck up to the source of the water supply for tully was a bonus adventure and seeing the very old Oraniopsis appendiculata was a great treat for all of us, definitely under the banner, seeing is believing category. Then the trunk of a Lepidozamia hopei came into view, the tallest we had ever seen , maybe 18m, so tall hard to judge, the others may be able to add some info. too much foliage around to get a clear picture although Daryl's fantastic camera may have got a one

regards

colin

[aussiearoids]

WOW and in my own back yard [ nearly ] gee I should have taken a sicky .

[Daryl]

For those of us who went up the creek without a paddle, bare feet was the order of the day, Rob, Mike (who had the flu) and his brother Andy (who was recovering from an operation, tough blokes those green brothers, eat nails for breakfast ) and myself, were rewarded by finding 2 Oraniopsis appendiculata in a side creek, ithere was lots of jungle around us. Hopefully mike can post the pictures. The bolders in the creek were granite, round and slippery, in between was a little river sand, so we got lucky now and again with some some sand to step onto. Phill, Nashy and David came back down via the creek as they had ventured further into the wilderness, by swimming with the running water and sliding gingerly over the rocks, they look liked drowned river rats, another fantastic aussie rat pack adventure had, getting a ride on the truck up to the source of the water supply for tully was a bonus adventure and seeing the very old Oraniopsis appendiculata was a great treat for all of us, definitely under the banner, seeing is believing category. Then the trunk of a Lepidozamia hopei came into view, the tallest we had ever seen , maybe 18m, so tall hard to judge, the others may be able to add some info. too much foliage around to get a clear picture although Daryl's fantastic camera may have got a one

regards

colin

Colin, here's a photo of Nashy after his 'swim'.

And here is my only photo of a cycad trying to impersonate a palm!

Michael, I take it you haven't seen these palm? Mate, you should go for a drive up there..it is only 10 mins from your place!

Have the guys posted back your glasses and hat yet?

regards,

Daryl

[aussiearoids]

Got my shades back mate , don't really care about the hat , am due for a better one .

Council guys here are great , I know several of them , as I was often at the nursery at the depot. potting up native seedlings for re-vegetation projects.

[aussiearoids]

Got my shades back mate , don't really care about the hat , am due for a better one .

Council guys here are great , I know several of them , as I was often at the nursery at the depot. potting up native seedlings for re-vegetation projects.

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Daryl

was hoping you got a picture of the Lepidozamia hopei , it was an amazing site, our Cycad team division member, Darren, nearly had a conniption at the size of it.

Now that you have posted the picture of Nashy, the river rat member of the river rat division of the Aussie rat pack, it ably shows the fantastic trips we enjoy, even providing clothed bathing facilities for the team. :D

Well worth the drive seeing all those species in habitat.

Daryl gave us good training in the differences between the Calamus species, he has a great eye for detail (plus takes great pictures)

thanks

Colin

[Walter John]

Cocos nucifera and scenes at Cardwell

Hinchinbrook

Green coconut stood out

[Walter John]

Day 3 would turn out to be the longest day of them all, longer than any day of all ratpack tours of duty so far.

On the way to collect Michael (aussiearoids) from his place in Tully, I snapped this shot from the moving car, a habitat capture of three palm species, can you ID folks ?

This sign was interesting, they like to tell you where you are "not going" so you can work where you "are going" by a process of elimination. I love NQ.

[Walter John]

Here's a few sets of habitat pics at the Licuala walk at Mission Beach. This was one of my personal dreams come true. This amazing palm, Licuala ramsayii, stands tall here, even after cyclone damages of immense proportions.

There are other palms habiting the area too, like Calamus and Hydriastele, but it's the great aussie Licuala fan palm that commands centre stage.

Driving in, that's (aussiearoids) Michael on the left and (newcal) Michael on the right.

The carpark, look at the heights of these beauties

Into the walk, looking up towards the sky most of the time...I was spellbound.

What about this for palm overload....bring it on baby, bring it on...

[ariscott]

I can't believe I haven't been there yet... Maybe if they have a playground there, I can drag my kids to see some palms...

Regards, Ari

[Walter John]

Ramsayi Ratpackers....one might say....then again.....one might not

That's a Licuala trunk John is leaning on by the way

more pics later...

[aussiearoids]

native Hornstedtia

One of the unusual gingers was in flower along the Licuala boardwalk and luckily one of the ratpackers who was walking with me was very interested in other plants than palms [ his identity will remain a secret ] Hornstedtia scottiana has a very brief flowering period , and the small basal flowers would only be there for about a week or so . How lucky was that timing ? I did not take my camera as I knew several Ratpackers would be loaded for bear .

[Daryl]

You can never take too many photos of 'Chakoro' Licuala ramsayi...

Freycinetia grows all over the forest, and right up Licuala trunks...

These ones never recovered from Cyclone Larry...

However, this one did...

[Daryl]

Calamus are everywhere...very painful! They are much more numerous since Cyclone Larry as there is more light reaching the forest floor.

[Daryl]

There are several other palm species growing locally at Mission Beach. Here is Arenga australasica growing right down to the shoreline...

How close to the beach do they grow? About this far...

[Daryl]

At the southern end of Mission Beach, we were invited to see a lovely new garden, planted out with palms and cycads, owned by Nick.

Nick's place has a million dollar view overlooking Dunk Island. The hill is covered in rainforest, and includes Ptychosperma elegans and Calamus moti growing right up to his door.

The hill is also covered in really tall cycads...Lepidozamia hopei

But what really catches your attention is the fantastic view to Dunk Island!

Overlooking Mission Beach...the Boys are pondering...

[Daryl]

As Wal mentioned, whilst we were in the area, our tour guide was Michael (Aussiearoids). Michael did a great job lining up all of our local visits to habitat as well as gardens and nurseries...thanks mate!

We also got a short tour of Michael's place in Tully, dodging light rain showers.

Michael's Betelnut...growing well in his wet, humid climate.

And another photo of Wal's Sealing Wax palm...now who's a happy chappy!

That's more from me...back over to Wal in the central commentary position...

[Walter John]

Thanks Daryl, now if you can just remove your key out of the pitch we might be able to get on with the game..

[Darold Petty]

Thanks Ratpackers! This is a great thread. In 1984 the IPS Post-Bienial trip was two weeks travel up the eastern seaboard of Australia. We spent two nights on Dunk island. One most enjoyable memory is the wonderful sound that the fronds of L. ramsayi make rustling in the wind.

Here in California, a moderate-sized Oraniopsis about 2.5 m tall survived -2C with no apparent damage. (This plant later died, but not from frost.)

[realarch]

Thanks guys, love the photos and the narrative. Those Licuala are spectacular.

Tim