ANPS Reserves no Brooks, but quite a Hill

So today we met at Brooks Hill Reserve near Bungendore.  According to my records our database entries for this reserve start with a walk on 20 November 1996, but a founding member of the group said that they used to walk here earlier than that, but the plant lists were not kept in the same way.

As the official report notes there wasn't a huge amount of flowering around today but the Acacia genistifolia made a nice show in places.

Incidentally that photo was taken on my new camera: pretty good recommendation by Roger!  Had I believed them when they said "battery requires charging" all photos would have been taken on that, but Frances smaller version (used by me) did a pretty good job as pinch hitter.

These flowers of Eucalyptus rossii were waving around above head height so difficult to snap, but there was so little in flower I thought a 'record shot ' was all that was needed.

 Chrysocephalum apiculatum was lower and more cooperative.  I suspect these are hanging on from the previous season rather than being early for the next.

Acacia decurrens on the other hand was getting ready for next month.

 I took this Amyema miqueli to show the 'stalks' on all flowers.  Thus they hang down more so are not pendulous.

 Einadia nutans fruit.

The fruit of Exocarpos cupressiformis.  The terminal orb is the fruit (ie a outside seed - which the classicists call an exo carpos) while the green swollen bit is an engorged pedicel.  The latter  is what turns red causing those with a strong, or pharmaceutically enhanced, imagination to see a resemblance to a cherry.

Ros has noted the browse line on the Exocarpos.  My reading of mammal stuff said that Swamp wallabies were more or less unique in the marsupial end of evolution in browing trees and shrubs rather than grazing, as do other wallabies and 'roos.

This is evidence that the mystery Olearia had a good flowering season.

The next two images were originally rotated , but have now been fixed to show a good crop of scribbles on  E. rossii.  First  a mass photo.

The main reason for the images was this shot which shows the track of a single larva of the moth.  The moth larva starts off at the bottom left (in this orientation) eats  its way up to the loop and then follows the fat track back down.  Where the track gets thin is where it emerged - presumably after a pause for pupation.

I suspect this is a mite of some description (and Roger Farrow has confirmed - by email from Cape Trib - that it is a velvet mite -Trombidium sp).  It was not keen on pausing to have its portrait taken.

 We will now have a brief foray into non flowering plants.  This image records the bright yellow-green colouring we could see on a number of tree trunks.  Just as a punt I will call this an algae.

 Here we have some moss and lichen growing on a bank.

 More lichen growing on a discarded stubby.

 I'll finish with 3 fungal shots: I have tried to put some Latin to the photos!  I will take a punt on Mycena sp.  for this cluster.

Laccocephalum mylittae

Again blogger initially rotated the following image.  I then got advice from the Blogger Help forum about it being to do a setting in my camera and EXIF settings (in my software) and by changing all of them have fixed the problem.

I am pretty sure that this is Cortinarius sp. (see Fuhrer p 52, species 60)