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Burnt grass tree
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
I live in a highland area in a small town surrounded by national parks and forests. Bush fires are, unfortunately, a fact of life. This is a photo after a nearby fire.
Grass trees epitomise the Australian bush: they’re beautiful, ancient, hardy, thrive in nutrient-poor soils and respond to wildfire by flowering profusely. They're iconic plants, recognisable even to budding botanists.
All 66 species of grass tree are endemic to (only found in) Australia. They're all perennial, flowering plants. The smallest species grows to about 1m, others reach 6m tall. Most species are extremely slow growing. Studies of some of the taller species found that trunk height increases at about 0.8cm to 6cm per year, but this varies with local environmental conditions1. In any event, grass trees are often very long-lived; some are estimated to be 350 to 450 years old!
Many species have an amazing ability to survive fire. A fire may burn their leaves and blacken their trunks, but the trees usually survive: the living growth-point is buried underground, protected by tightly packed leaf bases. In fact, some grass trees are stimulated by fire – in the spring after a summer bushfire, large numbers of plants can flower.
I’m not sure of the exact species that this grass tree is. |
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- lousat
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(65489) - [2018-05-16 5:19]
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Hi Ian,it's a pity that fire is a common thing in your country,and i can see just a small example of the result of its activity. Original post,but life continuous soon after some rain,very well done and very sharp capture. Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano
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