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BUDAWANGIA*

AN E-NEWSLETTER FOR ALL THOSE INTERESTED IN THE NATIVE PLANTS OF THE NSW SOUTH COAST

Contact: Dr Kevin Mills – kevinmillskma@gmail.com

No. 26 - May 2014

Aims: To connect those interested in the native flora of the NSW South Coast, to share up to date information on the flora of the region and to broaden the

appreciation of the region’s native plants. Editorial

The weather during the month has been quite dry. Nonetheless, fungi still appeared in some places. Autumn

flowering terrestrial orchids are withering or not flowering at all. White Cedar trees, mentioned last month,

are now covered in yellow fruit, attracting Olive-backed Orioles and Lewin’s Honeyeaters, among other

birds.

Following last month’s piece on cactus, this edition looks at the biological control that was introduced to

successfully control the outbreaks of cactus in inland Australia. Frederick Rodway was a prominent Nowra

doctor in the first half of the 20th

century, he was also a significant local botanist; a piece on his legacy as a

botanist appears in this edition.

Plant of the month makes its appearance again, this time it is Yellow Bloodwood Corymbia eximia, a small

tree/mallee growing in the low rainfall zone around the lower Shoalhaven River gorge. A new mystery weed

is presented. Prompted by last month’s wetland plant, another species of Ludwigia is discussed here. A

reader has sent in a note about Macleay’s Swallowtail, following the piece on the Orchard Butterfly in a

previous edition.

botany - the word is derived from the Latin botanicus, which in turn comes from the Greek for plant.

English words include botany, botanise, botaniser, botanising, botanic, botanical, botanically and botanist.

Examples from European countries include the French botaniste, the Italian and Spanish botanica, while the

Germans have botanik.

I would be pleased to receive appropriate articles, however small, on interesting observations, new

discoveries, plant name changes, etc., up to two A4 pages, including some photographs. Deadline for copy is

one week before the end of the calendar month.

Kevin Mills, Jamberoo, NSW.

Tel. 02 4236 0620

All photographs ©Kevin Mills 2014, unless otherwise stated.

* Budawangia is a monotypic, endemic genus restricted to the Budawang Range on the western edge of the South

Coast region. The genus was named by Telford in 1992; the species Budawangia gnidioides (Ericaceae) was

previously Rupicola gnidioides.

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More on Cactus

The last edition contained a piece on the two species of cactus most often found naturalised in the region.

This follow-up is about the major problem this cactus caused around the beginning of the 20th

Century and

the introduction of an insect that achieved successful biological control that eventually wiped out the major

infestations.

In the 1920s, huge areas of western Queensland and parts of NSW were covered in Prickly Pear, making the

land impossible to farm or graze stock. The Prickly Pear was finally controlled by the introduction of insects

whose larvae eat the plant; primarily this was the moth Cactoblastis cactorum from South America. Within

ten years, the insect had destroyed almost all Prickly Pear plants in Queensland. This is one of the most

dramatic biological control programs in history; the moth is still present and suppresses the spread of Prickly

Pear; brown, dried up cactus plants in this region indicate the work of the moth larvae.

Above. Larva of the Cactoblastis Moth.

Right. Damage to cactus cladode by moth

larvae.

Unusual leaf shapes

Leaves come in all shapes and sizes. Most plants have uncomplicated leaves or leaflets, while a few have quite

unusual leaf shapes that stand out from all others. A few examples of local plants are provided here.

Hastate shaped leaves of

Typhonium eliosurum.

Angular-lobed palmate leaves of

Sicyos australis.

Leaf margins palmately lobed or

angled, the weed Delairea

odorata.

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Nowra’s botanist doctor - Frederick Arthur Rodway (1880 - 1956)

Rodway was born in Hobart, Tasmania on 25 March 1880 and died at Nowra, NSW, on 1 April 1956. He

was a member of a very botanical family. His father was Leonard Rodway (1853-1936), a prominent

Tasmanian botanist–dentist and one-time honorary Government Botanist, while his daughter was Dr

Gwenda Davis (nee Rodway), a professor of botany at the University of New England and noted for her

work on the embryology of Australian plants. She was married to Dr Harrold Consett Fosbery Davis (1913-

1944), also a botanist at the University of New England and who was killed in an aircraft accident in New

Guinea during the Second World War. Davis undertook botanical studies at Bulli and the Five Islands in the

1930s.

Frederick Rodway was a doctor based in Nowra; his house and a surgery are at the corner of North Street

and Bridge Road. Over his life, Rodway amassed what was reported to be the largest private herbarium in

the state, containing some 15,000 specimens that he donated to the National Herbarium of NSW in 1952. He

collected extensively around the south coast and his specimens are prominent amongst the plants from that

region in the National Herbarium of NSW. Rodway had a hand in naming the teatree species Leptospermum

rotundifolium, a common plant found on the sandstone country of the Shoalhaven. Budawangs Wallaby-

grass Plinthanthesis rodwayi, a species endemic to the Budawang Ranges, is named after Rodway. Rodway

Nature Reserve on the Cambewarra Range is named after the family.

Dr Frederick Rodway

Source: Australian Plant

Collectors and Illustrators.

Leptospermum rotundifolium (Maiden & Betche) F.Rodway ex Cheel

Trivia Spot

The following trivia were purloined from the internet:

The average strawberry contains about 200 seeds, and is the only fruit that bears its seeds on the outside.

The smallest woody plant in the world is reported to be the Dwarf Willow Salix herbacea, a prostrate

species found in Greenland.

The average cabbage is 91% water, while an apple is 25% air, and explains why it floats.

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Mystery Weed

A weed that is popular with Europeans at Christmas.

Answer next edition.

Plant of the Month – Corymbia eximia

Yellow Bloodwood Corymbia eximia (Myrtaceae) is a mallee or small tree and grows in woodland in the

country to the west of Nowra, where it is at its most southern limit of distribution. Yellow Bloodwood is

very common around Tallowa Dam and downstream along the Shoalhaven River gorge, often growing in

dense stands in the most exposed locations on cliff tops (see photograph below). Rainfall in this area is

considerably lower than on the surrounding higher country. The species is readily identified by its large,

blueish leaves, large buds and fruit and rough yellowish bark. This small tree grows with other woodland

trees such as Eucalyptus sclerophylla, E. punctata, E. sieberi, several stringybarks and Corymbia gummifera.

The large yellow buds of Corymbia eximia.

Leaves and fruit of Corymbia eximia.

Left. The light green on top of the

escarpment in centre photograph is

a large stand of Corymbia eximia.

The blueish trees below the cliffs

are Coast Myall Acacia binervia.

Photograph is looking across the

Shoalhaven River gorge down-

stream of Tallowa Dam.

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Wetland Plants No. 2

Following the piece on Ludwigia peploides in the last edition, Sean Harris (Jamberoo) pointed out that

Long-leaf Willow Primrose L. longifolia is also introduced to NSW and is a declared noxious weed. This

species was apparently first recorded near Sydney in 1991, but has been on the north coast and in

Queensland for some time. As far as I know L. longifolia has only been found once on the south coast,

at Albion Park. Another noxious weed L. peruviana occurs in one location, the swamp adjacent to

Dunmore Railway Station. As far as I know, this is the only location on the south coast.

Far left. Branch of Ludwigia peruviana. Left. Dried fruit of L. peruviana. Photographs taken of plants at Dunmore, May 2014.

The Macleay’s Swallowtail Butterfly

Following the piece on the Orchard Butterfly in Budawangia No. 23, Jenny Virgona (Coledale) sent in

the following. I recently (April) found a dead butterfly in my backyard at Coledale and have identified

it as Macleay’s Swallowtail Graphium macleayanus ssp. Macleayanus; see specimen in image below. I

think it’s a male. Butterflies of Australia (M. Braby, CSIRO 2000) states the larvae in NSW and QLD

prefer to eat Geijera salicifolia but also eat various species of Cryptocarya, Endiandra, Daphnandra,

Doryphora, Tasmannia and the exotic Cinnamomum camphora. All of these genera occur in the

Illawarra. I haven’t been in my house long and haven’t identified everything yet. Think I’ve got a

Cryptocarya and a young Sassafras. I will keep my eyes open for the larvae!

Left. The Coledale specimen compared with photographs of mounted specimens. Below. The larva of Macleay’s Swallowtail butterfly. Images supplied by Jenny Virgona.

Macleay’s Swallowtail is mainly observed flying in our region in the warmer months, between

September and March. I have often seen them hovering around the local rainforest trees, particularly

Sassafras Doryphora sassafras. KM