Across the whole Ballarat district, the pale yellow flowers of blackwoods have been at their peak in the past couple of weeks.
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This spring has provided us with the best flowering of blackwoods for many years.
This is their normal flowering time, but this year the flowers are more prolific and more noticeable, with seemingly every tree covered with flowers, and each tree at almost the same stage of flowering across the whole region.
Although they are not as bright as most other wattles, the blackwood's flowers are a pleasing view against the deep green of the foliage and the forest.
Each fluffy ball of blossom consists of 30 or 40 tiny individual fluffy flowers.
These produce a pleasant honey perfume on milder days.
The blackwood is a handsome, fast-growing tree with a dense rounded crown.
It is our largest local wattle.
In a forest situation, it is normally an understory tree, growing underneath manna gums, messmates, peppermints and other eucalypts.
The blackwood's foliage is dull rather than glossy.
Each leaf ("phyllode") has three or four parallel main veins. The leaves are widest in the middle, tapering at both ends.
The flowers will give way to seeds, which will be mature in December and January.
Blackwoods have seeded poorly for the past few years, so we can expect a good seed crop in summer.
Perhaps best known for its timber, the blackwood grows taller and larger in higher-rainfall regions such as the Otways and in Tasmania.
In our district, it is rare to find one with a trunk one metre thick, with 80cm being large for local specimens.
It is an under-used and under-rated dense shade and windbreak tree, usually providing more lower branches and denser shade than local eucalypts.
The blackwood is sometimes erroneously called the lightwood, but if it's flowering now, it's definitely a blackwood, not a lightwood.
The two species are rather similar, although the blackwood is larger. The lightwood's flowers appear in summer.
FEELING BROODY
A recent surprise at Mullawallah Wetlands was a brood of chestnut teal. This species is uncommon and irregular in the Ballarat region, and there may be only one previous breeding record - from near Clunes, many years ago.
Chestnut teal seem to be present year-round at the Macarthur Park Wetlands at Miners Rest, although no nesting has been reported.
At Lake Wendouree there has been at least one brood of grey teal seen. While the grey teal is often found in small numbers there, breeding records are few.
NATURE QUERIES ANSWERED
We came across this spongy moss in Lal Lal forest. There were several patches of it sitting on the surface among the gums.
C.V., Buninyong.
This is coral lichen, an attractive but uncommon feature of local forests.
Most local patches are not much more than three or four metres across.
As you noticed, each small clump seems to sit on the surface.
They often occur in drier sites.
They are hardy, able to withstand dry summers.
In dry conditions, they crunch and crumble underfoot, but in autumn they absorb the rain and become soft and spongy again, with the ability to return to shape after a heavy footprint.
There are a couple of similar species locally.
They are well-named, with delicate, sometimes hollow, lacy stems, resembling coral formations.
They are frequently turned over and scattered by foraging white-winged choughs, which search for insects and other creatures underneath.
- Questions and photos are welcome. Email to rthomas@vic.australis.com.au, or send to Roger Thomas at The Courier, PO Box 21, Ballarat, 3353