Whilst out installing nestboxes the eagle eyes of flora focussed fanatics spied some Black-eyed Susan (Tetratheca juncea) in full bloom…most exciting for all concerned, a real botanical bonanza!
This plant is difficult to spot most of the time as its leafless stems are pretty insignificant but these patches were beautiful. The T. juncea plant is a very pretty, delicate low shrub that forms a ‘tussocky clump’, which is slow growing, some bigger clumps are estimated to be more than 100 yeas old.
Tetratheca juncea grows mostly in Eucalyptus woodlands on low nutrient soils in association with fungi filaments (mycorrhiza) and around Coal Point it is in the Coastal Foothills Spotted Gum Ironbark Forest ecotone, this is the vegetation community along the ridge.
Nationally the species has a very restricted range with only two meta-populations, in the Central Coast and North Coast areas. The Lake Macquarie LGA is part of the Central Coast population.
Tetratheca juncea is a bit of a ‘toughy’ known to withstand slashing and nearby clearing and it can even persist in areas of weed invasion but weed infestation over the long-term appears to gradually diminish the size of the T. juncea population. Dumping of garden waste into reserves is the biggest local threat to its ongoing survival.
T.juncea is listed as a threatened species under both the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999. It is also listed as a Rare Or Threatened Australian Plant (ROTAP) with status 3VCa.
Factual information above was gleaned from Table 1 Summary of important characteristics of T. juncea in the Lake Macquarie T juncea Planning and Management Guidelines 2014.
The Threatened Species Last Stand on the Coal Point peninsula project has funds available to cover the cost of some bush regeneration on private land for landholders who have Tetratheca juncea on their block. Now is the time to have a good look for it because its flowering is peaking.
Recently a 2 hour survey along the West Ridge located 10 clumps in a relatively small area. A significant population by national standards, would mean 20 clumps/hectare.
Do you know where there are T juncea clumps?
Would you like some bush regeneration support?
Please contact Suzanne to share the joy.
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