The Great Sandy Desert: #3, trees and herbs

This was to be the last in this series based on my recent experiences in the remote and relatively little-known Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia (which began here) but I've realised that I've got quite a large number of plant photos - I was there in a rare good season, when a lot of plants were flowering after substantial rains. I could of course just make a limited selection, which is what I'd probably do normally, but because few of my readers will probably have an opportunity to go there, and most of the plants will thus be unfamiliar, I've decided to introduce them pretty comprehensively, in two postings. In deference to those with less interest in the topic I'll take a break from the series next week, and talk about something entirely different, before coming back to finish by talking about some desert shrubs in a fortnight.

(And before going on, if you read the last posting, on animals of the desert, you might be interested in looking at the unexpected solution to the mysterious mud pellets surrounding the burrows in the salt of Lake Mackay!)

In the first posting, while introducing the landscape, I featured some key trees that help define in it various places - Mulga, Desert Oak, Desert Paperbark, Ghost Gums and Desert Bloodwoods. I won't revisit them today, but there were other trees, mostly low-growing, which appeared from time to time. There were quite a few acacias, as there are pretty much anywhere in Australia, but most were shrubs which will have their moment next time, but in addition to the Mulga, a couple of acacia trees occurred fairly frequently, though generally growing alone. 

Black Gidgee Acacia pruinocarpa is a striking desert tree, whose distribution is centred on the Great Sandy Desert.

The distinctive large leathery foliage of Black Gidgee.

Wirewood A. coriacea (often referred to confusingly as Desert Oak) has thin leathery phyllodes, and grows across the tropical inland.

A small clump of Wirewood growing on a spinifex plain.

Wirewood foliage and flowers; central desert people eat the seeds whole, and as flour.

Whitewood Atalaya hemiglauca, family Sapindaceae, is another widespread and very attractive dry country tree.

Whitewood is an excellent shade tree in country where shade is in short supply; I remember some good camps in its shelter.

Lolly Bush Clerodendrum floribundum Family Verbenaceae is a small tree found right across northern Australia, in wetter as well as arid zones. Despite the name and the attractive-looking fruit, they are not edible.

Desert Poplar Codonocarpus cotonifolius Family Gyrostemonaceae is more familiar in southern arid lands, though there are also outliers to the west of the Great Sandy.

In addition to the Desert Bloodwood, which is often found on the dunes, there are a couple of mallee species of eucalypt (low-growing and multi-stemmed, so technically really shrubs) growing, often in some profusion, on the plains.

Eucalyptus (or Corymbia) deserticola - ie 'desert dwelling' - is found scattered across the more northern deserts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The distinctive fruit and leaves of E. deserticola. Like some other eucalypts, it retains its juvenile leaves, which are opposite and clasp around the stem.

Red-bud Mallee Eucalyptus pachyphylla (definitely more a shrub than tree!), another specialist of the central deserts, at its western limits in the Great Sandy. Below its large and conspicuous fruit; you can still see traces of the bright red that characterises its buds and confers its common name.

I've introduced the Proteaceous genus Hakea before in an earlier blog; a couple of species thrive in the arid sandiness of the central deserts.

Fork-leaved Corkwood Hakea divaricata, above and below. Another central desert specialist.

Corkwood Hakea lorea, above and below. The corkiness of the bark (not really the wood) is evident above.

Time now to look down, at some of the flowering herbs (or ground-covering shrubs, I'm not going to be too pedantic about it).

A parakeelya Calandrinia stagnensis Family Portulacaceae. I'm almost sure of the species, but less sure of the name origin. The '-ensis' suffix indicates a place, but the type locality is listed as 'Ross's waterhole, Macumba River', in northern South Australia, which leaves me baffled. If you have an insight to this one I'd be interested.

Blue Pincushion Brunonia australis, the only member of the family Brunoniaceae (though some would now lump it into Goodeniaceae). This pretty herb has an amazing distribution, from the forests of the south-east and south-west, through woodlands to the central and western deserts.

Desert Pepperflower Diplopeltis stuartii Family Sapindaceae, above and below. Technically a shrub, but really... Interesting for a couple of reasons. It is one of the few colourfully-flowered members of the family, many of which (like the hop-bushes, Dodonea)  are wind-pollinated. It is also one of the few plants named for the doyen of desert explorers, John McDouall Stuart, who collected it.

There were a couple of species of Goodenia, only one of which I could name.

Goodenia centralis, as the name suggests, of the central (and western) deserts.

This Goodenia, above and below, I can't find in any of my books. Advice welcomed!

And while we're on mysteries, I might as well put this one up in the hope that someone might recognise it (and of course because it is intrinsically attractive).

It was growing near the shores of the salty Lake Mackay.

Likewise this one; I was thinking it could be a Stemodia but now I'm not at all sure.

A roadside mystery, above and below.

But it's probably best for my self-esteem to end with a couple that I am reasonably confident about!

Horse Mulla Mulla Ptilotus schwartzii Family Amaranthaceae. Mulla mulla is the name of the group, which can form vast expanses of flowers at times, but I can't shed any light on the significance of 'horse'. Wilhelm Schwartz founded Hermansburg Mission, now Ntaria community, in central Australia.

A samphire, Tecticornia verrucosa. It is apparently a source of edible seeds prized by desert Aboriginal people.

And that will do for today, I think. When we return to the desert we'll look at some of the beautiful flowering shrubs but, as I mentioned earlier, we'll have a week's break first, to do something quite different.