A Rare plant that is locally abundant Persoonia arborea is a medium-sized shrub with thick-textured leaves, pale yellow flowers - in summer - and green fleshy fruit. It grows in tall forests of high rainfall areas (1200-1700 mm per year), which are usually dominated by Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans), tree ferns, ground ferns and a range of broad-leafed shrubs. Its geographic range is tightly circumscribed and restricted to an area of about 700 km2 in the central highlands, north-east of Melbourne. About 40% of the records for Persoonia fall within the Yarra Ranges National Park while the rest are on public land which is utilised for timber harvesting. By most definitions Persoonia would be regarded as rare. It is only known from Victoria, its geographic range is completely encompassed by a rough triangle about 70 km east-west and north-south, within that area it is restricted to a narrow climatic and environmental range and to a specific variant of a single ecological vegetation class. When a plant species exhibits such defined specificity for habitat it
is often well-adapted to that habitat and is successful within it.
This is the case with Persoonia arborea. It is one of the
most common shrubs in the central highlands wet forests and responds
well to disturbance. It is often found in dense thickets along
roads which have been cleared through the forest, sometimes to the
exclusion of all other species. This success is only within
clearly defined environments, so the warmer, drier forests and woodlands
to the south and the colder, sub-alpine forests and woodlands to the
north-east are firm barriers to Persoonia arborea and it
doesn't cross them. |
Persoonia arborea - Tree Geebung : Vulnerable in Victoria : Found only in Victoria |
© Paul Gullan/Viridans Images |
This is particularly true of semi-arid and alpine ecosystems but also for eucalypts. More eucalypts than any other group could be defined as rare but locally abundant, perhaps because eucalypts are usually the dominant plant species of most ecosystems and their classification reflects the environments in which they are found. But the most striking restrictive environment is the coastal saltmarsh where suitable and unsustainable habits may be separated by a few metres. The Grey Mangrove (Avicennia marina) is found only in narrow bands between the open sea and saltmarsh flats where it grows in dense stands to the exclusion of all other species. In a similar way the succulent Shrubby Glasswort (Tectocornia arbusculum) and Prickly Spear-grass (Austrostipa stipoides) only grow in specific bands of saltmarsh but often dominate the vegetation where conditions suit them. © Paul Gullan, Viridans Biological Databases |