Favoritos de em_lamond

revisted this site with a tripod to get better quality photos. if anyone wants the raw files or full quality to try and identify features let me know.

also I will probably revisit a few times a year to see if I can find any reproductive structures

One of two local species that does not have sheathing (stem clasping) leaves. This species has 15 to 17 rows of cells between the edge of the costa and the leaf margin at the base of the leaf. See the last image for detail. Listed as B. stricta in Catcheside (1980).

One of two local species that does not have sheathing (stem clasping) leaves. This specimen has around 30 rows of cells between the edge of the costa and the leaf margin at the base of the leaf. See the last image for detail. Listed as B. species A in Catcheside (1980). This species is not known to create sporophytes in Australia. The leaves tend to remain straight and erect when wet and appressed when dry.

This species also has a sheathing (stem clasping) base. It is generally larger than B. hampeana subsp. hampei and is distinctly bent (or geniculate or kneed) at the transition between the stem clasping leaf base and the green lamina of the leaf. The leaf broadens at this transition to form large rounded "shoulders".

This is subspecies hampei but the full name is not available currently in the database. It is similar to B. robusta but is smaller. It has sheathing (stem clasping) leaf bases like B. robusta but the leaves are not geniculate (kneed) like that species. It has an oblong leaf base which then tapers to the lamina without broadening at the shoulder like B. robusta.

Red arrows on image 8 indicate the gap left by the dorsal lamina which mostly does not extend the full length of the leaf. Images 12, 15 and 16 show the obtuse angle (sometimes a curve) formed at the leaf tip. The similar F. oblongifolius has acute leaf tips. The final image shows the attachment of the vaginant lamina.

This species is also listed here on iNat as Pseudoleskea imbricata however current Australian listings use the genus Pseudoleskeopsis.

Photographed here alongside Breutelia affinis, but also commonly seen in this location alongside Braunia imberbis which it closely resembles although the leaves are substantially smaller.

MAINLAND QUOKKA
Many people know about the famous, small friendly herbivorous macropod from Rottnest Island, as you've no doubt seen from varying "Quokka selfies" taken there. There are quite a few on this island that unfortunately have become accustomed to humans so such a thing is possible than to walk up to a quokka a take a selfie with it.
But did you know there are fragmented populations still on the mainland? And are struggling to survive. These mainland populations are spread out from bushland in the Perth Hills to outside Albany in the south. Currently listed as "Vulnerable" under IUCN 3.1 these species are being affected by predation from feral cats and foxes, habitat loss and changing fire patterns.
And it's these fire pattern the people at DBCA (Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions) are currently monitoring in bushland outside Perth
Over the past few days I've been volunteering my time helping set traps, radio track current collared quokka, set up remote camera units while walking through some of our great forests outside Perth..
This was one male quokka of a hefty 5kg that we caught in a wildlife trap this morning. Weighed, tagged and collared to monitor movements through prescribed burning programs. Here Murdoch University PhD. candidate L. Povh is releasing said male who tore off into the bush as fast as his legs could carry him (which was pretty darn quick!). To reduce stress on the animal (which has never come into contact with humans before) all work was done inside this bag and it was released without much fuss (hence no quokka selfie ;) ).