April 14, 2019

Roly Chapman Sunday Bushcare

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By: Michael Fox

Autumn is a wonderful time for Bushcare. Beautiful cool days among the trees surrounded by bird song.

Jake found a Common Crow Euploea core butterfly caterpillar exploring the Coral Berry Rivina humilis weed he was removing. Common Crow caterpillars feed on a range of native and exotic plant species however Parsonsia vines are preferred. Male Common Crow butterflies scratch the leaves with their claws and collect pyrrolizidine alkaloid  that are used in breeding and also provide protection: Golden Orb Weaver Spiders Nephila maculata release unharmed individuals high in alkaloids. (Orr and Kitching)

Fungi recycling - 14 April 2019

Wood eating fungi

 

It is great to see nature is working 24/7 to build on our Bushcare work. Larger woody weeds that are too big to pull out, like Indian Hawthorn Rhaphiolepis indica, are cut and poisoned leaving a stump. That is where nature takes over with fungi breaking down the dead timber.

 

 

March 24, 2019

Griffith students love our bushland

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Bushcare, Bushwalks, Mt Gravatt Environment Group, Wildlife of Mt Gravatt Reserve | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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By: Michael Fox

 

Members of the Australian Chinese Youth Association (ACYA) joined me yesterday to restore Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve. A diverse group with students from China, Japan and Australia, all passionate about working with China.

The team were also all interested in everything I showed them, like the Basket Fern Drynaria rigidula growing, not in cool shady gullies but on dry rocky Mt Gravatt.

Proud Bushcare team - 23 March 2019

Weed Busters at work removing Fishbone Fern

 

Casey asked what we do in the forest so I showed the National Tree Day plantings and explained our work educating and engaging community members with grant funding for interpretive signs and maps of walking tracks.

I put the team to work removing invasive Fishbone Fern Nephrolepis cordifolia. A native species indigenous to north Queensland it is an environmental weed in Brisbane spreading from garden waste dumped in bushland and smothering local natives.

Bark Cockroach - Laxta sp. - 23 March 2019

Bark Cockroach

 

 

Remember I said the team were interested in everything?

We have never found so many different species at one time. Casey found one of our bush cockroaches: Bark Cockroaches Laxta sp. live in the leaf litter preforming valuable recycling work.

 

Black Woodland Cockroach - Platyzosteria melanaria - 23 March 2019

Black Woodland Cockroach

 

 

A Black Woodland Cockroach Platyzosteria melanaria is a new addition to our Flora and Fauna species list.

 

 

 

Brisbane brush-footed trapdoor - Seqocrypta jakara - 23 March 2019

Brisbane Brush-footed Trapdoor Spider

 

Brisbane Brush-footed Trapdoor Spider  Seqocrypta jakara is another new species identified.

 

 

 

Net-casting Spider - Deinopis sp. - young - 23 March 2019

Net-casting Spider

 

 

 

 

 

A newly hatched Net-casting Spider Deinopis sp.

Brown Huntsman - Heteropoda sp. - 23 March 2019

Brown Huntsman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think Wentao (right) set a new record for finding wildlife including a Brown Huntsman Heteropoda sp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weeding disturbed a  Sugar Ant Camponotus sp. The ants immediately got busy relocating their larvae and when I checked today the site was completely clear.

 

 

 

Fungi - 23 March 2019

 

 

 

 

Cute fungi were also found.

 

 

Tiny mushroom fungi - 23 March 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny mushroom fungi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eight plus bags of weeds - 23 March 2019

Proud Weed Busters

 

 

Eight and quarter bags of weeds removed and ready to go to Green Waste at the dump. We compost most weeds onsite however the roots and nodules of Fishbone need to be removed from site or they regrow.

Thank you to the ACYA team. Looking forward to welcoming you back in two weeks.

 

February 2, 2012

Phil Reeves visits Glow-in-the-Dark mushrooms in Firefly Gully

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Bushcare, Forest Fungi, Gilled Fungi, Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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Mycena lampadis Luminous Mushroom

I had the pleasure, this week, of introducing our local state member – Phil Reeves MP, to one of the extraordinary and little known features of our unique mountain habitat – Luminous Mushrooms Mycena lampadis.

A lucky photograph, with a torch lighting a snail having a mushroom meal, also caught a group of mushrooms glowing in the dark. I don’t have an identification on snail yet however I will have a look at Semislugs – Family Helicorionidae – thanks to Helen Schwencke, Butterflies & Other Invertebrates Club.

Jon Kloske took some amazing photos like this amazing shot of mushrooms growing in a line on a rotting log over the track.

The mushrooms were first reported in January last year and at the time featured on 612ABC with Kelly Higgins-Devine.

Firefly Gully is one of the wildlife corridors identified in the 2011 Flora, Fauna and Fauna Corridor Assessment, and now being restored by property owners.

 

June 5, 2010

Stinkhorn Fungi

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Forest Fungi | Tags: , , , , |
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The Stinkhorn fungi are some of the most spectactular, unusual and, yes, stinky fungi in the forest.

Craypot Stinkhorn Colus pusillus

The reddish arms form a basket with ahollow in the centre. The arm are coated with brown faeces like rotten meat smelling coating that attracts flies to disperse spores.

 

The Craypot fungi bursts from a cluster of white gelatinous egg shapes.

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Starfish Fungi Aseroe rubra

This unusual fungi is commonly found in suburban gardens.

 

 

 


 

 

 

June 5, 2010

Gilled Fungi

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Forest Fungi, Gilled Fungi | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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I have grouped our Gilled Fungi into Mushroom style, Bracket and Funnel shapes and Simple Gills.

Mushroom style:

Russula persanguinea

A beautiful red and white topped mushroom style fungi.

Common in eucalypt forests this one was found in Gertrude Petty Place.

Click on images to enlarge

This orange mushroom style fungi was found in Fox Gully. Note the distinct gills on the underside.

Bracket and Funnel Shaped:

A beautiful bracket shaped white fungi growing on a log in Fox Gully.

These unusual funnel shaped gilled fungi were found in Fox Gully Zone 17 our latest restoration site.

Simple Gills:

M ycena sp – Simple gilled fungi – note the tall thin stems.

Tiny bright red simple gilled fungi make the surrounding leaves look like giants.

These purple simple gilled fungi were growing up through a Craypot Stinkhorn fungi. The stems on these fungi were not much thicker than a pin.