Great Northern Hwy

Road repair Great Northern Hwy

Still out at Muchea,  wet weather over the weekend has us re-patching work already done.

Had this big old boy come thru and upset proceedings for a while.

If nothing else this area certainly has a diverse selection of flora.

Corymbia ficifolia, commonly known as the red flowering gum, Albany red flowering gum and the Albany redgum. It is native to a very small area of south coastal Western Australia (measured in just tens of kilometres) to the east of Walpole.  Unusual to see it this far north here in Muchea.

The Australian Christmas tree uses a unique strategy that has revealed itself quite efficient for its survival in hard conditions. The truth is that the Christmas tree steels water from its neighbouring plants that absorb it from the deep dry soil even before they can use it. When an Australian Christmas tree root finds another root from a different species it develops a cap, called haustorium that firmly attaches to that root. It does not take long to surround the neighbour’s root completely forming a white ring. On the opposite side of the cap that attaches to the root a guillotine scissor-like growth forms. This unique structure grows towards the host root and slices it in order to attach into the xylem vessels that transport water and nutrients to the host plant body. Simultaneously, the cap tissue develops xylem vessel elements that spread inside the host wounded tissue and drive water to the Australian Christmas tree. On doing this thousand of times to all the neighbouring plant roots that it reaches, the Australian Christmas tree manages to get an almost infinite source of water and nutrients just for its private use.

Not sure what type of plant this is , however the white parts of the tree feels like felt. It could be the Athel pine but I’m not sure, if it is then it needs to be reported to the Pest and Disease Information Service as it may be a declared pest.