MALANDA FALLS VISITOR CENTRE
Five leaves to look out for in October
The recent dry weather and wind has seen a large fall of leaves
covering the forest floor. They will soon be raked up by bush turkeys
to make their egg mounds. So this seems like a good month to describe
some of the distinctive leaves that fall on the path to the turtle viewing
area. Look out for tree kangaroos too!
At the very entrance are a large number of brown leaves with a red
tinge. If you look carefully you will see they are not symmetrical,
and that the leaf base joins at different points. The tree has many
common names:- Cudgerie, Blush Cudgerie, Jenny Donnelly,
Maiden's Blush, Maiden's Blush Wood, Pink Poplar, Port Macquarie
Beech, Ribbonwood, Chinaman's Cedar. Crush the leaf and smell
the mango aroma. (Euroschinus falcata)
Some lovely red leaves, with green veins, are falling close to the
beginning of the Rainforest Walk. Red dead leaves are uncommon
in the rainforest, where new leaves are often red, not dead ones.
They belong to Mango Bark (sometimes called Scrub Turpentine).
This is a good timber tree, but the sap is said to be damaging if it
gets into cuts. (Canarium meulleri)
Another unusual colour for dead rainforest leaves is black. Leaves of
the Atherton Oak (didaja) or Nut go black and are also quite large.
The leaves are also easily identified, as the younger leaves are
strongly lobed. The Atherton Nut is native to the Tablelands, but is
widely planted as it is a great bush tucker, as well as having nice
flowers and foliage. (Athertonia diversifolia)
The leaves of the Grey Bollywood (baambu) are unusual in that the
underside is almost white, a lightness that is preserved in the dead
leaves. The tooth-billed bowerbird often uses these leaves to make
its stage … it clears an area of a metre or so of all leaves, then neatly
arranges upside down grey bollywood leaves in the space.
(Neolitsea dealbata)
These large thick leaves belong to the Banana Fig (gabi). This is
one of the strangler figs. Most in the park are still fairly small
(perched on some other tree, and sending roots down the tree’s
trunk to the ground). In time, the tree can become a large tree, in
its own right, killing the host tree in the process. (Ficus
pleurocarpa)