Brandan Espe’s Post

While out on the usual threatened flora surveys, I had fun training students and getting harassed by a few of the feathery locals. Some of the trips personal highlights included some of the old favourites; Lindsayomyrtus racemoides Drosera prolifera Noahdendron nicholasii Coleus gratus Isachne sharpii As well as a new one for me, Megahertzia amplexicaulis.

Neat comparison showing what everyone in the environmental and landscaping industry know, but often struggle to really emphasis.

Great to see the fantastic work our team carries out being publicised, though exposed through external media outlets, I feel this page from our marketing team captured the best version. Proud of the members of my team involved for their commitment to improving our campus. https://lnkd.in/ebrxWQBe

Had great fun working with some of nations leading Biosecurity experts and Indigenous rangers to help make DAFF’s latest documentary on myrtle rust. Hopefully this can reach the right crowds and raise awareness around the issue. https://lnkd.in/g2NpKDR6

Part of my role is to curate and coordinate our campus grounds and environment teams, as such our recent cyclones and rain have come to be a pain. However, they have also proven an unrivalled teaching tool for the crew, with many of our formerly planted 200-500L trees finally coming down, years after planting. This has been a huge supporting factor in our push to use 45-100L trees in new landscapes, and no larger. The concern, for those not adept in landscaping, is that as an “instant” trees size increases when moving from a 100L up to a 200 or even a 1000L pot, the depth does not comparatively improve. The result are trees with poorly formed tap roots, their primary anchor, which often last years before the top weight is finally too much. The other issue, was not excavating the required 2x depth minimum, and expecting new trees to “punch through”. The final concern being the right tree for the right place, coupled with a past of not properly trimming specimen. Though the tree hovering over the green walkway was not planted, it shows the issue to having large trees too close to confining infrastructure, creating a costly repair. Just another learning curve on our organisations path to becoming a Botanic Garden, and one of many we now overcome with new approaches to management and capitol installations.

Calochilus caeruleus (blue beards), a wide spread beard orchid, found across much of Northern Australia, though poorly recorded. This is likely due to a combination of the plants small stature, restricted flowering time (1 week) and the fact the species flowers in the summer wet season and resides around paperbark swamps.

Another great program from the ANPC, hopefully many new collaborations will arise from this.

Just returned from the Atherton Highlands and sourounds during cyclone Jasper, surveying and collecting ex-situ materials for some of our rarest species, some of this trips highlights included; 1. Triplarina nitchaga - Known from 26 records across 3 restricted areas, Endangered. 2. Melaleuca lophocoracorum - Known from 3 locations in a 5km radius, and less than 300 plants, Critically Endangered. 3. Melaleuca sylvana - Known from a single range area (other records are questionable), and now known to recover from fires, Endangered. 4. Prostanthera clotteniana - a Critically Endangered mint from the Highlands of NQ, sadly no flowers were on this time of year. 5. Coleus amoneus - A Vulnerable coleus, which we located a few new localities for, and makes a great landscape species. 6. Homoranthus porteri - A small Vulnerable myrtle, found on rock sheets and cliffs. 7. Acacia purpureopetala - A Vulnerable (NCA) or Critically Endangered (EPBC) wattle with pink flowers. 8. Grevillea glossadenia - A Vulnerable orange flowered grevillea from the rangelands. 9. Micromyrtus delicata - An Endangered ground cover myrtle known from a single valley.

Coming into summer the heat is a killer, but atleast it brings with it our more delicate ground orchids. This Corunastylis tecta (Cardwell midge orchid) is housed in the JCU collection I manage and we were excited to see it throw up such a full bloom, even if the flowers are only a couple mm. This plant is known from only 11 collections (herbarium), three of which were made when we initially collected this specimen to assess their ecological requirements and feasibility in an ex-situ environment. Since then I have been lucky enough to work with DES around the fire management of this and many other endangered species of the region to better promote their recovery, something the on ground rangers have done a great job with to date.

Just returned from a few days surveying some threatened species around the Cassowary Coast. Highlight species included; Rhodamnia sessiliflora - Endangered, with several unrecorded populations mapped. Nepenthes mirabilis “Bramston” - Endangered Aponogeton bullosus and Lancesmithii -both Endangered. Cheilocostus potierae - Endangered And a possible Musa jackeyi (to be confirmed) Obviously also saw a cassowary and this gorgeous Morelia spilota cheynei.