Swamp Lily - Ottelia ovalifolia Submerged plant with floating leaves found in slow moving streams and dams. Broad leaved plant with beautiful white flowers held just above water surface, grows in full sun or partial shade, in shallow to moderately deep water. Suitable for pond. May provide good cover for tadpoles. Water Snowflake - Nymphoides [...]
Most Australian plants provide valuable resources for wildlife. The best habitat plants provide some food, shelter and nest sites for a range of nectar, fruit, seed, leaf and insect (and other prey) eating animals such as birds, mammals, lizards, frogs and insects and other invertebrates. The top habitat plant groups which provide many resources for [...]
Compiled by Danie Ondinea (2006) Australian Natural History Series, published by the University of NSW Press. (Includes books about echidnas, kangaroos, the Platypus, the Lyrebird, goannas, the Common Wombat, the Little Penguin, etc.) Braby, M.F. (2004) The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia CSIRO Publishing, Vic. Brunet, B. (1996) Spiderwatch - A Guide to [...]
Junk food - kills birds It is not necessary to kill birds with kindness. Many of us love to have birds visiting our gardens. But it is distressing to see misguided members of the public 'helping' birds by providing bread, seed, sugar water, honey and fatty meats. These are all junk foods for birds and [...]
General comment A healthy bird community removes between 50 and 70% of leaf-feeding insects from farm trees. 430 bird species were recorded over 2 years on 330 farms in southern and eastern Australia. The average size of the farms was 608 ha. On tree cover For every 10% increase in tree cover, bird diversity increased [...]
Fruit of the Ficus genus is a favourite food of Flying-foxes and the figs, themselves, are worth a second look. In the Sydney region, two of the common fig species are Ficus macrophylla (Moreton Bay Fig) and Ficus rubiginosa (Port Jackson Fig). The Moreton Bay Figs in Sydney itself have mostly been planted, this Fig [...]
While searching for weeds in the regenerating vegetation in Ku-ring-gai Flying-fox Reserve at Gordon, I noticed some little black beetles about 12 - 15 mm long. What were they? What did they do? Did they have a name that we could add to the fauna list for the Reserve. Liz Cameron, in Search and Discover [...]
We have about 1,700 described native bee species in Australia (and many remain undescribed), found in all terrestrial habitats and displaying a wide array of social behaviours, although most are solitary. Apparently we have the most distinctive continental bee fauna in the world and Australia is the only continent where most bees are dependent on [...]