| On the drier fringes of the swamp there is the possibility of bush-fires in the dry season, which will push back the margins of the rainforest and allow gum trees and wattles to take advantage of the conditions. The rainforest then spreads back into the area in wetter years. The principle trees of this area are the Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus pellita), the Pink Bloodwood (E. intermedia), Brown Salwood (Acacia mangium), Northern Wattle (A. crassicarpa) and Hickory Wattle (A. aulacocarpa). They all produce masses of flowers which are food for the Mahogany Glider. Other swamp-edge trees found at Chakoro Nature Reserve are the Golden Guinea tree (Dillenia alata) and the Golden Bouquet tree (Deplanchea tetraphylla). Both have beautiful flowers and the Golden Guinea has a compound fruit with eight red capsules displayed radially, containing white seeds, that makes it look just like another kind of flower. |
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| Under ideal conditions the Swamp Mahogany will grow into a giant of a tree, emergent from the rainforest canopy, but this makes it liable to lightning strike and damage from cyclones, so most trees have a battered, contorted crown and often lean at seemingly impossible angles. Their broken limbs are good nest-sites for gliders and their spongy, deeply furrowed bark makes them good hosts to orchids, (commonly Cymbidium madidum and C. canaliculatum), and the Silver Elkhorn fern (Platycerium hillii). Elkhorns are epiphytes, which means they use their host for support but not for nourishment. Parasites, on the other hand, use their hosts for both support and nourishment. When an Elkhorn dies, its remains are often parasitised by the Ribbon Fern (Ophioglossum pendulum) seen here. |
| The wet locations that Swamp Mahogany lives in makes it particularly prone to being attacked by fungi, that digest and disintegrate the centre of the trunk, and dry-season fires often burn the living sap-wood on just one side, opening up the inside of the tree to a variety of creatures. One such local inhabitant is the Black-tailed Monitor (Varanus tristis). With his long claws, this lizard rakes all the loose rotten wood down to the mouth of the hollow tree base, where it spills out onto the ground. There the Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) rakes through the litter looking for grubs. Being pre-digested by the fungi, this material is now available for recycling by the tree's roots. The hollow trunk doesn't seem to hurt the tree, and the extra nutrients allow the tree to grow that much faster. |
| This kind of forest is somewhat more open than the rainforest, and the extra light leads to an abundant growth of sedges at ground level, which is often ankle deep in water after heavy rain. The sedges differ from grasses in that they have three stiffeners running up the outside of the main stem, to give the stem support. This gives the stems a triangular cross-section, and viciously sharp edges. These can be dangerous to those who are unlucky enough to get scratched while pushing through the tangle, because these cuts can easily become infected. This is partly the reason why we don't allow visitors to the Reserve - public liability insurance would be very expensive to get. |
| Black-tailed monitor |
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