DaveO Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Oldfield, D. 2014. Xanthorrhoea australis R. Br. (Xanthorrhoeaceae) Austral Grass Tree. Flowers photographed in visible and ultraviolet light. http://www.ultraviol...ral-grass-tree/ Grampians National Park, Victoria, AustraliaRoses Gap Road13 October 2014Australian Native Wildflower CommentXanthorrhoea australis occurs from south-eastern New South Wales to north-eastern South Australia commonly in sandy soils or rocky areas. It is extremely slow growing and mature specimens with trunks 2-5 m tall can be hundreds of years old. The skirts of dead leaves are highly flammable although in most cases the plants are able to survive extreme bushfires. Fire usually stimulates flowering which is what happened in this case. The area was very badly burnt by wildfire in early 2014 and the plants responded with massed flowering in the following Spring. Visible Light: Nikon D7100 Full Spectrum Modification, Nikon Rayfact PF10545 MF-UV 105 mm f/4.5 lens, Sunlight, 1/250 s @ f/11 ISO 200, B+W UV/IR Cut Filter.Image Reference: DO70399 Ultraviolet Light: Nikon D7100 Full Spectrum Modification, Nikon Rayfact PF10545 MF-UV 105 mm f/4.5 lens, Sunlight, 1.0 s @ f/11 ISO 200, Baader UV-Pass Filter.Image Reference: DO70401 Visible Light: Nikon D7100 Full Spectrum Modification, Nikon Rayfact PF10545 MF-UV 105 mm f/4.5 lens, Sunlight, 1/200 s @ f/16 ISO 200, B+W UV/IR Cut Filter.Image Reference: DO70404 Ultraviolet Light: Nikon D7100 Full Spectrum Modification, Nikon Rayfact PF10545 MF-UV 105 mm f/4.5 lens, Sunlight, 2.5 s @ f/11 ISO 200, Baader UV-Pass Filter.Image Reference: DO70408 Reference:Elliot, W. and Jones, D.L., Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants suitable for cultivation Lothian Books, 2010, Volume 9, p. 487. Published 16 October 2014 Link to comment
colinbm Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Gota love those grass trees Dave :DCol Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 What an interesting plant, Dave. Link to comment
DaveO Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 In the first visible shot you can see how hot the fire was from the charcoal trunks on the background trees. They have regrown leaves all up the trunks as "epicormic growth" which is a common post fire reaction in Australian eucalypts. Once again the UV response of the flowers (as in Eucalyptus and Acacia blossom) is totally black. The flower stems appear even blacker in UV than the charcoal tree trunks behind them. Dave Link to comment
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