Section a obbens p65

Figure 1.  Location of Jingaring Nature Reserve, near Pingelly, in

the southwest of Western Australia showing rainfall isohyets.

Figure 2.  Vegetation communities of Jingaring Nature Reserve.

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Obbens, Davis & Sage: Vegetation of Jingaring Reserve

55

(CALM) Declared Rare Flora and Priority Flora list (Atkins

1999). The authors also received invaluable information

from WA Herbarium database records (WAHERB) and

(FLORABASE).

Results

Vegetation and habitat

Interpretation of the aerial photograph and site sur-

vey indicated six major vegetation types (Table 1 & Fig 2),

five quite distinctive, and a sixth being a variant of rea-

sonable species differences and of sufficient area to be

considered as separate (i.e. 5: Heath from Table 1).

The creekline community covers a small area (~ 3 ha)

and has variable soil types, the creek banks being a mix-

ture of gravels bound in fine to coarse sandy clay. Eucalyptus

loxophleba, E. rudis, Acacia saligna and Melaleuca sp are com-

mon, while further out Allocasuarina huegeliana becomes

more dominant on brown sandy loam. Numerous wind-

dispersed agricultural grass weeds, such as Avena barbata,

Ehrharta longiflora, Bromus diandrus and Lolium rigidum, are

well established here preferring the extra moisture and

nutrients.

The low forest community occurs on grey/brown

sandy loam in a narrow band east of the creek line (plains

country) and parallel to the road. Allocasuarina huegeliana

and Acacia acuminata predominate, interspersed with Eu-

calyptus wandoo and resulting in a mid-dense canopy cover

(30-70%), the open patches being more woodland like.

There are a few scattered shrubs, but most of the

understorey is quite open and rich in annuals and other

herbaceous species. The wandoo woodland community

slightly intergrades at the boundary with the previous

low forest community and again occurs on sandy loams.

This vegetation type traverses the slope with the

understorey on the lower slopes consisting of scattered

low shrubs (mainly Fabaceae) and sedges (predominantly

Lepidobolus preissianus and Desmocladus asper), while on the

mid to upper slope there are more frequent bare patches

containing wandoo leaf litter. Another pocket of open

wandoo woodland also occurs up slope on the reserve’s

mid northern boundary and extends onto adjacent farm-

land (Fig 2).

The low heath community covers most of the exten-

sive low-lying plain of the reserve and has a light grey/

brown sandy loam appearance. The area is reasonably

inundated at times during winter. Low shrubs and sub-

shrubs predominate, but there are also scattered patches

of taller vegetation including Allocasuarina campestris,

Santalum spicatum and some Acacia species. The heath is

species rich with a number of common shrubs such as

Calothamnus brevifolius, Melaleuca carrii, Beaufortia bracteosa,

Acacia lasiocarpa, Daviesia cardiophylla, Comesperma scoparium,

Hakea lissocarpha,  Dodonea pinifolia,  Petrophile ericifolia,

Laxmannia omnifertilis and Allocasuarina humilis to name but

a few. Mesomelaena preissii is the most commonly occur-

ring sedge.

Farther up the slope the low heath changes subtly to

heath. This community covers a considerable area of the

reserve in two large parts separated by wandoo wood-

land. The soil varies from light grey to light grey/brown

sandy loams often with a thin layer of bleached white

sand on top. Soil depth also increases farther up slope,

which might explain the differences in shrub height for

this community. Most of the species mentioned in the pre-

vious community occur here also, however, others such

as Banksia sphaerocarpa, B. violacea, Isopogon buxifolius, Pimelea

imbricata,  Leptospermum erubescens and Grevillea cagiana

appear to be specifically located within this vegetation

type.

The last community is a small patch of thicket domi-

nated by tall Allocasuarina campestris and Dryandra purdieana,

with a mid-dense understorey of Banksia sphaerocarpa, Hakea

incrassata and Calothamnus brevifolia. The soils are again a

light grey/brown loam and appear to have similar depth

to the heath community.

Flora

A total of 264 vascular species (237 natives and 27

introduced weeds) from 51 families were listed for

Jingaring Nature Reserve (Appendix). The ten largest fami-

lies were Proteaceae (28), Myrtaceae (27), Asteraceae (22),

Poaceae (18), Papilionaceae (16), Cyperaceae (15),

Mimosaceae (13), Orchidaceae (12) Goodeniaceae (11) and

total ‘Liliaceae’ (13). Half of the Poaceae species are weeds.

The ten genera with the greatest number of species are

Acacia (13), Verticordia (9), Hakea (6), Caladenia (6), Schoenus

(6), Drosera (6), Dryandra (5), Daviesia (5), Goodenia (5) and

Stylidium (5).

Two declared rare species, Verticordia fimbrilepis ssp

fimbrilepis, a variant of Dryandra ionthocarpa (currently un-