Is the steep rocky rise at the south end of Cadogen Park, a sports field surrounded by a narrow strip of vegetation.
Northfacing, the bank might as well be known as a commercial bank for its richness in biodiversity.
I suspect it was planted out purposely at one time, as the presence of human-spaced tuckaroo, acacia, and other native trees illustrates.
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Just as many fast growing weedy non-natives have filled the spaces where originally, I suspect, slow-growing natives struggled to make a living.
The section above shows about a third of the total length. The east-bound arm of Bedivere Road encloses the western end of the bank, while at the eastern end—where I came in—a foot/bike path runs past.
In the foreground of the photo the newly mown cricket ground where two species of birds, two swallows and a willie wagtail, were busy picking up stunned insects. Though I don’t have good photos of either of them, or lol, shots I can post on the FB Crap Bird Photography group, I’v put both birds on my ‘bird species sighted’ list.
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Most of the first third of the bank is influenced by this very large … still working out what it is … used to be called Angophra … a species that appears weedy in Brisbane … though this one may have been planted purposely.
This tree is on its way out. Almost every joint in the larger branches has a bunch of mistletoe hanging from it in various stages of life or death.
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Mistletoe, the brown leaves are new growth, the grey green mature. The shape of its leaves resemble the generic Eucalyptus leaf-shape, so I wonder whether the very comfort of this mistletoe on this tree means it’s finding this … easier to eat?
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Above, some of the many branches of the Angophra/Eucalypt with a bunch of its leaves in the left foreground. At my eye height all leaves were infected with black mould with every do often a sprig of tiny red new tree growth trying to push through.
This is not a tree you would happily sit under for its shade while watching the cricket, and, mindful of suddenly falling branches, I decided not to take a short cut back to the path by walking under it, either.