Bushfire Regrowth

I have moved into an area that was severely affected by the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009.

Last Saturday I went up into the hills behind the town and this is what I found.

Common Pink Heath Epicris...Victoria's floral emblem

A couple of different forms of the carnivorous sundew drosera

A scattering of Billy Buttons craspedia

A very rare sparkplugia

Sarsaparilla vine hardenbergia violacea

and another pea like relative Egg and Bacon Bossiaea  

 Australian Buttercup Ranunculus lappaceus 

Paper daisies

Here a couple of general shots of he grasses, mosses, and other little plants with regrowth on trees visible behind.

In many places it will be the wattles, and eucalypt saplings that will regenerate the bush rather than the regrowth of existing trees.

On the sides of some hills the trees have just failed to regrow and we will have to wait for the babies to replace them.  In this part of the forest it was very quiet too, no bird song yet unlike the sections with regrowth up the trunks where bird calls were everywhere.

Bracken was one of the first things back and continues to flourish. Some believe that it blocks out the light and discourages regeneration of other flora after bushfires.  However, Mesibov says that on burned ground, bracken cover ameliorates the erosive and other affects of weather and encourages redevelopment of healthy soil and fauna.