Moonah trees, Melaleuca lanceolata subsp. lanceolata, growing on cliff-top dunes at Blairgowrie, Nepean Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Coastal Moonah

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Moonah trees, Melaleuca lanceolata subsp. lanceolata, growing on cliff-top dunes at Blairgowrie, Nepean Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Coastal Moonah Woodland is characteristic of calcareous dune systems, here developed over soils of the Bridgewater Formation. It is a valued feature of the Nepean Peninsula, in decline, and listed as threatened under Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act of 1988. The picture shows trees in a very exposed position facing the Bass Strait, growing in an unstable dune system. In sheltered sites, Moonah can develop as a long lived tree to 10m in height. Here, continual exposure has caused the plants to adopt a prostrate habit, growing away from the direction of the prevailing wind ( from the left of this picture ). Despite this tenacity, the trees at such sites are likely to be doomed due to the weathering and eventual collapse of the dune system itself

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Size: 3468px × 5212px
Photo credit: © DR JEREMY BURGESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: bass, biological, biology, blairgowrie, botanical, botany, bridgewater, coastal, exposure, form, formation, lanceolata, melaleuca, moonah, nepean, peninsula, prostate, strait, subspecies, wind, woodland