Small Wonders nature in miniature

Barry Muir

This edition features three tiny marvels that you can find in the Cairns Botanic Gardens. Look closely.

Daintree Pine (Gymnostoma australianum) – it is not a pine – occurs mostly between the Bloomfield River and Noah Creek near Cape Tribulation. It is sometimes called an “Oak” but, like its relatives the Sheoaks, is only very distantly related to the Oaks of the northern hemisphere.

Gymnostoma is the most primitive group within the “Sheoaks” and the spiky green, leaflike structures are not actually leaves but are modified stems. The leaves are minute whorls of spikes surrounding the stems at joints (called nodes) along the stems. Male flowers form spikes near the tips of leaves while female flowers form further down the branches and result in these reddish spiky nuts.

Among one of the best camouflaged critters that you can find in the Cairns Botanic Gardens are these masters of disguise, the Lichen Huntsman Spider (Pandercetes gracilis).

These awesome spiders hide in plain sight with their long, hairy tufted legs and patchy colouration creating an invisibility cloak around them. They have also evolved to be almost flat, so, unless they are lit from the side, like this one, they do not show any obvious body shape while they sit in ambush on tree trunks. The best time to see these spiders is at night when you can pick up their eye-shine with a torch. They can be found in the Gardens all year round and are often seen on the same tree trunk for months.

This Lichen Huntsman occurs in Sulawesi, New Guinea and Australia, but there are other species in South-east Asia.

Often going unnoticed because of their dark colours that blend into their shady environment are these fungi commonly known as Dead Man’s Fingers. They are in a huge genus of fungi, many of which are scientifically undescribed. Almost all grow on rotting wood and are one of the rainforest’s best recyclers. Others grow on dead palm fronds and there is another that only grows in the empty shells of Black Bean Tree (Castanospermum australe) seed pods. We are lucky to have several re-occurring clusters that appear regularly in the Cairns Botanic Gardens.