baumzaehlen - Primeval Forests & Their Trees

Crater Lakes National Park , Queensland, Australia

This small (10 km ² ) park contains two crater lakes of volcanic origin, Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham, at 720–730 m asl, surrounded by the last relatively intact stands of Queensland’s tallest rainforest type, complex mesophyll vine forest on uplands ¹ . Here, “complex” refers to the diversity of life forms and structures, e.g. plank buttresses and epiphytes, “mesophyll” to relatively large leaf sizes and “vine” to the abundance of robust lianes ² . The park is a part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site (for more about the Wet Tropics, see Daintree National Park ).

Annual precipitation is about 1400 mm and average annual temperature about 20°C ¹ . The tree flora is diverse and species identification challenging. The most abundant genera include Argyrodendron and Ficus . A particular feature is two giant Agathis microstachya (bull kauri) trees at Lake Barrine, called Twin Kauri Pines.

References:

1 Tracey, J. G. (1982): The Vegetation of the Humid Tropical Region of North Queensland. CSIRO.

2 Webb, L. J. (1978): A general classification of Australian rainforests. Australian Plants 9 , 349–63.

Official sites:

http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/crater-lakes/index.html

http://www.wettropics.gov.au/