Moulting Trees

As I have said a few times lately, it is rather tropical here at the moment (that’s how the locals sarcastically describe damn hot, at this time of the year, when speaking to a tourist!)

We all know that cats moult, usually all over the best chair in the place, and dogs moult as the weather warms up, but trees?

I looked up a definition:
Moulting noun
periodic shedding of the cuticle in arthropods or the outer skin in reptiles.
(Dictionary.com)

Hmmm … I am not sure which category a tree would fit into, but I am still sure that they are moulting.

I have searched further, and lo and behold, cuticle is the connection to the plant kingdom …
Cuticle noun
Botany. a very thin hyaline film covering the surface of plants, derived from the outer surfaces of the epidermal cells.

I knew it! I have been watching them, and they are definitely moulting; you can even see the pile of skin on the ground below them!

I guess they too will feel cooler when the rains come.

Colours in the dry tropics

At this time of the year, as the dry season draws to a hot finish, the colours we mainly see around are the dry browns and even the burnt out blacks. Some of our plants, however, try valiantly to show some colour to the remaining visitors and locals, as they struggle towards the “green season” when the wet arrives.

The aboriginal people from the Kakadu area call this time of the year Gurrung, and consider that it is from mid-August to mid-October, and is hot and dry. It is still 'goose time' but also time for Bininj/Mungguy (the name of the people) to hunt file snakes and long-necked turtles. Sea turtles lay their eggs on the sandy beaches of Field Island and West Alligator Head and goannas rob their nests sometimes. White-breasted wood swallows arrive as thunderclouds build, signalling the return of Gunumeleng - the pre-monsoon season of hot weather that becomes more and more humid.
From: Department of the Environment and Water Resources website.

I have looked around for some colour, and following are a few photos to show some of the variations.
















Even the palms try white with the brown.






















Red seeds of the Carpentaria palm are offset by the white Torres Strait Pigeons feasting
















Fire by the sea - a pandanus suffers
















One defiant plant survives the burn




















A bright yellow native tree as a street planting





and a bright orange vine on a fence adds some colour





















Even pastels - pink and white frangipani