The Mount Lofty woodlands, or the Peppermint Box Grassy Woodland of South Australia, is an ecoregion in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, which includes woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands in the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the K ...

, and

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

Location and description

The ecoregion includes the Mount Lofty Range, Fleurieu Peninsula, and Kangaroo Island, including the city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Murray-Darling woodlands and mallee ecoregion, on the west by the

Eyre and Yorke mallee The Eyre Yorke Block, also known as the Eyre and Yorke mallee, is an interim Australian (IBRA) bioregion and a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion covering part of the Eyre Peninsula and all of Yorke Peninsula as well as land to its immediate east in ...

, and on the north by the Tirari-Sturt stony desert. The ecoregion corresponds to the former ''Lofty Ranges''

IBRA region The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeography, biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities ( ...

. It includes the current (version 7) Kanmantoo IBRA region and the southern portion of

Flinders Lofty Block Flinders Lofty Block is an interim Australian bioregion located in South Australia. It has an area of , which includes the Mount Lofty Ranges and Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, whic ...

region.

Climate

The ecoregion has a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

. The Mount Lofty Ranges intercept southwesterly winter winds, creating

orographic rainfall In meteorology, the different types of precipitation often include the character, formation, or phase of the precipitation which is falling to ground level. There are three distinct ways that precipitation can occur. Convective precipitation is g ...

. Rainfall ranges from nearly 900 mm on the high peaks of the southern range to below 400 in the northern portion of the range.

Flora

Plant communities include sclerophyll forests and woodlands, open woodlands and savannas, mallee shrublands, and grasslands. Species of

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

are the predominant trees, and the species composition varies with elevation, rainfall, and soils. Peppermint Box (''

Eucalyptus odorata ''Eucalyptus odorata'', commonly known as peppermint box, is a species of mallee or a small tree that is endemic to South Australia. It has rough, hard bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth greyish bark on the thinner branches, lance-sha ...

'') is the dominant species of the tree canopy. Other tree species include ''

Eucalyptus microcarpa ''Eucalyptus microcarpa'', commonly known as grey box, is a species of tree that is endemic to southeastern continental Australia. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk, smooth whitish bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower bu ...

Eucalyptus leucoxylon ''Eucalyptus leucoxylon'', commonly known as yellow gum, blue gum or white ironbark, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It has smooth yellowish bark with some rough bark near the bas ...

Eucalyptus cladocalyx ''Eucalyptus cladocalyx'', commonly known as sugar gum, is a species of eucalypt tree found in the Australian state of South Australia. It is found naturally in three distinct populations - in the Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula and on Kangar ...

Eucalyptus porosa ''Eucalyptus porosa'', commonly known as mallee box, Quorn mallee or water mallee, is a species of mallee or a tree that is endemic to southern Australia. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth greyish bark ...

Bursaria spinosa ''Bursaria spinosa'' is a small tree or shrub in the family Pittosporaceae. The species occurs mainly in the eastern and southern half of Australia and not in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Reaching 10 m (35 ft) high, it ...

Acacia pycnantha ''Acacia pycnantha'', most commonly known as the golden wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae native to southeastern Australia. It grows to a height of and has phyllodes (flattened leaf stalks) instead of true leaves. Sickle-shaped, these ...

Allocasuarina verticillata ''Allocasuarina verticillata'', commonly known as drooping she-oak or drooping sheoak, is a nitrogen fixing native tree of southeastern Australia. Originally collected in Tasmania and described as ''Casuarina verticillata'' by French naturalist ...

Callitris glaucophylla ''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...

'', and ''

Callitris preissii ''Callitris preissii'' is a species of conifer in the family Cupressaceae, endemic to Rottnest Island, Australia. Common names include Rottnest Island pine, Murray pine, maroong, southern cypress pine, or slender cypress pine. The Noongar peop ...

''. Grasses and herbs include ''

Austrodanthonia ''Rytidosperma'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. Most of the species occur in Australasia, with a few in insular Southeast Asia, southern South America (Chile + Argentina), and certain islands of the Pacific (Hawaii + Easter Island).

'' spp., ''

Austrostipa ''Austrostipa'' is a primarily Australian genus of plants in the grass family, commonly called speargrass. The genus includes species formerly included in the genus ''Stipa.'' All known species are native to Australia, most of them found nowher ...

'' spp., ''

Lomandra ''Lomandra'', commonly known as mat rushes, is a genus of perennial, herbaceous monocots in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. There are 51 species, all of which are native to Australia; two of them also extend into New Guinea ...

'' spp. and '' Dianella revoluta''.

Fauna

The

short-beaked echidna The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus''. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snou ...

(''Tachyglossus aculeatus'') is found throughout the ecoregion. The

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal Endemic (ecology), endemic to Eastern states of Australia, eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypu ...

(''Ornithorhynchus anatinus'') no longer lives on the South Australian mainland. The platypus was introduced to Flinders-Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island between 1928 and 1946, and is currently established on the western portion of the island. Many species of birds and medium-sized mammals have been extirpated from the mainland portion of the ecoregion, principally from loss of habitat.

Koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

s (''Phascolarctos cinereus'') were introduced to Kangaroo Island in the 1920s. As koala numbers increased, over-browsing caused declines in some native eucalypts, particularly the rough-barked manna gum (''Eucalyptus viminalis'' ssp. ''cygnetensis''). The Government's Koala Management Program captures and sterilizes koalas, plants trees of the over-browsed species, and fixes collars on some trees to prevent koalas from climbing them."Kangaroo Island Koala Management Program". Department of Environment and Natural Resources Fact Sheet, Government of South Australia. Accessed 31 May 2020.

Protected areas

8.82% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Most of the mainland portion has been converted to agriculture or pasture. Protected areas in the mainland include

Mount Remarkable National Park Mount Remarkable National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located about north of the state capital of Adelaide and east of Port Augusta. It is also the name of the highest peak in the park, with a height of ...

Belair National Park Belair National Park (formerly known as the National Park and as Belair Recreation Park) is a protected area in Belair, South Australia, southeast of Adelaide city centre; it covers an area of . It was proclaimed in 1891 and was the first nation ...

, and

Onkaparinga River National Park Onkaparinga River National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located about south of Adelaide city centre. It extends over the floodplain of the Onkaparinga River east of Main South Road. History Most o ...

. Protected areas on Kangaroo Island include

Flinders Chase National Park Flinders Chase National Park (formerly Flinders Chase) is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located at the west end of Kangaroo Island about west-south west of the state capital of Adelaide and west of the municipal ...

Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area Ravine Des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the west end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about west of Kingscote. It was established in 1993 on land previously part of the Flinders Chase National Park. ...

Cape Bouguer Wilderness Protection Area Cape Bouguer Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about south-west of Kingscote. The wilderness protection area was proclaimed in October 1993 under the ''Wilderness P ...

, and

Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia about south west of Kingscote. It was established in 1993 on land previously part of the Cape Gantheaume Conserva ...

External links

References

{{Reflist Biogeography of South Australia Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub in Australia