The Sydney Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland, also known as Coastal Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland and Hornsby Enriched Sandstone Exposed Woodland, is a

shrubby A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

woodland and mallee community situated in northern parts of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, where it is found predominantly on ridgetops and slopes of the

Hornsby Plateau The Hornsby Plateau is a dissected sandstone plateau lying to the north of Sydney Harbour that rises 200 metres. The plateau is a part of the larger Sydney Basin structure. Geography The North Shore and the Berowra Valley National Park are locat ...

Woronora Plateau The Woronora Plateau is a plateau located in New South Wales, Australia. The area is adjacent to the Sydney Plains and is slightly higher in altitude. It is capped with Hawkesbury Sandstone. It is often hotter in summer and colder in winter than ...

and the lower Blue Mountains area. It is an area of high biodiversity, existing on poor

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

soils, with regular

wildfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

, and moderate rainfall.

Geography

Ku-Ring-Gai Chase NSW 2084, Australia - panoramio (11)

The Ridgetop Woodland is a low eucalypt forest having a diverse

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

shrub layer, mallees and open groundcover of sedges that sit on the Triassic

Hawkesbury sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this ...

plateaux, which encircle the

Sydney Basin The Sydney Basin is an interim Australian bioregion and is both a structural entity and a depositional area, now preserved on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia and with some of its eastern side now subsided beneath the Tasman Sea. ...

. The community is found in areas where the average annual rainfall ranges from 850mm to 1650mm. Around one-quarter of this community has been cleared for

urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

, though many areas still remain in conservation reserves.DSF p131: Coastal Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland
75-90% of the vegetation zone remains.DSF p131: Coastal Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland
Cunninghamia 11(3): 2010

Scope

It incorporates ''Coastal Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland'', which is found up to 600m above sea level in areas receiving an average annual rainfall ranging from 850 to 1650 mm. It then grades into

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

(e.g. '' Coastal Sandstone Plateau Heath'') where soils become more shallow. In the upper Blue Mountains it is supplanted by ''Blue Mountains Ridgetop Woodland'' on the more raised Narrabeen Sandstone, on sandy loams, where there it will grade into the

Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands Basalt Forests The Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands Basalt Forests are a sclerophyll temperate forest community that stretch from the northern fringes of the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), Blue Mountains to the Southern Highlands (New South Wales), So ...

further west. Coastal Sand plain Heath occurs at

Wottamolla Wattamolla, also known as Wattamolla Beach, is a cove, lagoon, and beach on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney, within the Royal National Park. History Wattamolla is the local Aboriginal name of the area, meaning "place near running wa ...

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales, just south of Sydney. The national park is about south of the Sydney central business district near the local ...

Flora

The area is dominated by Corymbia eximia and

Eucalyptus sieberi ''Eucalyptus sieberi'', commonly known as the silvertop ash or black ash, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk and the base of larger branches, smooth bark above, l ...

, which shape a sporadic overstorey enclosed with large shrubs such as

Banksia serrata ''Banksia serrata'', commonly known as the saw banksia, the old man banksia, the saw-tooth banksia or the red honeysuckle and as wiriyagan by the Cadigal people, is a species of woody shrub or tree of the genus ''Banksia'', in the family Prote ...

Leptospermum trinervium ''Leptospermum trinervium'', commonly known as flaky-barked tea-tree, slender tea-tree or paperbark tree, is a species of shrub or small tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has papery bark that is shed in thin, flaking layers, narrow e ...

and Hakea dactyloides. Smaller shrubs including Leucopogon setiger and

Dillwynia floribunda ''Dillwynia floribunda '' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an erect shrub with hairy stems, crowded, grooved, linear leaves and yellow flowers with red markings. Description ''Dill ...

are salient towards the edge of the rock shelf.

References

{{Sydneybushland Geography of Sydney Biogeography of New South Wales Forests of New South Wales Remnant urban bushland Vegetation of Australia Sclerophyll forests Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands

Geography

Scope

Flora

See also

References