The Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia is a

temperate grassland Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in this biome consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from semi-arid to semi ...

in the southeast of

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 ...

that stretches from Orroroo in the north, to Strathalbyn in the south, just straddling the eastern fringes 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 ...

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 ...

. Listed as Critically Endangered under the

EPBC Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

, the grasslands predominantly feature Iron-grasses (

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 ...

species). The community is found in smooth slopes of low-level hills, and in wide valleys with elevations from to more than above sea level, covering most of the

Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...

area and

Clare Valley The Clare Valley is a valley located in South Australia about north of Adelaide in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys council area. It is the river valley formed by the Hutt River but is also strongly associated with the roughly parallel Hill Riv ...

. They are distinguished from other grasslands of southeastern

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 ...

because they are frequently dominated by Lomandra species (Iron-grasses) which are tussocks in the

Asparagaceae Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, ''Asparagus officinalis''. Those who live in the temperate c ...

family, rather than actual

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es.

Geography

The vegetation community is mostly found within the

Flinders Flinders may refer to: Places Antarctica * Flinders Peak, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula Australia New South Wales * Flinders County, New South Wales * Shellharbour Junction railway station, Shellharbour * Flinders, New South Wa ...

-Lofty Block Bioregion, with minor presence in the Kanmantoo, Eyre Yorke Block and

Murray Darling Depression The Murray Darling Depression , also known as the Murray-Darling woodlands and mallee, is a 19,717,651 HA biogeographic region and an ecoregion in southeastern Australia consisting of a wooded plain through which flow two of Australia's biggest r ...

Bioregions. The community once spread over an area estimated at between Clare and Burra to Jamestown,

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and to west of Carrieton, but has since been reduced to around 5,000 hectares due to agriculture and

land clearing Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

. 780 hectares have been used in conservation parks and private heritage agreements, with minor parts remaining in several reserves, including road and rail reserves,

gullies A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble lar ...

, ridges and on slopes of hills. The residue patches alter in size from less than 1 hectare to large blocks of 100 ha or more. They area distributed in the transition zone between the higher rainfall woodlands and the drier Mallee areas at the base of the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges to the Mallee, and from

Callington Callington ( kw, Kelliwik) is a civil parish and town in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom about north of Saltash and south of Launceston. Callington parish had a population of 4,783 in 2001, according to the 2001 census. This had inc ...

northwards to Terowie. The mean annual rainfall ranges from across the community with a rainfall peak in winter. The distribution of the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland is located within various Aboriginal Nations, including lands of the

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

Peramangk The Peramangk are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands traditionally comprise the Adelaide Hills, as well as lands to the west of the Murray River in mid Murraylands and through to the northern part of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the Au ...

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...

, Narrunga,

Nukunu Nukunu are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, living around the Spencer Gulf area. In the years after British colonisation of South Australia, the area was developed to contain the cities of Port Pirie and Port Augusta. Name Bot ...

and

Ngadjuri The Ngadjuri people are a group of Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lie in the mid north of South Australia with a territory extending from Gawler in the south to Orroroo in the Flinders Ranges in the north. Name Their ethnon ...

people.

Ecology

In the community, '' Lomandra multiflora'' and ''

Lomandra effusa ''Lomandra effusa'' is a perennial, dioecious, rhizomatous herb native to Australia. It is a perennial tussock with bluish green, large, arching leaves which are distinctive by the two toothed leaf tip. It has white, cream or pink fragrant f ...

'' predominantly occur alongside perennial, tussock-forming native grasses, which cover 70 per cent of the area. Grasses 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).

'' and ''

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 ...

'' species, and as well as '' Austrodanthonia tenuior'' and '' Dianella longifolia''. Wildflowers and forbs include '' Acanthocladium dockeri'', '' Caladenia colorata'', ''

Dodonaea procumbens ''Dodonaea procumbens'', commonly known as trailing hop bush or creeping hop-bush, is a species of shrub in the genus '' Dodonaea'' found in eastern Australia. It occurs in many places in Australia such as South Australia, New South Wales and Vi ...

'', '' Eryngium ovinum'', '' Swainsona behriana'', '' Arthropodium strictum'', '' Triptilodiscus pygmaeus'', '' Chrysocephalum apiculatum'', ''

Convolvulus erubescens ''Convolvulus erubescens'', commonly known as blushing bindweed, or Australian bindweed, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family (biology), family ''Convolvulaceae'' that is endemism, endemic to Australia. Description ''Convolvulus erube ...

'', ''

Goodenia pinnatifida ''Goodenia pinnatifida'', commonly known as cut-leaf goodenia, scrambled eggs or mother ducks, is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and endemic to Australia. It is a low-lying to ascending perennial herb with toothed to p ...

'', '' Bulbine bulbosa'', '' Einadia nutans'', '' Wurmbea dioica'', '' Velleia paradoxa'', '' Swainsona behriana'', '' Vittadinia gracilis'' and '' Wahlenbergia luteola''. Trees and gangling shrubs are devoid to sparse and would cover less than 10 per cent of the community, in addition to being mostly associated with contiguous woodlands. The sparse tree species are ''

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 ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

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 odorata'' and ''

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 ...

'', and the few shrubs include '' Bursaria spinosa'', ''

Enchylaena tomentosa ''Enchylaena tomentosa'', commonly known as barrier saltbush or ruby saltbush, is a small native shrub of Australia. Description ''Enchylaena tomentosa'' grows as a small perennial shrub, up to a meter in diameter. Leaves are slender and cylind ...

'', '' Eutaxia microphylla'' and '' Maireana brevifolia''. These grasslands are possibly traced from dissipated grassy woodlands, which also occur in the dispersion range of Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland. The region features loam to clay loam soils usually found on soft to precipitous slopes of hills and stony ridgelines.

Animals

Mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, spiders and other invertebrates influence the necessary ecological procedure of the grassland, with ''

Macropus fuliginosus The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, is ...

'', ''

Chalinolobus gouldii Gould's wattled bat (''Chalinolobus gouldii'') is a species of Australian wattled bat named after the English naturalist John Gould.Chruszcz, Bryan & Barclay, M. R. (2002)''Mammalian Species'' Chalinolobus gouldii The American Society of Mamm ...

'', ''

Chalinolobus morio The chocolate wattled bat, species ''Chalinolobus morio'', is a bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is found only in Australia, including the island Tasmania, and widespread in southern regions. It is known to reside from sea level to at leas ...

'', '' Tadarida australis'', ''

Dromaius novaehollandiae The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the Common ostrich, ostrich. It is Endemism, endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only Extant taxon, extant me ...

'', ''

Aprasia pseudopulchella The Flinders Ranges worm-lizard (''Aprasia pseudopulchella'') is a species of lizard in the Pygopodidae family endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation ...

'', ''

'', '' Tiliqua adelaidensis'', '' Pedionomus torquatus'' and '' Eolophus roseicapillus'' being the most recorded species. The state vulnerable '' Ardeotis australis'', '' Pedionomus torquatus'' and '' Trapezites'' luteus have also been observed in the Grassland. Birds include '' Cincloramphus cruralis'', '' Corvus mellori'', '' Pedionomus torquatus'', '' Aquila audax'', '' Cracticus tibicen'', '' Ocyphaps lophotes'', '' Phaps chalcoptera'', '' Coturnix pectoralis'' and ''

Turnix velox The little buttonquail (''Turnix velox'') is a species of buttonquail, part of a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in ...

''.

Notes

References

{{Australasia grasslands navbox Geography of Adelaide Grasslands of Australia Remnant urban bushland Vegetation of Australia Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Environment of South Australia Endangered Ecological Community

Geography

Ecology

Animals

See also

Notes

References