Vegetation
Over 550 native species occur; the most significant vegetation communities are the alpine and sub-alpine communities. The lower slopes have communities of mixed gum and peppermint, including the Bogong Gum (Eucalyptus chapmaniana). These grade into pure stands of Alpine Ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) around 1100 metres (3800 ft) elevation, and subalpine woodland of Snow Gum, (Eucalyptus pauciflora) above 1300 metres (4000 ft). The majority of the plateau is at an elevation of 1500 metres (5000 ft), where inverted treelines in valley bottoms give rise to grasslands, with bog and fen communities of Sphagnum and Empodisma in watercourses.
The endemic eucalypt Eucalyptus mitchelliana, the Buffalo Sallee, is found on higher granite outcrops. Other endemic plants are Grevillea alpivaga (Buffalo Grevillea), Acacia phlebophylla (Buffalo Sallow Wattle), and Babingtonia crenulata (Fern-leaf Baeckea). The rare Pratia gelida, Snow Pratia, occurs in a small area on Hospice Plain.
Grazing was excluded from the park in 1957, one of the earliest exclusions of this activity in any alpine park. Weed species, particularly Himalayan Honeysuckle, Yarrow and blackberries, pose a continuing management challenge.
Read more about this topic: Mount Buffalo National Park
Famous quotes containing the word vegetation:
“I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood.... What a perfect maturity it arrives at! It is the emblem of a successful life concluded by a death not premature, which is an ornament to Nature. What if we were to mature as perfectly, root and branch, glowing in the midst of our decay, like the poke!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)