Vegetation class map
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Key:
<1%
1-10%
10-50%
>50%
Estimated percentage landcover for vegetation class
Structure
Open, dry, eucalypt woodland, typically with an abundance of ironbark eucalypts and an open subcanopy of paperbarks. The trees may grow to 30 m tall, although on poorly drained clay soils they may scarcely reach 10 m tall. The understorey has a prominent stratum of sclerophyll shrubs and a semi-continuous grassy groundcover.
Trees
Eucalyptus fibrosa (red ironbark) is common throughout with Melaleuca decora in the subcanopy, while E. crebra (narrow-leaved ironbark), E. eugenioides (narrow-leaved stringybark) and E. longifolia (woollybutt) may be common within localised areas, and Eucalyptus moluccana (grey box) and E. tereticornis (forest red gum) may occur on shale-gravel transitions.
Shrubs
Acacia falcata, A. pubescens (downy wattle), Bursaria spinosa (blackthorn), Daviesia ulicifolia (gorse bitter pea), Dillwynia tenuifolia (egg and bacon pea), Dodonaea falcata (thread-leaf hopbush), Grevillea juniperina subsp. juniperina (prickly spider-flower), Lissanthe strigosa (peach heath), Melaleuca nodosa, Olearia microphylla, Ozothamnus diosmifolius (white dogwood), Pultenaea parviflora and P. villosa.
Forbs
Calotis cuneifolia (purple burr-daisy), Dianella revoluta var. revoluta (blue flax lily), Dichondra repens (kidney weed), Goodenia hederacea var. hederacea (forest goodenia), Lagenifera stipitata (blue bottle-daisy), Laxmannia gracilis, Opercularia diphylla, Pomax umbellata, Pratia purpurascens (white root), Thysanotus tuberosus subsp. tuberosus (common fringe-lily), Vernonia cinerea, Cheilanthes sieberi subsp. sieberi (poison rock fern), plumegrass), Echinopogon ovatus (forest hedgehog grass), Entolasia stricta (wiry panic), Lepidosperma laterale, Lomandra multiflora subsp. multiflora (many-flowered matrush), Microlaena stipoides var. stipoides (weeping grass), Panicum simile (two coloured panic), Paspalidium distans, Schoenus apogon (common bog-rush), Themeda australis (kangaroo grass).
Habitat
Islands of gravelly clay soils of moderate to low fertility on flat to undulating terrain within extensive shale plains, forming a rain shadow zone that receives 800-960 mm per annum.
Distribution
Restricted to the Cumberland plain in western Sydney, but with related vegetation in the lower Hunter valley and Illawarra plain. Unique to New South Wales.
Notes
Grades into Hinterland Sandflats Dry Sclerophyll Forests on sandier soils and Coastal Rainshadow Grassy Woodlands on more fertile shale substrates. Fragmented by rural-residential and urban development.
Sources
Benson & Howell (1990); Benson (1992); Tozer (2003)
See all threatened species associated with this vegetation class
See a
list of species, populations and ecological communities
associated with the Cumberland Dry Sclerophyll Forests vegetation class.