Vegetation class map
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Key:
<1%
1-10%
10-50%
>50%
Estimated percentage landcover for vegetation class
Structure
Short, open tussock grassland with an abundance of herbs and occasional emergent shrubs.
Trees
None
Shrubs
Scattered Atriplex leptocarpa (slender-fruit saltbush), Maireana aphylla (cotton bush), M. excavata (bottle fissure-weed) and M. pentagona (hairy bluebush), with occasional remnant individuals or regeneration of Acacia pendula (myall).
Forbs
Asperula conferta (common woodruff), Calocephalus sonderi (pale beauty-heads), Calotis scabiosifolia var. scabiosifolia (rough burr-daisy), Chamaesyce drummondii (caustic weed), Crassula colorata var. acuminata, C. decumbens var. decumbens, Chrysocephalum apiculatum (common everlasting), Daucus glochidiatus form G (native carrot), Goodenia fascicularis (silky goodenia), G. pusilliflora (small-flowered goodenia), Hyalosperma glutinosum subsp. glutinosum, Isoetopsis graminifolia (grass cushion), Leptorhynchos panaetioides (woolly buttons), Myriocephalus rhizocephalus (woolly-heads), Oxalis perennans, Ptilotus exaltatus var. exaltatus (showy fox-tail), Rhodanthe corymbiflora (small white sunray), Sida corrugata (corrugated sida), Swainsona murrayana (slender Darling pea), Triptilodiscus pygmaeus, Wurmbea dioica subsp. dioica (early Nancy), Austrodanthonia caespitosa (ringed wallaby grass), A. eriantha, Austrostipa nodosa, Chloris truncata (windmill grass), Enteropogon ramosus (curly windmill grass), Homopholis proluta, Sporobolus caroli (fairy grass).
Habitat
Extensive, flat, riverine plains with grey-brown clays and clay loams receiving 350-420 mm mean annual rainfall. Composition varies with drainage and rainfall. Well-drained soils in eastern and south-eastern parts of the area with higher rainfall are dominated by Austrodanthonia, Chloris and Austrostipa, while Enteropogon replaces Chloris where rainfall is lower in the west. Locally damp sites are dominated by daisies, and species of Agrostis and Austrodanthonia.
Distribution
East and south-east of the Hay Plain, Jerilderie-Deniliquin-Hay-Narrandera-Lockhart, an overgrazed, degraded facies of Riverine Plains Woodlands and Riverine Chenopod Shrublands. Examples occur in Oolambeyan national park.
Notes
The riverine grasslands were apparently derived from Riverine Plains Woodlands, which were eliminated by heavy grazing. They are not shown on the reconstructed projection of native vegetation. They also share species with Riverine Chenopod Shrublands.
Sources
Benson et al. (1997); Porteners (1993); Beadle (1948)
See all threatened species associated with this vegetation class
See a
list of species, populations and ecological communities
associated with the Riverine Plain Grasslands vegetation class.