Vegetation class map
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Key:
<1%
1-10%
10-50%
>50%
Estimated percentage landcover for vegetation class
Structure
Eucalypt woodland typically up to 20 m tall with a sparse shrub stratum and continuous groundcover of tussock grasses and a variety of herbs.
Trees
Eucalyptus albens (white box) dominates with Brachychiton populneus subsp. populneus (kurrajong), Callitris glaucophylla (white cypress pine), E. blakelyi and E. melliodora (yellow box). In the north E. melanophloia (silver ironbark) and Eucalyptus pilligaensis (narrow-leaved grey box) occur.
Shrubs
Bursaria spinosa (blackthorn), Cassinia arcuata (sifton bush), Eremophila debilis (winter apple), Notelaea microcarpa (native olive), Pimelea curviflora (curved rice flower), Templetonia stenophylla (leafy templetonia).
Forbs
Themeda australis, Poa sieberiana, Bothriochloa macra, Acaena agnipila, Alternanthera nana (hairy joyweed), Asperula conferta (common woodruff), Bulbine bulbosa (bulbine lily), Chamaesyce drummondii (caustic weed), Chrysocephalum apiculatum (common everlasting), Convolvulus erubescens (Australian bindweed), Cymbonotus lawsonianus (bears-ear), Cynoglossum suaveolens (sweet hounds-tongue), Dianella longifolia (blue flax lily), Dichondra repens (kidney weed), Dichopogon fimbriatus (nodding chocolate lily), Geranium retrorsum (common cranesbill), Goodenia pinnatifida (scrambled eggs), Hydrocotyle laxiflora (stinking pennywort), Leptorhynchos squamatus (scaly buttons), Lomandra filiformis (wattle mat-rush), Microseris lanceolata, Microtis unifolia (common onion orchid), Oxalis perennans, Plantago varia (variable plantain), Rumex brownii (swamp dock), Sida corrugata (corrugated sida), Solenogyne gunnii, Stackhousia monogyna, Tricoryne elatior (yellow autumn- lily), Velleia paradoxa (spur velleia), Wahlenbergia luteola, Wurmbea dioica subsp. dioica (early Nancy), Aristida latifolia, A. ramosa var. ramosa (purple wiregrass), Austrodanthonia setacea (small-flowered wallaby grass), Austrostipa aristiglumis (plains grass), A. scabra subsp. falcata (rough speargrass), Bothriochloa macra (red grass), Dichanthium sericeum (Queensland bluegrass) (in the north), Elymus scaber (wheatgrass), Poa sieberiana, Sporobolus creber (western rats tail grass), Themeda australis (kangaroo grass).
Habitat
Fertile soils usually derived from basalt and low-quartz sedimentaries on flat to undulating terrain below 700 m elevation on the western fall of the Great Dividing Range. Mean annual rainfall varies from 550 to 800 mm.
Distribution
Western fall of the Great Dividing Range stretching the full length of New South Wales, extending north into the Darling Downs region of Queensland and south into central Victoria. From Terry Hie Hie in the north to Tamworth and Mudgee-Goulburn River valley in the east and to Cowra and Holbrook-Wagga in the south. Principally found in New South Wales, possibly with minor occurrences in southern Queensland and northern Victoria. Examples occur along the Gwydir River valley near Gravesend, the Peel valley north of Tamworth, around Merriwa in the upper Hunter Valley, Cowra, Temora, South Gundagai and Holbrook.
Notes
An extensive group of assemblages with diverse groundcover, showing variation with latitude, rainfall and soils. Grading into Tableland Grassy Woodlands at higher elevations and Western Slopes Dry Sclerophyll Forest on less fertile soils or more rugged terrain. Extensively cleared for pastoral uses throughout distribution.
Sources
Moore (1953); Biddiscombe (1963); Prober (1996); Thomas et al. (2000); White (2000); Prober & Theile 2004
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See a
list of species, populations and ecological communities
associated with the Western Slopes Grassy Woodlands vegetation class.