Vegetation class map
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Key:
<1%
1-10%
10-50%
>50%
Estimated percentage landcover for vegetation class
Structure
Open eucalypt woodland, 10-15 m or (rarely) 20 m tall, with prominent shrubby understorey and sparse to moderate groundcover of sedges and grasses.
Trees
Angophora bakeri (narrow-leaved apple), Eucalyptus parramattensis subsp. decadens and E. parramattensis subsp. parramattensis (Parramatta red gums), E. sclerophylla (hard-leaved scribbly gum). On damper soils with higher clay content Melaleuca decora and sometimes Eucalyptus fibrosa (red ironbark) may also occur.
Shrubs
Banksia aemula (wallum banksia), B. integrifolia subsp. integrifolia (coast banksia), B. oblongifolia, B. serrata (old man banksia), Conospermum taxifolium (coneseeds), Dillwynia sericea (egg and bacon pea), Hakea laevipes subsp. laevipes, H. sericea (silky hakea), Leptospermum trinervium (flaky-barked teatree), Melaleuca nodosa, Monotoca scoparia (prickly broom-heath), Pimelea linifolia subsp. linifolia (slender rice flower), Platysace ericoides.
Forbs
Mitrasacme polymorpha, Stylidium graminifolium (grass triggerplant), Trachymene incisa subsp. incisa, Cyathochaeta diandra, Entolasia stricta (wiry panic), Eragrostis brownii (Browns lovegrass), Lepidosperma urophorum, Lepyrodia scariosa, Microlaena stipoides var. stipoides (weeping grass), Themeda australis (kangaroo grass)..
Habitat
Podsolised fluvial sand and silt deposits on former floodplains of flat or gently undulating terrain in rain shadow areas of the Sydney basin receiving 700-900 mm annual rainfall. Isolation of the alluvial deposits in different valleys, and their differences in soil characteristics, have lead to the development of a suite of different plant communities, each typical of a particular patch of alluvium.
Distribution
Restricted to several separate locations on the Cumberland Plain, Mellong sand sheet and in Kurri Kurri and Warkworth areas of the Hunter valley. Unique to New South Wales.
Notes
Share a number of species with Sydney Hinterland Dry Sclerophyll Forests and Coastal Dune Dry Sclerophyll Forests. Depleted by sand mining activities and rural or urban development.
Sources
Tozer (2000); NPWS (2003)
See all threatened species associated with this vegetation class
See a
list of species, populations and ecological communities
associated with the Sydney Sand Flats Dry Sclerophyll Forests vegetation class.