Plants in the Katherine region have adapted over many hundreds of thousands of years to suit our harsh climate.
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They are able to survive through long, hot, dry seasons as well as managing in times of floods.
Many of our plant species are adapted to regular burning. In fact some, called fire obligates, cannot survive without a fire every few years.
It is unfortunate though that fire is now more prevalent within our environment than they have ever been.
Cycads are wonderful plants - as a family, the cycads have survived since the age of the dinosaurs and they are able to grow happily in some of the most difficult conditions.
My Junior Rangers and their families have spent many hours surveying some beautiful cycas calcicola just outside Katherine.
Like other scientists before us we found that in areas that are burnt every year, many of the plants have damaged trunks and insects attack their leaves.
These burnt areas also have fewer seedlings; those babies that we did find were tucked away into rock crevices where fire did not often go.
When we surveyed a patch of cycads in an area that had not been burnt for a number of years, we found many sprouting seeds on the ground around adult cycads.
Most of these cycads were healthy and happy and had fruited well.
Cycads with a fresh set of fronds can be one of the first green plants seen after a fire.
Unfortunately, as is demonstrated in our survey results, these plants are not able to survive regular hot fires.
This week’s photo shows some beautiful cycas calcicola from Litchfield National Park.
They are healthy and growing well on a hill side that is protected from fire by hazard mitigation burning carried out by park rangers.
There are many cycads, however, that are not growing within the boundaries of a National Park and their survival is under threat.
