news Winter 2009Last month saw yet another big rain event in south-eastern Queensland and northern coastal NSW, and worryingly dry weather in south-eastern Australia with Melbourne's water supplies still at critical levels and the warmest Melbourne overnight May temperature on record. Another worrying development is that recent whether trends are indicating a possible build-up to another El-Nino event. Bureau of Meteorology useful links: ENSO (El-Nino) prediction Three-month rainfall probabilities Three-month temperature probabilities Recent rainfall maps Land and Water Australia shutdown Seems a strange move on the part of the federal Government at a time of climate change, drought etc. and when we need more innovative integration of agriculture, forestry and conservation land management. For more read a report from The Land newspaper. natural resource management news Latest news on natural resource and environmental management including upcoming conferences and events from the Envirocentre's e-newsletter. carbon news Latest news on climate change and carbon-related issues from the Envirocentre's online CO2 newsletter. new native seed stock We now have available good quantities of Eucalyptus rossii and Eucalyptus melliodora. Our recent collections of Eucalyptus albens sold very quickly but we are attemtping to source additional stock. upcoming stock Eucalyptus dealbata, Eucalyptus fibrosa, Eucalyptus sideroxylon, Eucalyptus populnea and Casuarina cristata are on our target list for the next few months. in flower now Winter is of course a relatively quiet time for flowering but is nonetheless the peak time for some species, including quite a few Eucalyptus species. Notable among these is is Eucalyptus albens which has an unusually long flowering period. Some individual trees begin flowering in Autumn and a few late flowering trees are still going in Spring, however the majority of individual trees flower in winter. The flowering event seems good this year although with white box this does not always translate into heavy seed crops. Among the many other winter flowering Eucalypts are Eucalyptus sideroxylon and Eucalyptus leucoxylon, both well known species. Surprisingly, given the dramatically contrasting colour and texture of their bark, these two species are closely related. Among the shrubs there are several winter flowering wattles. These include Acacia deanii and Acacia uncinata, both of which have long and spasmodic flowering times. The creamy white flowers of Acacia falcata are prominent in early winter while Acacia debilis and Acacia podalyriifolia flower a little later. Two very widespread and important revegetation species, Acacia stenophylla and Acacia salicina, both are winter flowerers looking good this year. Some of the cool season grasses are active in Winter. At Sarana the Slender Bamboo Grass, a little known Austrostipa species, is still flowering. This large clumping species has a lot of potental for use in landscaping. The warm season grasses are generally dormant at this time of year although with some species such as Barbed Wire Grass (Cymbopogon refractus) the old seedheads are still present and looking quite nice. Winter 2009 featured speciesclick on the photos for more information on each species Eucalyptus albens White Box | Eucalyptus sideroxylon Mugga Ironbark |  | 
| | | Acacia deanii Deane's Wattle | Acacia uncinata Round-leaf Wattle | 
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| | | Allocasuarina diminuta Sheoak | Hakea petiolaris Sea Urchin Hakea |  | 
| | | Austrostipa verticillata Slender Bamboo Grass | Cymbopogon refractus Barbed Wire Grass | 
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