Gems of the Rainforest
Living colour in the tropics
Look at this handful of amethysts and lapiz lazuli! These jewels are fruit of the Atherton Oak (Athertonia diversifolia, Proteaceae), a tree that grows only in a few rainforest areas of Far North Queensland — the Atherton Tablelands, Mt Lewis, and Mt Sorrow. A friend picked these from trees on her property. Most of the seeds will go to a botanic garden for their living collection. The rest I will grow at home.
In the build up to the Wet Season, the unsettled atmosphere brings afternoon storms. These storms appear from nowhere. Lightning slices the sky and thunder cracks and roars, crashing against the granite walls of choorechillum (Mt Bartle Frere) and wooroonooran (Mt Bellenden Ker). The rain is heavy and sharp, rattling on corrugated iron roofs and pounding against red earth. When the storms die, they leave behind stifling humidity.
The build up is a time when plants thrive and people go troppo.
We’re all waiting for the monsoon to sweep down from the north.
It is raining here. It has been raining since Thursday, when Tropical Cyclone Jasper ambled in from the Coral Sea. Variously described as ‘barrelling’ (it wasn’t) and then ‘inching’ (it wasn’t), TC Jasper wavered in intensity, finally making landfall near the Daintree as a Category 2 system.
