page_title: Heron Island (Queensland)
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Heron Island (Queensland) / Ecology / Flora
caption_attribution_description: Cordia subcordata; {puataukanave} in Tonga
context_page_description: Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 80 kilometres north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 460 km north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The island is situated on the leeward side of Heron Reef, a fringing platform reef of significant biodiversity, supporting around 900 of the 1,500 fish species and 72% of the coral species found on the Great Barrier Reef. During the summer months Heron Island is also home to over 200,000 birds including Noddy Turns and Mutton Birds.
  The island is about 800 metres long and 300 metres at its widest, giving an area of approximately 16 hectares. The highest point, near the western tip, is 3.6 metres above sea level. A dune ridge along the southern shore rises some 3 metres above sea level, lower dunes on the north-eastern side are only about one metre above the sea.
  Heron Island and an extrapolated version of the research station are the scene of much of the first part of Arthur C. Clarke's The Deep Range.
context_section_description: Rich forests of Pisonia grandis dominate the centre and south of Heron Island. Towards the eastern and north-western ends, the forest is readily accessible, but its heart is a dense tangle, interrupted only by a few trails.
  Some trees in the heart of the forest grow to 10–11 m, but most are just 6–8 m high. The understory is largely absent here, formed only by scattered Celtis paniculata, Ficus opposita and Pipturus argenteus with a height of 2–4 m; some Celtis also grow higher and emerge through the Pisonia canopy. Patches of shrubs – mainly Abutilon albescens, with Melanthera biflora (probably var. canescens), and the introduced wild poinsettia (Euphorbia cyathophora) – are found here and there. Herbaceous plants are scarce here, mainly consisting of the grass Stenotaphrum micranthum. The more open forest is composed of much the same plants, but the Pisonia does not predominate as much. A few Pandanus tectorius screwpines are also found here, and the understory is far more prominent.
  North of the Pisonia forest, a band of open shrubland with some trees extends from the resort to the island's eastern tip. Octopus bush (Heliotropium foertherianum) and sea cabbage (Scaevola taccada) form the major bush cover, while Abutilon and Melanthera are the characteristic ground plants. The trees here are mainly Pandanus, but also Celtis, the she-oak Casuarina equisetifolia ssp. incana, Ficus, bay cedar (Suriana maritima). Herbs—mainly the parasitic vine Cassytha filiformis as well as Euphorbia tannensis ssp. eremophila and grasses (mainly Pacific island thintail, Lepturus repens var. subulatus) are abundant.
  The eastern end is marked by a similar habitat, with mainly Casuarina, Scaevola and Heliotropium. This type of vegetation, with some Pandanus in between, extends along the southern and northern dune ridges. On the dune slopes, Boerhavia repens, Commicarpus chinensis var. chinensis (or Commicarpus australis?), the searocket Cakile edentula, yet another Euphorbia (probably Euphorbia sparrmanii), and kuroiwa grass (Thuarea involuta) are common.
  East of the resort in the north-western part of Heron Island there is another type of forest, more open than the central wood. The main tree here is the manjack Cordia subcordata of which few are found elsewhere on Heron Island; Pisonia trees are present but not dominant. The Abutilon–Euphorbia cyathophora–Melanthera scrub grows thick here. Scaevola and Heliotropium as well as patches of the dropseed grass Sporobolus virginicus occur at this forest's edge.
  The sea turtle nesting area is further east, making up the central part of the northern shoreside. The animals' burrowing has prevented a proper forest from forming. Consequently, though the usual tree species are found in isolated individuals, the sand is overgrown with herbs and small shrubs, mainly Cakile, Cassytha, Euphorbia eremophila, Lepturus and Melanthera.
  Around the western end there is an abundance of plants introduced by the research and resort activity, some deliberately as ornamentals, others accidentally. Notable are Euphorbia cyathophora and Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum, as well as papaya (Carica papaya), coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), oleander (Nerium oleander) and temple tree (Plumeria rubra) which have been planted.
caption: Cordia subcordata dominates the north-western forest but is rare elsewhere on the island.
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