Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389:body:0:p58
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 166976–169820

40 plant species have been recorded in the park.
North Keeling Island has a number of species not found on the southern atoll, including:
    * African cabbage (Cleome gynandra)
    * maunaloa (Canavalia cathartica)
    * Indian coral tree (Erythrina variegata)
    * saltwater couch (Paspalum vaginatum)
    * tit-berry (Allophylus cobbe)
    * West Indian woodnettle (Laportea aestuans).
Some species are more abundant on North Keeling Island than on the islands of the southern atoll, either because there are greater areas of suitable habitat on North Keeling Island or due to clearing over the last 160 years on the southern atoll (Williams 1994a). Much of the southern atoll was cleared and planted with Cocos nucifera as part of the Clunies-Ross estate. The naturally occurring coconut trees of North Keeling Island, which drifted to the island over thousands of years, are considered to be the most primitive form of the species (Gunn et al. 2011).
Other species on North Keeling Island have a restricted distribution and most of these are found on the northern peninsula at the previous site of the entrance to the lagoon, on the north-west shore and adjacent habitats.
The vegetation of North Keeling Island was divided into four zones by Gibson-Hill (1948):
    * pisonia (Pisonia grandis) and coconut (Cocos nucifera) forest
    * octopus bush (Heliotropium foertherianum) shrublands
    * tea shrub (Pemphis acidula) thickets
    * open grassy areas.
Much of North Keeling Island is dominated by the pisonia forest, fringed on the lagoon shore by tea shrub and on the exposed ocean shores by octopus bush shrubland. The island's closed canopy forests are unusual as they are composed of species generally found as stunted shrubs in successional forests on the shoreline of tropical islands elsewhere in the Indian Ocean region. Cordia subcordata, which generally occurs as a stunted shrub elsewhere, reaches the size of a large tree, and the pisonia trees themselves are unusually tall.
Octopus bush is common on the eastern shore, dominating the crest of the shingle or rubble ridges. In some cases it forms monospecific stands while north of the lagoon entrance it occurs with cabbage bush, Scaevola taccada. Around the margins of the lagoon, tea shrub forms dense thickets, replaced in some places by ironwood (Cordia subcordata). The open grassy areas often have a covering of sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) such as the clearing to the north-west of the lagoon.
The richest diversity of plant species on the island, apart from the herblands, is found in the forest types near the closed lagoon entrance and on the north-west side of the island.
Each of these ecological communities supports breeding colonies of seabirds (see also Map 4). Appendix E lists native plants, exotic species and plant species with restricted