Up through the canopy

Tropical rain forest isn't easy to get to grips with: it's diverse - with maybe 120 to 150 different species of trees in 1 hectare (100 meters x 100 meters) - and high - from down on the ground you have only a limited view of the different layers of the forest.

This is a photo of an explanatory sign at the Daintree Discovery Centre


The solution to this problem in the Daintree is a trip to the Daintree Discovery Centre: written and audio guides identify the key plant species, and an aerial walkway and canopy tower give insight - and oversight - of the forest. The aerial walkway is 5-10 meters above the ground and gives good views of the mid-layers of vegetation:

In addition to the sort of species usually found in rain forests in other parts of the world, palms form an important element of rain forest in the Daintree, and four species can be seen at the Centre. The tallest is the Alexandra Palm ...

... with an elegant trunk:

Fan palms can also grow tall, although this youngster shows off the eponymous arrangement of fronds rather well:

The third palm is found throughout the rainforests of northern Queensland, and is not a tree at all, but a vine. The trunk has impressive downward pointing spines, and the plants use these to gain a purchase on other plants in their upward quest for light. This palm's known as wait-a-while - because it can make the understorey impenetrable in places - or lawyer vine - beacuse once it has its spines in you ... On the older parts of the trunk, the spines are not needed any longer and are shed. The smooth flexible stem is rattan: used for making cane baskets and furniture - and, in the past, for caning naughty (British) schoolchildren. On the photo, you can see the thin vertical leading parts of the stems, searching upwards for their next 'tendrilhold'.

The last of the four species of palms, the walking stick palm, is the most modest, and the trunk seldom reaches more than 2 meters in height. It's not difficult to guess what the early settlers used this plant for.

The aerial walkway also gives good views of some forest floor plants - the fronds of this king fern are about 3 meters in length - ...



... and there are also some trails at ground level which allow close inspection of plants like this relative of ginger.

At the end of the walkway is the 23 meter high canopy tower...

... with a small interprative centre at its foot, including a reptile centre where I caught up with the Boyd's forest dragon that had eluded me at the Mossman Gorge. They were being kept in subdued blue light, presumably to encourage them to be active during opening hours. They're certainly impressive and it would be exciting to see one in the wild.

It was coming on to rain, and most of the visitors were fleeing in the direction of the shop and cafe at the entrance. It occurred to me that the tower had five viewing platforms - four of which are effectively roofed by the platform above, so while everyone else was headed down, I was headed up, and had the tower to myself. Sitting quietly, the birds ignored me and came in to feed on the fruit in the tree canopy growing around the tower. The birds I saw could also be seen elsewhere, but here they were going about their business at my eye-level, instead of being silhouetted in the treetops. The magnificent looking - and sounding - pied imperial pigeon roosts and nests on small offshore islands, and comes to the mainland daily to feed. Small flocks can be seen - even in Cairns - commuting overhead in the morning and evening.

I was also royally entertained by a small flock of metallic starlings feasting on a fruiting tree.

The top of the tower gave a splendid view out across the top of the canopy. (Because the tower is built on quite a steep slope, some of the trees are higher than the tower.) The Centre is an extraordinary achievement in allowing large numbers of visitors access to all levels of the forest without destroying the impression of continuous unspoilt forest, despite being cramped on a tiny 7 hectare site between the side road where the entrance and parking are located, and (as I only realised afterwards) the 'main' road through the Daintree.