The Vegetation of the Blacks' Spur Region: A Study in the Ecology of Some Australian Mountain Eucalyptus Forests: I. The Mature Plant Communities

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Abstract
Structure and physiognomy and the com-position and interrelationships of the mature plant communities of an area on the Dividing Range in central Victoria were studied. The vegetation comprises 4 associations, 3 of which are Eucalyptus forests; the 4th is a rain-forest of Malayan affinities. The Eucalyptus amygdalina-E. obliqua association is the most xerophilous forest and occurs on the drier slopes. In the habitat of this community the beds of valleys contain E. viminalis, which forms an ecotone with the E. amygdalina-E. obliqua association and also with the E. regnans association where the latter tree invades the habitat of E. viminalis. The subordinates accompanying E. viminalis are mesophytes characterising the E. regnans association, so that the E. viminalis association cannot be regarded as a distinct entity, but rather as a complex community deriving its components partly from one association and partly from another. The E. regnans association clothes the slopes of the more sheltered valleys and the ridges in the area of higher rainfall, while the Acacia-Nothofagus association, of rain-forest character, occupies the valley bottoms. The successional interrelationships of these communities during erosion and valley formation, one of the main physiographic processes in these mountain regions, are considered.

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