Rainforest at Kuranda – Part 2

Another taste of the hot, steamy rainforest in Queensland, Australia, in the hills around Kuranda. It is the end of November and starting to get wet but not so bad as it will be in a month or two. Tall trees reach up to a dense canopy of leaves through which sunshine occasionally bursts with blinding intensity. Up high, epiphytes like the Basket, Bird’s Nest, and Asplenium Ferns are wedged in the angles of branches, feeding on falling debris.

Creepers, climbers and vines twist around the trunks or hang as spiral-shaped lianas clinging to ‘ghost’ branches. Fierce spiky stems and barbed tendrils of Wait-a-While Palms spread among the undergrowth waiting to snare passers-by. The odd bright red flower strikes a vivid contrast amongst the varying shades of green; and isolated clumps of illuminated leaves become gloriously translucent amid the shaded vegetation. There is a fleeting glimpse of a Monitor Lizard as it makes its way through rotting leaves on the forest floor, where striped woody shelf or bracket fungi decorate stumps of decaying wood. This is Djabugay Country.

Bracket or woody shelf fungi on decaying wood in the forest near Kuranda

Basket or Bird's Nest Fern in the Daintree rainforest at Kuranda in Queensland, Australia.

Shrub Pandanus leaves in the Queensland tropical rainforest

Rainforest canopy in the Daintree near Kuranda

Twisted vines around a tree in the Daintree tropical rainforest

Epiphytic Asplenium Fern high in a tree of the Daintree near Kuranda

Leaves of a climber around a tree in the rainforest

Bracket fungi on a tree trunk in the rainforest at Kuranda

Lace Monitor Lizard in the Daintree undergrowth near Kuranda

Spine-covered stem of Calamus australis 'Hairy Mary'

Pandanus leaves in the Daintree tropical rainforest

8 Replies to “Rainforest at Kuranda – Part 2”

Katie says:

January 22, 2014 at 10:47 pm

Lovely photos- the flora of Kuranda and the Daintree is spectacular!

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The Novice Gardener says:

January 23, 2014 at 12:27 am

Beautiful photos, Jessica. A feast for these eyes tired of looking at the grays outside!

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dadirri7 says:

January 23, 2014 at 1:12 am

fantastic Jessica, glad we were there in the cool of October!

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winderjssc says:

January 23, 2014 at 8:49 am

Yes, October would have been better – but a great place whatever the season. You are fortunate to have relatively easy access to such wonderful places.

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winderjssc says:

January 23, 2014 at 8:57 am

Thank you, Angie. When it is dull, cold and raining, there is nothing I like better than to revisit photographs of the beautiful, warm, sunny places that I have enjoyed on holiday. Maybe (inspired by your post today) I should pay a ‘virtual’ visit to a tropical island in the Great Barrier Reef sometime soon!

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winderjssc says:

January 23, 2014 at 9:08 am

Yes, wonderful plants and very little time to examine and identify everything on a holiday trip – although I did try to photograph everything while I was there (I think I took 8,000 photographs) so that I could re-examine them later and understand more about this most ancient of all forests.

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fifteenacres says:

January 23, 2014 at 12:03 pm

I love the textures and the small details in the bark and leaves that you have captured. Beautiful photos! Lisa

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winderjssc says:

January 23, 2014 at 12:40 pm

You are most fortunate to live in your very own piece of bushland in Australia. I had only the briefest of visits – but enough to appreciate just how delightful the wildlife is everywhere.

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