Ellery Creek Big Hole Callitris columellaris
Ellery Creek Big Hole FloraCaltrop Orange Spade Flower Tar Vine White Cypress Pine
The White Cypress Pine (Callitris columellaris) is found in many of the national parks and reserves, gorges and chasms throughout Central Australia, including some found in Ellery Creek Big Hole.
Native to most of Australia, except for Tasmania, it is a medium-sized evergreen conifer, that will grow up to 12 metres in height (although it has been known to grow taller). Whilst it can be shrub like in growth, most will have a main central trunk with a rough, dark grey-brown bark.
The thin branches are covered in scale-like, green or glaucous leaves, the foliage having a blue-grey appearance. The cones are globose (the shape of a sphere or ball), approximately 1-2 cm in diameter, with six triangular scales. The cones open at maturity to release the seeds.
This White Cypress Pine is growing in one of the dry creek beds leading out of the Ellery Creek water hole, which during periods of intense rain, will flood along these tributaries pushing all sorts of debris from sand, rocks, branches, shrubs and trees. Much of the debris get caught in the lower parts of existing shrubs and trees that are able to withstand the force of the water.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Phylum: Charophyta
- Class: Equisetopsida
- Subclass: Pinidae
- Order: Pinales
- Family: Cupressaceae
- Genus: Callitris
- Species: Callitris columellaris
Ellery Creek Big Hole FloraCaltrop Orange Spade Flower Tar Vine White Cypress Pine
Ellery Creek Big HoleEllery Creek Ellery Creek Big Hole Fauna Ellery Creek Big Hole Flora
West MacDonnell RangesBirthday Waterhole Ellery Creek Big Hole Finke Two Mile Glen Helen Gorge Jay Creek John Flynn’s Grave Historical Reserve Laura Creek Larapinta Drive Mount Sonder / Rwetyepme Namatjira Drive The Neil Hargrave Lookout Ochre Pits Ormiston Gorge & Pound Point Howard Lookout Redbank Gorge Simpsons Gap
MacDonnell RangesEast MacDonnell Ranges West MacDonnell Ranges Tjoritja West MacDonnell National Park