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Plants & Plant Communities
The Sunshine Coast is one of the most biologically diverse areas in Australia. This is because of its wide variety of habitats, ranging from mangroves and wetlands to dry eucalypt forests, rainforests and coastal heath. Within this regions boundaries, over 1600 individual plant and fungi species have been recorded, several of which are found nowhere else in the world. This diversity of the Coast's vegetation provides a range of ecological niches for feeding, sheltering, breeding and resting opportunities for our local native animals.
When selecting plants for your backyard garden or revegetation project it is recommended to choose local native plant species that are suited to your location, topography, soil type, and climate. Local native plants have a better chance of establishing quickly, becoming strong and healthy and providing habitat for our native animals.
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Useful Tips and Facts
- Create urban wildlife corridors and stepping stones to larger local bushland or parkland areas.
- In nature there is no such thing as waste everything is linked and contributes to the cycle. As a plant reaches the end of its life cycle it is not discarded by nature, instead it provides habitat for animals and food for micro-organisms as it lies on the ground, the waste from the micro-organisms, bacteria and fungi feeding on it replace nutrients and organic material to the soil for new plants to grow.
- Plant local native species
- The best way to attract native wildlife to your backyard is to provide a variety of healthy natural foods in the form of seeds, leaves, flowers, nectar, pollen, fruits and nuts throughout the year.
- The use of pesticides and herbicides can damage your soils and kill non target species. The poisoning of insects with chemicals can also cause larger species relying on those insects as a food source to become sick or even die from eating poisoned insects.
- To create habitat for smaller native birds you can grow shrubs close together to create dense corners or pockets in your garden which will provide protection and refuge from larger aggressive birds such as noisy miners
- Wattles (Acacias). While most wattles only live between 6 - 10 years, they are an important pioneer species which colonise disturbed areas, where other plants find it hard to grow. They improve soil conditions enough to allow other species to germinate and thrive by fixing nitrogen into the soil through their roots and adding high levels of organic leaf litter.