The-Largest Serpentine-Craton In The World!

[Richard Davion]

According to Robert-Richard-Brookes of: "Serpentine & Its Vegetation" Fame:

Africa is Not-Only Renown for Being One-of-The-Oldest Continents on The Planet (Australia has The Oldest Rocks and its Very-Own 'New' Epoch for Flinders Ranges Rocks ... some-of-Which are Now Designated as Truly-being The-'Oldest' In-The-World These Ranges are 'Still' Somewhat 'Active' Due-to-The-Pressure India Pushes on The Austro-Indian plate Upon-Which Australia 'Sits' and Whos Focal-Point is The Flinders Ranges.) but Also Lays-Claim to The Largest Serpentine 'Craton' in-The-World ... which is Geo-Tech 'Speak' for Bloody-Big Rock ... 'How'-Big? ... well a Whopping 64,000 Square Kilometre One!!! >(*~*)< And-as a Consequence contains The Worlds Largest-Reserves of Chrome & Platinium Followed by Nickel and The other so-called 'Base'-Metals.

So-'Why' is 'This' Important in Relation to CPs I-Here You 'Ask'. Well of The Three Centres of CP Species-Diversity (Drosera in particular) ie Australia, 'South'-Africa and 'South'-America All-Contain substantial Amounts of Serpentine Deposits at Certain Locations in These Three Hotspots.

In-Particular Australia:
Has as This Image depicts about 1/5 of The WA Landscape, and in-Particular much-of The-Eremean-Shield, Devoted to Patchy so-called 'Green-Belt'-Serpentine Rich in [Magnesium] Copper, Chromium, Colbalt & Nickel.

The Important Point though is its Relative-Position in Regard to The CP That 'Basically' Occupy The Vast Aluminium-&-Mineral-Sands-Rich Coastal-Plain with this Vast Stretch-of-Land Behind Them Wedging-Them-in Basically Between a Large-Fragmented-Rock and a 'Hard-Place' ... that of The-Open-Ocean Itself & as We All-'Know' Most Rivers flow Towards The-Coast and Carry with-Them Alluvial Deposits of Minerals over Which They Distantly Traverse.

The Presence of Trace Amounts of Nickel Apparently Stimulates or 'Encourages' a Somewhat Halophytic Mycorrhiza to Grow that Can Ensheath a Number & Range-of-Plants that Grow in These Regions. It has The Ability to Cross Species, Genus, Family & Order Barriers and is Therfore Apparently-Generic and Somewhat 'Unique' Among Mycorrhizae Plural ... Which are 'Normal' Very-Specific and as-R-Consequence 'Limited'-in-Power and Applicability or Application.

www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=si&img=645

[sheila]

Is there a reason why we should give a damn about any of this??? the plants grow well enough without the need to know this sort of junk.

[David Ahrens]

People have made similar comment to your's, Sheila, and had their posts removed from other forums. What makes you think that your post shouldn't be removed ?

[rsivertsen]

The fact is that serpentine outcrops host the most number of endemic species of plants than any other geologic formation, which includes Nepenthes, Darlingtonia, and numerous orchids, ferns and mosses; limestone outcrops are a distant second. - Rich

[RL7836]

May 14, 2008 23:05:03 GMT sheila said:

Is there a reason why we should give a damn about any of this??? the plants grow well enough without the need to know this sort of junk.

While Mr. Davion has been the catalyst for a fair amount of controversy within the CP community for both his lengthy posts and plentiful usage of keyboard characters (unusual ones and many used in unusual ways), this post demonstrates virtually none of those attributes and appears highly undeserving of the venom aimed at it.

As Rich's comment illustrates, the subject material Mr. Davion provided is indeed relevant to CPs and even if the content relationship was not immediately obvious, censoring (or attempting to censor) someone's post due to a lack of immediate comprehension (or really - almost any reason) does seem unacceptable (at least to me)...

[Deleted]

May 14, 2008 23:05:03 GMT sheila said:

plants grow well enough without the need to know this sort of junk.

Please don't be harsh on others with their post. Everything helps here. There will always be someone who will want to know about this and the information that he/she posted will be useful. I am pretty active among many forums and it's not in any way beneficial for people to comment negatively towards others. We should be thankful that someone out there wants to know the scientific background of things. Some one needs to know how things function and work. If we all decided that it was dumb of us to continue to know how something works simply because it works already would cause us to need to rediscover things in the future. I am not trying to be mean to you I'm just trying to be constructive and keep this forum from having conflicts.

[Dave Evans]

Hmm, what an odd exchange... Anyway, I agree with Sheila's question and Richard never seems to actually get to the point, or I just miss it somewhere along the way. I don't really read Sheila's post as harsh as it may sound after all most CP's don't normally form mycorrhizal associations, like orchids and pines do. However, there is evidence some do.

Richard, what species have you observed or become aware of which form a mycorrhizal association with this salt loving fungus?

Also, could you clue me in to your African reference?

Here is some reference material to checkout:
mycorrhiza.ag.utk.edu/

You can search for articles by putting the names of the CP genera in the search field.

I have an idea about endemics and serpentine rocks... Each of the deposits is somewhat unique regarding the balance of elements and minerals present due to the way they are formed, different depths within the chamber of the same deposit have slightly different compositions. I have an idea this mosaic chemical pattern is what encourages/promotes the high degree of speciation and also why serpentine species are also highly localized.

[Richard Davion]

As This-Year Closes ... I've Begun to Think-about My Annual-Report: "Looking-'Bach' Travelling-Forwards"

The Only-Thing I've 'Learnt', or Step-Forward, I've-Made This-Year is that The only "Stable' and Biotically Active-(Friendly)-form of Iron in Gley-Podzolic-Soils is The Blue-Form:





The Question Remains as to Whether-or-Not Iron in This 'Blue'-Form is Also Freindly to Generica-australis Itself or Inhibitary to its Growth-&-Proliferation in The Soil!!!

Generica-australis is-A ('Greenish')-Yellow Mycorrhiza that Can be 'Seen' (Macroscopic) Ensheating root-Runs 'Naturally' Out-in-The-Bush at The End-of-Autumn ('Just'-Before The-Rains Arrive) ... When The Soil is Naturally at-its Most Saltiest.

It-'Appears' as-if it-Could-be Fluorescent to-the-Naked-Eye ... though Tests Have shown that-it-is-'Not' ... though it Does Become 'Greener' in High Near-Toxic (to-CPs) Levels of Nickel ... which-it 'Probably' Accumulates. It Turns a Cinnamon-Orange colour When Dried-out from this Richer, Greener Form. The 'Yellow'-Colour may actually-be an Accumulation of Sulphur Vesicles.

It Most-likely is something Extremely-simple, Pandemic-&-Ubquitous such-as: "Aspergillus-flavus" [Which-would 'Explain' It's Generic Tendancies] ... though-although It-can Form a Sheath Similar to a Pseudo-Hartig-Net around a Paraffin-Wax-Candle Placed into a Peat-&-Sand Mix as-though it-wer a Giant Dauciform (Carrot-like) Root ... it-so-far has Evaded Monoculture and Therefore Easy-Identification ... though this May 'Change' in 2000-&-9.

STAHL last-Century came-to-The-Conclusion (1) ... that CPs were in-Fact: "Glycophytes" ... Similar to Onions, Docks, Rhubbarbs & Gunnera ... which All Accumulate Their Photosynthate in The Glucose-Form Insgtead-of- Converting-it to The Most Common of All the 24-or-so Transport-Sugars ie Sucrose. Glucose is-R 'Reducing'-Sugar

(2) That CPs Were Inherently Mycorrhizal!!! >(*~*)<

If-You Have an Ensheathed-Root (Macroscopic / ie Naked-Eye) that is Beneficial to Plant-Growth (Improved Growth can-be Seen Within Three-Days and Ensheathment Can-be Seen around Day-Five ... though it took nearly Ten-Years to Perfect This 'Knowledge'-Work-up) Then By FRANK's Initial Definition of: "Fungus-Root" ... You-Have R Mycorrhiza!!! ie STAHL was Absolutely 'Correct' ... 'Just'-because He Didn't Have Access-to-Drosera-binata (Rare Australian-species in His-Time) & couldn't Find-one ... is No-Reason Not to Give-Him Credit Posthumously for His Ideas and Knowledge ... Which He-Published and 'Although' in-German was fully-Taken-up-&-Supported by AD-HALL in His Multi-Annual Publication: "The-Soil".

I-"Still' Relish AD-HALL's Ability to Itemized STAHLs Paper So-Succinctly and with such associated Insight that I-Believe it Should-be REQUIRED-Reading by All-CPs Devotees of The Near-Future.

[I-Have-R-Good-Camera 'Now' ... Perhaps a CP-Mycorrhizae-Section Could-be Established on This-Site and JPEGs of These Important pages of This Mini-Tome (Compared-to The Great-Selzman-Waxmann's ... which Really-IS R-TOME!!! ... though None-the-Less 'Interesting' ... Especially The-Chapter on Peat-&-Coal!!! >(*U^)<) Could-be reproduced Here ... Along with Other Relevant-Pages that Quote Associations with Familar CP-species???

Note That Onions, Leeks Etc are 'Glauceous' [Bluey-Green] plants as-well-as many Serpentine Endemics and-that CPs often Have Glauceous Foliage-Plants in Their Immediate-Vercinity and Even Themselves Occassionally (Base of Sarracenis-flavas and Drosera-giantaea). Note 'Also' that many-CPs Yellow-out away from their Growth-Points ie Sarracenia-Flava, Darlingtonis, Dionaea etc). Perhaps 'One'-Day Our Increasing-Knowledge-Base will Allow-Us to 'Blue'-R-Flytrap Etc ... perhaps One with Four-Inch-Traps!!! >(*~*)< / >(*U^)<

[ksnive]

Mycorrhizal relationships are so fascinating. It seems that nearly all plants benefit from them, I can't remember hearing about any terrestrial plants that don't. Not to get too far from CP but there is a paper out of Canada I've been trying to lay hands on that seems to talk about a Mycorrhiza that was acting a bit like a merchant. It would gather raw materials offer them to a tree pass some of what it got from the tree to other plants in the understory back & forth on & on keeping a bit of a transaction fee for it's own use on all the deals. For some reason I'm thinking it was about the Pacific Cantrell.