Litchfield Park ( Northern Territory ) in the 'Wet'

[greysrigging]

My favourite location in the Top End of the Territory, especially in the rainy season. There are 3 endemic ( that I know of )palm species at Florence Falls, all growing in close proximity to one another. Carpentaria acuminata and Livistona humilis are very common throughout the Park, albeit in different habitats I used to think, but I have a pic of the two species growing side by side at the bottom of Florence Falls. The other species Hydriastele wendlandia ( called the Florence Falls palm locally ) is endemic to the permanent creeks, soaks and springs of the hills and escarpments in the Park, and I think I've seen it in the hills near Adelaide River town ( Robin Falls and Anniversary Creek )
Although the rainy season has been generally poor this year, the last week has produced about 320mm ( 13" ) of rain so all the flora and fauna of the Park are thriving atm.




Carpentaria's rising above the forest canopy


Livistona humils very common on the rocky escarpments.

And surprisingly, growing in shady conditions on the forest floor with a Carpentaria.

The forest floor and fast flowing creek is a lovely spot.
 

And a terrific crocodile free place for a swim

Some other park flora....


And something unnatural and downright annoying ! What is wrong with people ? Is it so hard to carry your rubbish out of these pristine places... ?








 

[greysrigging]

Some more Litchfield ( NT ) pics
Tolmer Falls.

Wangi Falls


Flooded roads in the Park


Wangi was closed by the Rangers....this was as close as I could get....

The debris line after the floods receded

Wet and stormy on the drive home

 

[piping plovers]

Thanks for posting these, a great way to experience flora growing in their native environments all around the globe.  Also, interesting reading the park educational signage that you included.  Such unique area to learn about.

[HtownPalms]

Cool place! Looks like you had the park all to yourself. 

[greysrigging]

On 9/9/2020 at 8:50 AM, HtownPalms said:

Cool place! Looks like you had the park all to yourself. 

Pretty much... roads were all flooded, in fact some visitors were stranded out there and were being driven out in hi clearance 4WD's as I was driving in.

[HtownPalms]

Just curious how much rain was it and in what time frame? Where i live we got around 50" of rain in a 3 day period from a hurricane back in 2017. It set the U.S. rainfall record! The previous record was 42" of rainfall in 24 hours, also where I live. 

[greysrigging]

On 9/16/2020 at 1:55 AM, HtownPalms said:

Just curious how much rain was it and in what time frame? Where i live we got around 50" of rain in a 3 day period from a hurricane back in 2017. It set the U.S. rainfall record! The previous record was 42" of rainfall in 24 hours, also where I live. 

From memory it was about 14" in 10 hours commencing about midday, so the rivers and creeks came up pretty quickly.

[HtownPalms]

Yeah, that's a good soaking for 10 hours!

[philinsydney]

I hope I'm not being intrusive, but I added a few photos of Litchfield in October 2017 (not the wet season)