Tasmanian autumn

On the mainland part of Australia, the only deciduous trees are European imports; all the gum trees (eucalypts) are stubbornly evergreen.

Tasmania, however, is home to Australia’s only autumnal leaf-dropper, Nothofagus gunnii, otherwise known as “fagus” for short, or the deciduous beech, or “tanglefoot” because of its dense impenetrable large-shrubbiness.

It grows in only a few alpine and sub-alpine regions (in Tasmania “alpine” means anything above the treeline or over 1000m (3200 ft)), most famously at Tarn Shelf in Mt Field National Park, and in Waterfall Valley near Cradle Mountain, and Easter time is a good time to go and “see the fagus turn”.

The leaves are only about 1cm long, with lovely crinkly edges and distinctive grooved veins, and they make a dramatic contrast with the surrounding greens of the snowgum leaves and the blue-greys of the dolerite boulders, as their pale green leaves turn yellow and orange and brown.

Recent weather conditions have given Melbourne one of its most excitingly dramatic autumns in years, with the trees in Royal Parade “snowing” on my way to work and massive mounds of golden yellow elm leaves drifting over the curbs and verges  … but I still love getting away to Tassie’s mountains and seeing our own little native fagus. These photos were taken near Lake Fenton in Mt Field National Park, shortly after Easter.