What makes Granite Belt flora special?

 

On the Stanthorpe Plateau, spectacular wildflower displays emerge among granite rocks, in woodland areas or along riparian water courses in spring.  The Granite Belt alone has over 900 different flowering plant species, with close to 40 listed under the Nature Conservation Act and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as threatened, including five listed as critically endangered.  Many are endemic to the area, meaning they are confined to a certain location or region and do not occur naturally anywhere else. 

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Granite Belt flora is a term used to describe those native plants found on the Stanthorpe Plateau – an area bounded by the Queensland-New South Wales border to the east and south, Dalveen to the north, and the line that marks the transition to traprock country to the west. This area includes Girraween National Park and both Broadwater and Passchendaele State Forests.

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The Granite Belt region of southern Queensland has a high degree of habitat diversity due to its elevation, topographic variation, outcropping rock and a pronounced east-west rainfall gradient. Vegetation includes tall open forest and woodland on rocky slopes, grassy open forests and woodlands on the deeper soils of lower slopes and alluvial plains and shrub lands on rock pavements. 45% remains as remnant vegetation and 12% (17 000 ha) is contained within conservation reserves including Girraween and Sundown National Parks.

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Because of its location, the flora that exist on the Granite Belt comprises many species that are at their northern or southern population limits, as well as many species that can be found in our neighbouring districts e.g. traprock, New England tableland, escarpment, etc.