Having a passion for ecology on green roofs I came across a remarkable female scientist. Her name was Dr Ilma M. Pideon, maiden name Ima Brewer. Ima's work in the 1930's has helped me understand the processes of plant succession on Sydney's rock landscape.
View from the clifftops down to the Hawkesbury River
lma Brewer was Lecturer in Botany/Biology, University of Sydney 1963-1970 and Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences 1970-1978. She developed new methods of teaching based on the recognition that a student learnt more by working at his/her own pace and instructing him/her self. Her findings were published as a book, "Learning More and Teaching Less".
http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/1094661?c=people
In 1938 she wrote a paper on Plant Succession on the Hawkesbury Sandstone. Some of her observations relating to my interest in green roofs and these plants are below:
Micromyrtis blakleyi, Baekea brevifolia amongst native grasses and moss on 25mm soil depth.
"The sclerophyllous vegetation of the Hawkesbury Sand- stone is characterised by hard, tough, dry leaves, and has developed under conditions of bright sunlight, exposure and ready drainage through a shallow soil of poor water-retaining capacity."
"Deficient drainage, induced by a series of comparatively level areas, results in the formation of swamps which are quite common on the surface of the plateau, and are less frequently represented as "hanging swamps" in the upper parts of valleys."
"The surface of the plateau is exposed to intense sunlight and strong wind action"
Close up of the vegetation
In the Hawkesbury sandstone the rock is normally extremely deficient in water... she discusses this low water condition as as the Xeric Lithosere. Algae, crustaceous lichens, foliose lichens, xeric mosses and fruticose lichens, hemicryptophytes and shrubs form communities which comprise the initial phases of the xeric lithosere. Lithosere is a succession initiated on bare rock. Xeric lithosere refers to dry rock succession.
My favourite plant Myromyrtus blakelyi