Claire digs out a nice turkey rhubarb bulb.

Given the frightful discovery of what we have found last month, is an established (at 2 year plus given the size of blubs found according to Jarrah) patch of Turkey Rhubarb, in the dying Westringia – this was our target!

It was such hard work – getting into the ground below the established (live and dying, each was a huge and difficult obstacle for us getting into this area) Westringia, roots, branches everywhere – it was seriously hard work, being into this bush, the small breeze that day alluded us. It was seriously hard work and thank you all who didn’t give up.

Turkey Rhubarb has a deep and extensive root system with bulbs that can regenerate the plant if not completely removed.

But, to make it fun there was competition as to who could find the largest Turkey Rhubarb bulb. There is no doubt that Jarrah found the first of the biggest Turkey Rhubarb bulbs – over a hand size, deserved so much as he ploughed in and was more of a ferret than a human – this is meant as a compliment Jarrah! – I saw you go in for the kill, it was more than admirable for your tenaciousness [LC1] to get to the source.

Hence the competition was on. Who could find the biggest Turkey Rhubarb bulb?

There were quite a number of great finds of seriously big bulbs, but there was also finds of more than dozens and dozens of smaller bulbs – we think there was over 20kg of bulbs at the end of the day. (Thank goodness we have Jarrah could carry this seriously heavy bag to the carpark – I could barely lift the bag).

We were told that the Turkey Rhubarb bulb was edible, so Claire, one of our volunteers, was brave enough to cook (baked in the oven for an hour and a half) and tasted the Turkey Rhubarb. Claire can confirm that it tastes horrible and very bitter. “I won’t be recommending it or eating it again, I only managed a tiny taste”

So next working bee will be a follow up on Turkey Rhubarb the and then hopefully we can plant and get some shrubs in for the birds and then help increase the diversary of species on our site -as we continue to find more and more fauna as the site improves from the previous monoculture of Bitou.

Julie did a short day, but in this time she undertook eradication of small bitou seedlings – mx 6″ high. Julie checked bitou poisoned last time (all dead), and then did another 2 big bitou bushes on the west edge of good bush. Doing a mix of cut/ poison paint and scrape/ poison paint- due to the size of the stumps and the terrain.

I was brave enough to cook (baked in the oven for an hour and a half) and taste the Turkey Rhubarb, and I can confirm that it tastes horrible and very bitter. I won’t be recommending it or eating it again, i only managed a tiny taste. (see pics below).

Claire tries cooking up the turkey rhubarb bulbs for the evening meal.

There is an exciting addition to all for Reefcare Volunteers to be aware!

It looks like that Brad Law has found the endangered Maroubra Snail on our site. Meridolum maryae which is confined to a narrow band of habitat along NSW coast

For more information on this snail visit – Maroubra Woodland Snail – profile | NSW Environment, Energy and Science

Brad has been dealing with Dr Stephanie A. Clark – Director, Invertebrate Identification who advises……

In my paper of 2009, there were specimens from Long Reef ranging in age from 1946 to 1991, but I don’t remember if any of them looked relatively fresh. But if you can find a fresh one that would be great.

We do also have the invasive Trump Snail on site which is quite similar – so if you find a snail or a snail shell on Saturday, please refer to Brad to determine if it is possible the Maroubra Snail or the Asian Trump Snail. Attached is a photo I took on site of the Asian Trump Snail

Fauna of Long Reef

Common Name – Asian trampsnail

Family – Bradybaenidae

Genus – Bradybaena similaris

As the common name suggests, this small invasive land snail Bradybaena similaris, the Asian tramp snail, is not a native to Australia. The common name based on its origins, and its habit of roosting on freight containers and its high dispersal ability means that this may be quite possibly the mostbroadly-distributed species of terrestrial snail in the world.

The Asian Tramp Snail has become well-established in eastern Australia from around Bega on the south coast of New South Wales northwards to the Wet Tropics region of north-eastern Queensland. This successful invader, originally from eastern Asia, has also penetrated inland as far as places such as Longreach, Queensland.

The Asian Tramp Snail consumes a vast variety of plants – they are known for being destructive living under herbs and in foliage in nurseries, gardens, greenhouses, horticulture, market gardens (it loves melons and gourds such as cucumber and pumpkin), vineyards, crops, dunes and weed-infested bushland. At Long Reef they have been found under a good cover of Warrigal Green, Burr Medic, etc which proves their preferred living under good damp foliage cover.

The width of the shell is about 12 to 16 mm with 5+1⁄2 whorles. The color of the shell is light brown. The shell is sculptured with fine, irregular growth line. The head of is round with two long, dark tentacles, each with a simple eye at the tip. A shorter set of tentacles lie closer to the mouth. It is active after rainfall. These snails mature and reproduce quickly with around 20 eggs hatching around 2-4 weeks and living up to 5 years.

The Trump snail can also serve as an intermediate host for several serious parasites including the infamous rat lung worm that can be harmful to humans, the trematode

Postharmosto-mum gallinum which infects domestic chickens (Amato & Bezerra 1992), and

Eurytrema coelo- maticum a fluke of ruminants such as cattle. The latter parasite can cause losses in milk and meat production (Lapage 1958)

Bradybaena similaris – Wikipedia

Asian Trampsnail: Texas Invasive Species Institute (tsusinvasives.org)

Asian Tramp Snail – Queensland Museum (qm.qld.gov.au)

(PDF) Bradybaena similaris (Rang, 1831). Family Bradybaenidae | Gilianne Brodie – Academia.edu