Appendix 2 - Vegetation Communities and Regional Ecosystems

community where it is mapped as complex 16a, and with microphyll vine thicket where it is
mapped as VC16j. The two dominant components, VC16i and VC14y, are discussed briefly
below.
Vegetation Community 16i: Vegetation community 16i represents open tussock grassland with
emergent shrubs, verging on a sparse shrubland in some locations. Ground cover is composed of
Heteropogon triticeus and Cymbopogon sp. with emergent shrubs, ranging in height from 1-2m,
typical of adjacent vine thicket communities and including Premna serratifolia, Terminalia
subacroptera and Cordia subcordata. The community, which has been mapped exclusively on
Tudu Island, is most likely the result of repetitive burning practice which has pushed back vine
thicket margins. The community is represented in Photograph 54.
It is of note that Haddon (1888) described the vegetation of Tudu on account of a visit there in
1888 where “The interior of the island is flat, and supports a vegetation of bushes and coarse
grass. In one spot only, about one-third from the northern end, are there a few fairly large trees,
……. There are only a few young coconut palms” (Haddon 1888). An earlier account by Dumont
d’Urville in 1840 in Haddon (1888) refers to Tudu as “a bank of sand almost at sea level, on the
north point is a clump of trees, the rest of this miserable land is saline, marshy, covered with
grasses and shrubs that afford scarcely any shade”.
Photograph 54. Open tussock
grassland with emergent shrubs on
Tudu Island (VC16i).
Vegetation Community 14y: Vegetation community 14y typically occupies a narrow fringe
between foredune grassland and taller open forest communities in backdune localities, in places
ecotonal to this transition. The community is largely restricted to coral cays where it forms a
complex with the foredune grassland community VC17j, and is frequently mapped as a
component of vegetation complex VC16a. Shrubland is the dominant structural formation with a
height range of 0.5m to 2m and projected canopy cover of 25% to 60%. Typical canopy species
include Cordia dichotoma, Premna serratifolia and Drypetes deplanchei. These species form
cover to a sparse ground cover typical of VC17j. Vegetation community 14y is not represented
as a homogenous polygon in the mapping data.
3d Environmental – Torres Strait Regional Ecosystem Mapping Project – August 2008
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