Tasmanian Pandani

On pandani and leeches

The pandani in Tasmania is the world’s tallest heath plant and it grows predominantly in the alpine regions of Tasmania, often growing around the boggy areas close to myrtle forest. I was excited to see them at Cradle Mountain. The day before had been a snow day – one for another day – but that had long melted and today was wet and misty.

We walked up through an oasis of pandani trees towards the forest. I passed on the earlier trees but this clump against the forest was exactly what I was looking for. I put my bag down in an innocuous-looking area on the ground and I set up with my standard lens to photograph the pandani against the trees. It can’t have been more than a 10-minute session.

When I returned to pack and pick up my bag, it was covered from top to bottom in large leeches! The leeches in the UK all but disappeared through a combination of Victorians’ harvesting of them in their tens of millions and the extinction of their habitat through enclosure and drainage. Not so here. The group had encountered a lot of them two days earlier – with several members having to have them peeled off – so I was on alert and dressed in gaiters but I still had to spend the next few minutes flicking them off the bag and hoping none had hidden in the creases. Amazing creatures and fairly harmless in Tasmania but still something to look out for!

I remembered to put my bag on the dry path itself for the second image shortly afterwards – another clump of pandani shot up close.