The string fen at Newdegate Pass, Mt. Field, Tasmania consists of dams composed of bolster heath and peat derived from bolster heath, and flark ponds with concave sides and usually rocky floors. The bolster heath has a smooth surface which consists of a complex mosaic dominated by
Donatia novae-zelandiae, Carpha rodwayi and
Dracophyllum minimum. The floors of the ponds usually support no macrophytes. The ponds situated on strong flow lines have shallower dams which are more often breached than those where flow is more diffuse. The ponds ultimately drain by tunnelling through the humified peat below the live roots of the bolster heath, and the exposed floors are colonized by bolster heath species. The underlying block stream has a topography partly independent from that of the string and flark features, which shift in both time and space.
Keywords Alpine - Bolster plant - Cushion plant - Cyclic succession - Dynamics - Fen - String fen - Tasmania
Species nomenclature follows Curtis (1963, 1967) and Curtis & Morris (1975) for gymnosperms and dicotyledons and Willis (1970) for monocotyledons except where authorities are given. Structural nomenclature follows Kirkpatrick (1983).