59 Direction of Sustainable Development of the South Province Territories I Strolling along the waterways 58 Strolling along the waterways The Lake in Y Riveted with “plug” wood Named so because of its shape resembling the letter of the alphabet, this shallow lake (between 0.5 and 2 m deep) presents hydrophilic species typical of the Great South. From the shore, littered with blocks of armour where the astonishing Retrophyllum minus grows, its muddy substrate reveals carpets of white pompoms springing from their leafy graphic tufts: the emblematic Eriocaulon neocaledonicum. The Long Lake A Callitris, a relic as old as Lascaux* From a typical zig-zag branch, pointing discreetly underwater, history emerges. Buried alive by a collapse of the ground and deprived of oxygen by its mud sarcophagus, the Callitris exhumed here (250 years old), incredibly preserved, exhaled, once sliced, its characteristic camphorous odor. This occurred more than 12,030 years old (dating to carbon 14) after its death, which happened well before the arrival of Europeans and even Melanesians. *et © Bernard Suprin
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