Box-Ironbark forest is characterised by a canopy of box, ironbark and gum-barked eucalypts, growing to 25 m in height, over a sparse understorey of wattles, small-leaved and prostrate shrubs, herbs and grasses.
The dry chaco where this tree is found has dense spiny woodlands consisting of low trees and an understorey of Aspidosperma, Astronium, Schinopsis, Ceiba, and Bulnesia.
On North Keeling the Rails occupy all the limited ground habitats on the island, including the shore of the lagoon and the understorey vegetation of Pisonia forest and Coconut palms.
Saltbush shrublands (Atriplex sp.), with an understorey of grasses and forbs, was the dominant plant community at the time of European settlement.
There are stands of Banbar and Swamp Paperbark fringing the northern and eastern margins, with a patchy understorey of Broadleaf Cumbungi.
But the birds can be plentiful enough to withstand some hunting for example in a mosaic of cabruca smallholder plantings, interspersed with secondary growth with dense caeté Marantaceae and Merostachys bamboo understorey as well as higher Guadua bamboo and full-grown heart-of-palm trees (Euterpe edulis).