Commercially Exploited Vascular Plants Native In Western Australia

Australian Native Plants provides a comprehensive guide to the horticulture of our native plants. Based on nearly 50 years of experience at Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, the book describes the necessary growing conditions for mainly Western Australian native plants and covers some of the more technical aspects such as plant propagation and grafting, the use and benefits of tissue culture, methods of seed collection and storage, and the role of smoke in improving germination. Western Australia is home to about five per cent of the world’s vascular plants and contains Australia’s only terrestrial ‘biodiversity hotspot’. Written by experts with an in-depth knowledge of how to grow these plants outside their natural habitat, Australian Native Plants provides the more technically minded professional or enthusiast with information based on decades of research, experimentation and application. It aims to encourage the growing of Australian plants so that they can be used more widely and contribute to interesting, attractive and diverse private gardens and public landscapes in a changing environment.

This publication caters for the professional horticulturist and amateur gardening enthusiast, and is written in an easy to understand style. Scientific terms, where used, have been explained or included in the comprehensive glossary. The text is complemented by many delicately executed line drawings by Trevor Blake and a wonderful selection of colour photographs. This is the fourth of a multi-volume set in which the authors have drawn on their extensive experience of years devoted to the culture of Australian plants. Volume Four treats the following genera in great detail: EUCALYPTUS (with the most comprehensive cultivation details available), FICUS, FLINDERSIA, GASTROLOBIUM, GOMPHOLOBIUM, GOODENIA and GOSSYPIUM.