Discovering Australian Flora: An Australian National Botanic Gardens Experience

By Fanny Karouta-Manasse

Australia's complex, beautiful and diverse flora is showcased in stunning botanic gardens across the continent. Through exquisite colour photographs taken at the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) or during field trips with the National Seed Bank, Fanny Karouta-Manasse celebrates the minute and intriguing details of these plants.

This second edition of Discovering Australian Flora explains how plants are displayed in the ANBG according to themes and provides clear and simple geographical, historical and botanical information, including descriptions of plant characteristics. It also describes the unique features of Australian flora, such as their reliance on fire and ability to survive in poor soil, and looks in detail at the two dominant genera in the Australian landscape – Eucalyptus and Acacia.

Extensively updated with new photographs and a new chapter on conservation, this beautiful book offers detailed insight into Australia's native flora. It will appeal not only to visitors to the ANBG but to anyone with an appreciation and passion for nature's beauty and the wonders of Australia's botanical treasures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781486315864

Fanny Karouta-Manasse

Fanny Karouta-Manasse studied plant biology and earned a PhD in marine ecology from Montpellier University in France. Since 2009, Fanny has volunteered at the National Seed Bank, combining her passions for nature and photography.

Book preview

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© Fanny Karouta-Manasse 2022

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO Publishing for all permission requests.

Fanny Karouta-Manasse asserts their right to be known as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 9781486315840 (pbk)

ISBN: 9781486315857 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781486315864 (epub)

How to cite:

Karouta-Manasse F (2022) Discovering Australian Flora: An Australian National Botanic Gardens Experience. 2nd edn. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

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Cover image: Grevillea ‘Coconut Ice’ (photo by Fanny Karouta-Manasse)

Cover design by Cath Pirret

Text design by MicheyLang Designs (first edition)

This edition typeset by Envisage Information Technology

Printed in China by Leo Paper Products Ltd

CSIRO Publishing publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO. The copyright owner shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands that we live and work on across Australia and pays its respect to Elders past and present. CSIRO recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made and will continue to make extraordinary contributions to all aspects of Australian life including culture, economy and science. CSIRO is committed to reconciliation and demonstrating respect for Indigenous knowledge and science. The use of Western science in this publication should not be interpreted as diminishing the knowledge of plants, animals and environment from Indigenous ecological knowledge systems.

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Mar22_01

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The different plant groupings in the Gardens

Taxonomic

Ecological

Horticultural

Ethnobotanical

Endangered species

The Australian flora: some characteristics and history

Two genera dominate the Australian landscape

Eucalyptus

Acacia

Many plants rely on fire to reproduce

There is a high percentage of endemism

Woody sclerophyllous plants dominate

Species-rich vegetation grows on very poor soil

Conservation of Australian native flora

Field trips are undertaken

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Back in the seed bank

Some residents and visitors to the Gardens

In conclusion

Photos of plants listed by family

References

List of photographed species

Flora

Fauna

About the author

Foreword

Whenever I’m travelling in regional Australia, I keep my eyes open for botanic gardens which feature native plants. There are some real treasures tucked away in unexpected places and it gives me great joy to find communities which so value their native plants that they have committed land, resources and skills to protect, display and celebrate them in such a meaningful way. The fact that we also have an official Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) which exclusively cultivates, studies and conserves Australian plants from all corners of the continent is a source of pride and delight to me, and to many others. This wonderful establishment is the national institution to which I return most frequently.

More than 3000 years ago, societies as disparate as those of Mexico, Greece, China and Egypt had developed magnificent gardens with a focus, though not the only one, on medicinal values. Many of them featured plants which they had brought back from distant lands. These gardens mostly didn’t survive subsequent wars and cultural upheavals, but there was a resurgence in renaissance Europe, this time usually associated with medical schools. The 17th century, however, saw the beginnings of ‘modern’ botanic gardens, dedicated both to aesthetic plantings and botanical studies.

In 19th century Australia most of the current major city gardens were established and developed, often under very difficult circumstances, by great horticulturalists and botanists such as Charles Fraser, Charles Moore, Ferdinand von Mueller, George Francis, the Bailey dynasty and others. They often worked under influential pressures to eschew scientific plantings in favour of ‘pretty’ gardens in the European tradition where the elite could stroll at leisure. They all pushed back, with varying degrees of success.

The superb gardens featured by Fanny Karouta-Manasse in this truly beautiful book represent the culmination of all this history. Its planners and managers and horticulturists and taxonomists have built on the work of the garden pioneers. However, they have then gone far beyond what their predecessors could have imagined. We have long known how to grow tropical plants in greenhouses, but how could earlier horticulturists have conceived of a large and thriving open air lush rainforest gully in frosty Canberra, with almost the lowest rainfall of Australia’s cities? A stunning sandy desert landscape laid out in Canberra’s notoriously heavy clay soils? A mighty rockery comprising thousands of tonnes of rocks with numerous sections fine-tuned to provide the right growing conditions for plants from environments ranging from semi-arid sandy heaths to alpine peat bogs? Or even a bank to preserve seeds for future