Flora of Western Australia facts for kids
Western Australia is home to an amazing variety of plants! Its flora (which means all the plants growing in a region) includes over 10,000 known native plant species. There are also many more species that haven't been officially named yet. These plants belong to many different groups, called genera and families. Sadly, there are also over 1,200 types of weeds, which are plants from other places that have started growing here. Besides the main plants, there are also an estimated 150,000 types of non-flowering plants like lichens and fungi, though only a small number of these have been officially described.
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Discovering Western Australia's Plants
People have known about Western Australia's plants for a very long time.
Ancient Knowledge: Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians have lived in Western Australia for over 50,000 years. During this time, they learned a huge amount about almost every plant. They knew which plants could be used for food, shelter, tools, and medicine. This important knowledge was passed down through stories and by showing others. Sadly, much of this detailed information, including the names they gave the plants, has been lost over time.
Early European Explorers and Plant Collectors (1690s-1829)
The first scientific collection of plants from Western Australia by Europeans happened in 1699. An explorer named William Dampier gathered plants near Shark Bay and the Dampier Archipelago. These plants are now kept in a special collection called the Fielding Druce Herbarium. Out of 24 species he collected, 15 were later described by scientists John Ray and Leonard Plukenet.
A few years earlier, in 1697, Willem de Vlamingh explored the Swan River area. Two plant species from Western Australia were described in 1768, and it's thought he collected them.
In 1791, Archibald Menzies collected plants around King George Sound. Then, in 1792, a French botanist named Jacques Labillardiere collected plants near Esperance. He later used these plants to publish two books about the new plants of Australia. Many of the names he gave are still used today.
Between 1801 and 1803, another botanist, Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, explored the WA coast with the Baudin expedition. At the same time, Robert Brown was sailing around Australia with Matthew Flinders. Brown collected over 600 plant samples from Western Australia. When he returned to England, he published a very important book called Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae in 1810. He named many well-known Western Australian plants, like Leschenaultia (named after Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour), Caladenia, and Dryandra. More than 800 of the species Brown named are still recognized today!
As more explorers became interested in Western Australia, more botanists joined their voyages. Allan Cunningham collected many important plants from northern Western Australia between 1817 and 1822. When the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829, it made it much easier for botanists to explore and collect plants in the region.
Growing Knowledge: 1829 to 1900
After the settlement of Western Australia in 1829, especially the south west region, it became more accessible for botanists. In the 1830s and 1840s, botanists like Stephen Endlicher and Ludwig Preiss visited. They often relied on local settlers, such as James Drummond and George Maxwell, to help them find and collect plants. Preiss alone collected about 200,000 plant specimens!
A very important book series called Flora Australiensis was started in 1863 by George Bentham. This series, which had seven volumes, was the first detailed account of all Australian plants. It included many Western Australian species. Bentham had never visited Australia, so he based his work on the plants already collected. He was helped by Ferdinand von Mueller, a colonial botanist from Victoria. Mueller visited Western Australia twice to collect more plants. Over 1,100 of the Western Australian species he described are still recognized today. In 1882, Mueller also created a list of 3,560 individual plant species found in Western Australia.
Modern Plant Studies: 1901 to 1928
Between 1900 and 1901, Ludwig Diels and Ernst Pritzel collected around 5,700 plant samples. They published their findings, including 200 new species, in 1904-05. Diels also created the first maps of Western Australia's plant regions in 1906, dividing the state into three main areas based on its plants.
After Australia became a federation in 1901, new government departments started their own small plant collections, called herbaria. Botanists like Alexander Morrison and William Fitzgerald worked in these departments. In 1918, Fitzgerald published a large work about the plants of the Kimberleys region. In 1928, the plant collections from the Forestry and Agricultural departments were combined to form the official state herbarium.
Western Australian Herbarium
The Western Australian Herbarium is like a huge library of dried plants. It's part of the State government's Department of Environment and Conservation. Its main job is to identify, describe, and keep records of all the plants found in Western Australia.
In 1970, the Herbarium started publishing its own scientific journal called Nuytsia. The journal is named after the Nuytsia floribunda plant, which is also known as the Christmas Tree. Nuytsia publishes new discoveries about Western Australian plants, including detailed studies and information about potential invasive species. About 20% of all officially described Western Australian plants have been featured in this journal since it began.
FloraBase: An Online Plant Database
FloraBase is a fantastic online database that anyone can use! It provides official scientific information about Western Australia's plants. You can find descriptions, maps, images, and details about their conservation status. Besides native species, FloraBase also includes information on alien plants that have started growing in Western Australia.
Amazing Plant Diversity
Western Australia is incredibly rich in plant life. It has 10,252 known native vascular plant species. This is about half of all the identified plant species in Australia! These plants belong to 1,543 different groups (genera) within 211 plant families.
Beyond these, there are an estimated 150,000 types of non-flowering plants, called cryptogams. These include lichens and fungi. However, only 1,786 of these have been officially described. Most of these described cryptogams are Algae (948 species) and lichens (672 species).
Southwest Australia: A Biodiversity Hotspot
The Southwest Australia region is known as a biodiversity hotspot. This means it has a very high number of unique plant and animal species that are found nowhere else. It includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub areas of Western Australia.
This region has a special Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and dry summers. It covers a huge area of about 356,717 square kilometers. The landscape includes a coastal plain and gently rolling uplands made of old rocks and soil. To the north and east, vast deserts separate Southwest Australia from other parts of the continent. This isolation has helped many unique plant species evolve here.
