Many
Australian plants
are as unique
as Australian animals.
Australia
is a large continent covered by many different climatic regions, which
determine the vegetation. Arid
and semiarid regions in inland Australia cover the largest part – two
thirds of the continent.
Northern Australia lies in the wet tropics,
and east and south-east are in temperate climate. Much of southern and
south-western Australia have Mediterranean
climate, and in inland Victoria and Tasmania there are regions with
alpine climate.
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Australian Plants in Arid and Semiarid Regions
Australian contient is very dry, and large parts, up to 70% of it
regularly suffer from droughts.
While in northern and eastern parts of Australia the climate is quite
moist, in the inland and western parts of the continent huge areas are
covered by deserts
and semiarid grasslands and scrublands. Certain Australian plants are
adapted
to these areas.
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Australian Desert Plants
The arid environments support some desert
plants with amazing
adaptations, like mulgas (Acacia
aneuora), mallees (multistemmed eucalypts), desert
wildflowers and
hummock
grasses, commonly known as Spinifex.
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Semiarid Grasslands and
Woodlands
In the semiarid areas are grasslands that are dominated by Mitchell
grass,
tussock and blue grasses. In southern parts, where the climate is a bit
cooler, the grasslands are replaced by scrublands.
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Australian Plants in Tropical Regions
Northern
Australia lies in tropics and is affected by monsoonal rains
and tropical cyclones. The most famous vegetation zone in the tropical
climate is of course the tropical rainforest. But in fact, tropical
rainforest only grows in pockets and a lot of the area in the tropics
is covered by tropical woodlands. It gets very wet during the Wet
Season, but it is also very dry during the Dry Season.
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Wet Tropics - Tropical
Rainforest
The so-called Wet Tropics, where the tropical rainforests grow, have tropical
rainforest climate
- it rains a lot even during the Dry Season. This makes the conditions
important for plant life - water, heat and light - the best of all
biomes on the Earth, and consequently a myriad of species of tropical
rainforest plants like evergreen, broad-leaved, up to
60m-tall
trees, vines,
epiphytes, ferns
and orchids all grow literally on top of each other to reach up to the
light. There is only so much space and it is dark under the canopy. The
competition is high and it's all about reaching to the light.
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Dry Tropics - Tropical
Woodlands
Yes, we have areas that are actually called Dry tropics such as the
area around Townsville in north
Queensland. Other areas in the tropics that are not covered
in
tropical rainforest but tropical woodlands include much of the Kimberley
region in Western Australia, and Gulf
Savannah and Cape
York
peninsula in northern Queensland.
Open woodlands contain plants like eucalypts, pandanus
trees,
acacias,
paperbark
trees (Melaleuca spp), she-oaks (Casuarina
spp), and
sometimes boab
trees (mainly in northern Western
Australia
and Northern
Territory).
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Australian Plants in Temperate Regions
Most of south-eastern, and some of south-western Australia have
temperate climate. Like in the tropics, where there is enough rain,
temperate rainforests grow in pockets. And where there is not enough
rain, temperate forests grow.
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Australian Plants in
Temperate
Rainforests
There are places in New
South Wales, Victoria, South
Australia and western Tasmania, where the climate
is wet enough
that temperate rainforests grow in pockets. Temperate
rainforest plants include different
types of ferns,
mosses,
beech, cycads,
celery-top pine,
sassafras and Huon
Pine.
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Temperate Forests and
Woodlands
But like in the tropics, the rainforests are in minority and most
places are covered by temperate forests. In the south-eastern forests,
the most common trees are eucalypts, while the South
western Western Australia
is known for its sclerophyll forests with the endemic karri and jarrah
trees.
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Australian Plants in
Temperate
Woodlands
And like in the tropics, where the climate gets even drier, there are
temperate woodlands. These are often a bit inland, and they contain
species like eucalyptus
trees, grass
trees, casuarinas (she-oaks), acacias,
and flowering plants such as waratahs, banksias
and bottle
brush plants. We also have the beautiful but introduced
jacaranda tree and poinciana
tree).
Alpine Vegetation
Alpine areas are rare
in Australia but they do exist in the high altitudes in Tasmania,
ACT,
eastern Victoria
and southern New
South
Wales. It is the coldest climate in Australia, and the only
biome
where it normally snows during the winter.
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The alpine
vegetation changes with altitude. On lower slopes snow
gums dominate, while higher up dwarf plants take over. Highest up,
above the tree line where it gets too cold for trees to grow, mosses
and low grasses take over. The alpine areas are also known for
beautiful wildflower displays during the spring and summer months.
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Coastal Plant Communities
Beaches and Mangrove
Communities
Australia has also got a lot of beautiful sandy beaches lined by palm
trees. And it has got some muddy beaches with thick mangrove
forests.
These may be less attractive than the sandy beaches, however mangroves
are very complex and important communities consisting of a lot of
species of plants, acting as nurseries or being a habitat for a lot of
animals (from
tiny crabs,
oysters,
fish and snakes
to large crocodiles
and everything between), as filters for water pollution, and as
preventers of coastal erosion.
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Many mangrove communities were cleared in the early days, before we
started to understand their importance.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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