Plants of Western New South Wales

Abstract

Plants of Western New South Wales grew from the long experience and expertise which the authors acquired during their employment with their respective organisations in the arid and semi-arid pastoral areas of the State. Each author became aware of the need for a comprehensive record illustrating and describing the great array of plants in the area. The need was identified both for people involved in research and advisory services, and particularly for the landholders who need to manage the plants for their livelihood.
 The book is a landmark because it draws together all of the existing knowledge of plants from the area, adds to it the extensive collections and research of the authors and presents the whole as a comprehensive collation and description of the plants of the dry pastoral portion of the State. Because of its comprehensive nature, the work is significant to pastoralists and people concerned with plants throughout Australia.
 The 1992 edition of Plants of Western New South Wales has been reprinted and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING with a one page appendix giving website addresses of various herbaria in Australia where the reader can readily access up-to-date information on botanical name changes.

Secondary seed dispersal of Erodiophyllum elderi, a patchily distributed short‐lived perennial in the arid lands of Australia

“…Consequently, in heavily grazed patches, vegetation and dead material are unlikely to build up to the same extent as in lightly grazed areas and this will have consequences for seed dispersal patterns. In this particular instance, neither kangaroos nor sheep were likely to browse E. elderi foliage (Cunningham et al 1992), instead preferring other species. Hence, the observed effects are mediated by the impacts of introduced sheep on the abiotic environment and on the biotic environment via their effects on other plant species growing in the low-lying herbaceous communities.…”

“…None of the patches had rabbit warrens present. While sheep are reported to browse E. elderi foliage when other forage is scarce it is certainly not a large component of their diet (Cunningham et al 1992). There is no evidence that kangaroos graze the foliage.…”

The effect of experimental inundation and sediment deposition on the survival and growth of two herbaceous riverbank plant species

“…The leaves are 25-100 (sometimes to 240) mm long, arranged from flat to upright within the rosette to form an open clump 20-100 mm high. Both species spread by vegetative reproduction, C. bichenoviana producing ramets from underground rhizomes, whilst C. scapigera produces ramets from above-ground stolons (Cunningham et al 1992;Harden 1992). A previous field study has shown that both these species can survive inundation events of up to 30 days duration combined with deposition of sediment up to 60 mm in depth (Lowe and Page 2002).…”

Heliotropium europaeum only germinates following sufficient rainfall to allow reproduction

“…Common heliotrope belongs to the family Boraginaceae and establishes in late spring and early summer after rainfall (Moore, 1956;Sheppard et al, 1996). It is native to the Middle East, West Asia and the region surrounding the Mediterranean sea (Bentham, 1869;Cunningham et al, 1981;Parsons and Cuthbertson, 2001;Sheppard et al, 1996;Walsh and Entwistle, 1999). It was naturalised into Australia in the early 19th century (Delfosse and Cullen, 1980;Kloot, 1983;Moore, 1956;Walsh and Entwistle, 1999), and is now an economically important weed of both crops and pastures (Delfosse and Cullen, 1980;Lazarides and Hince, 1993).…”