An Introduction to the Western Australian Flora
Western Australia is recognised as possessing one of the most diverse and unique floras in the world. The isolated south-western corner of Western Australia, with its mediterranean climate, is considered amongst the world’s 34 plant biodiversity hotspots.
This website delivers the latest authoritative information about the Western Australian flora in an accessible and interactive manner. Information is presented in a thematic way, so that users focused on particular components of the State’s flora, such as the conservation taxa or naturalised weeds can readily keep up to date.
Users can also find information by browsing or searching the site to explore their own special interests. FloraBase provides botanical information on all Western Australian vascular plant families, genera and species as well as identification tools, photos, maps, a database of botanical literature and (for registered users) the collecting details of over 706,158 vouchered herbarium specimens from across the State. A database of Robert Brown’s Australian botanical specimens is also available.
Western Australia hosts representatives from over 220 vascular plant families, the largest families in terms of species number being the Myrtaceae, Proteaceae, Papilionaceae, Mimosaceae and Epacridaceae. Endemism in these five largest families ranges between 50% and 80% indicating both the significant biodiversity of woody perennials and the unique nature of Western Australia’s flora. Further floristic information is available here.
The following list allows the user to begin browsing through the complete list of Western Australia’s vascular plant families.
Over time we hope to be able to add here, in a similar manner, comprehensive information on the State's non-vascular flora — the fungi, lichens, bryophytes and algae. Our introduction to the cryptogams provides some further details of these groups and their definition, and a new section on the marine plants, featuring the macro-algae, exemplifies our aim.
