From the Archives: Distribution Maps for Australian Plant Species |
4 August 2008 7:58 AM
If you're interested in finding out the natural distribution of a particular plant then Australia's Virtual Herbarium Map Search Screen will be of interest. The system produces a plot of recorded herbarium specimens for the species entered into the search panel.I've found this extremely useful in preparing distribution maps for species in the Photo Gallery section of the ASGAP website. But it can also be useful as an indication of how well a plant might grow in your locality. If the climate in your locality is vastly different to that where the plant grows naturally, you could be in for a challenge!
Below is the output map for the fringe myrtle, Calytrix tetragona. The map shows that the plant has a wide distribution, occurring in both the eastern states and along the southern strip to the south-west of Western Australia. Thus, it covers a wide range of climatic zones. So what? Well, knowing that plants native to hot and dry Mediterranean climates can be difficult to grow in the humid eastern States, what this can tell you is that growers in eastern New South Wales and Queensland should try to avoid plants of this species that are propagated from material sourced from the south-west, South Australia and western Victoria.
Yes, I know. Easier said than done.....
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Original article posted on 16 May 2006
A Blog is a great way for distributing information but the problem with any blog is that items quickly get moved down the list and become "lost". You can of course, find items by selecting the 'Articles Index' menu item (but you still need to work though the list month by month) or use the 'Search Gumnuts' box (to find topics on subjects of interest), but it's still easy to miss things.
"From the Archives" will be a semi-regular posting that repeats some of those earlier items that you might have missed, possibly including a bit more information.
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