Australian Grasses
A Guide to Native Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Grasstrees
Second Edition By: Nick Romanowski
A fully revised and expanded illustrated guide to 270 species and forms of Australian grassy flora.
Native grasses, sedges and related plants are abundant in most Australian ecosystems, from Tasmania to the tropics, from coastal dunes to the snow line, and from grasslands to wetlands. With many of them as strikingly beautiful as the finest exotic grasses, they attract ever-increasing interest. They are widely planted to create a softer and more natural look, from bush gardens to more formal plantings, as drought-tolerant lawns or just for the pleasure of their shifting patterns in a strong wind. + Full description
This fully revised and expanded second edition of Australian Grasses describes around 270 species and forms. Most of the photos are new and show each species in diverse settings, from wild places to farm dams, as dramatic specimens and as potted plants. The book goes beyond the garden uses of these plants to consider their roles as habitat, their adaptations to fire, their use by Indigenous peoples, and how some are even a significant genetic resource for improving edible grains.
- Short descriptionDetails
Paperback | April 2026 | $ 44.99ISBN: 9781486320523 | 200 pages | 234 x 152 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Colour photographs
Features
- Fully revised and expanded edition covering around 270 species and forms.
- Provides decades of knowledge about diverse aspects of the Australian grassy flora.
- Highlights the importance of native species and their many uses in establishing a healthy ecosystem.
- Extensively illustrated with photographs from across Australia, including rainforests, wetlands and mallee scrub, from mountains to the coast, arid inland areas and the tropics.
Contents
AcknowledgementsWhy native grasses?
1 What are grasses, sedges and rushes?
2 Gardening with grasses: grasslands, lawns and formal gardens
3 Growing, propagating and maintaining native grasses
4 Encyclopedia of Australian grasses, sedges and rushes
Further reading and recommended sources
Index
Authors
Nick Romanowski is a zoologist who founded Australia’s first specialist native wetland nursery in the 1980s. He has written many books on plants, wetland ecology and aquaculture, including Living Waters, Wetland Weeds, Wetland Habitats and Planting Wetlands and Dams.
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