BOok Review
Pilbara Seed Atlas and Field Guide by Todd Erickson et al. Daniel Duval, Technical Officer, Seed Collections & Research, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
PILBARA SEED ATLAS AND FIELD GUIDE
Plant Restoration in Australia’s Arid Northwest
At first glance this is quite a comprehensive book but is still compact enough (25cm X 17cm) to be used as a field guide which will probably fit into a vehicle glove box. The pages seem to be glossy & durable and the book appears to be bound well and seems robust enough to be used in the field. The first urge
Todd E. Erickson, Russell L. Barrett, David J. Merritt and Kingsley W. Dixon
is to flick through the atlas of plants and seeds which most of the book is devoted to (Chapter 5 pages 45-251). It is the first field guide for plants I have read that includes images and detailed information of seeds for each species. But more of that later, for now let’s wander back to the preceding four chapters. The brief first chapter provides some background about the climate and plant communities in the Pilbara region. It highlights the harsh climate in this region with peak rainfall coinciding with peak summer temperatures which consistently exceed 40-45°C! It is a very rugged and harsh landscape and as a reader I was immediately thinking about the adaptation of the flora to the highly variable climate & extremes in this region. (It also has me thinking about the adaptation of my feet to the harsh red spinifex plains in the Pilbara region where I grew up. My first day at school at Roebourne Primary School having to wear shoes for the first time was a painful one.) In this hot arid climate it is quickly appreciated that many plants spend most of their life history as seeds sequestered in the soil seed bank or contained in woody fruits awaiting a favourable season. This poses consequences for seed collecting, germination & dormancy for the Pilbara flora as well as challenges for restoration in the region as the authors allude to in the early chapters. It becomes readily apparent early in the book why a field book containing information about seed biology and seed photographs for the Pilbara region is so pertinent. The second chapter discusses seed collection, cleaning and storage and illustrates some species examples from the Pilbara region. There are some very useful illustrated examples of dissected and x-rayed seeds that explain ‘filled’ seeds that many readers will find interesting.
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the botanic gardener | ISS 45 JULY 2016