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Old 17-08-2016, 10:39 AM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Wollongong
Posts: 3,820
Billi,

Les Robinson's 'Field Guide to the Native Plants of Sydney' is an excellent book which I used to recommend to undergrad biogeography students. It's worth mentioning it's existence but it probably isn't for you, for two reasons.

It's geographic range: while it's useful range extends well beyond Sydney it's basically limited to the coast and nearby ranges. It's relevance rapidly decreases inland.

It is a field guide, not a picture book: It's in black and white and uses diagrams and description of diagnostic features, not pictures, for identification. Overall this works better but it takes a bit of learning. There is a key guide at the front which guides you to the right area. Some plants can only be identified (at least by an amateur like me) when they are flowering and a very few need a hand lens (eg some bi-pinnate acacias can only be distinguished by counting oil glands on the leaf's central stem).

Are you intending to identify local plants or plan a garden?
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