What are native plants?
Answer
Plant species native only to Australia
Explanation
Native plants in Australia number more than 24,000 vascular plant species, with about 85 per cent found nowhere else in the world. The continent's long isolation since separating from Antarctica about 35 million years ago, its variety of climate zones from tropical rainforest to arid desert, and its ancient soils have produced one of the most distinctive floras on the planet.
The two largest plant groups are the eucalypts and the acacias. Australia has more than 800 species of eucalypt, including the river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) found across the Murray-Darling Basin, the karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) and tingle (Eucalyptus jacksonii) of south-western Western Australia, the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) of southern Victoria and Tasmania (the world's tallest flowering plant at more than 100 metres), and the Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus). Australia also has more than 1,000 species of acacia, including the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha), the national floral emblem.
Other distinctive plant groups include the banksias (with their dramatic candle-shaped flower spikes), the grevilleas, the bottlebrushes (Callistemon), the kangaroo paws, the casuarinas (sheoaks), and the proteas. Tasmania holds the world's oldest living organism of clonal origin, a Huon pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii) thought to be more than 10,000 years old at Mount Read. The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), discovered in a remote canyon in the Blue Mountains in 1994, is a living fossil dating to the time of the dinosaurs.
Aboriginal Australians have used native plants for food, medicine, fibre, and ceremony for tens of thousands of years. Bush foods now sold commercially include the Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana, with the world's highest natural vitamin C content), the riberry (Syzygium luehmannii), the lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), the wattleseed ground from acacia pods, and the macadamia nut, the only native Australian food now grown commercially worldwide. Many native species are protected under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and equivalent state laws.
Why this matters for your test
Australia's native flora is among the most distinctive in the world, and recognising the major groups (eucalypts, acacias, banksias) is the starting point for understanding the bush, garden plants, and bush food traditions.
Source: Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond (2024)
