Botanical Provinces of Western Australia

The botanical provinces of Western Australia (or Beard's Provinces) delineate "natural" phytogeographic regions of WA, based on climate and types of vegetation. John Stanley Beard, in "Plant Life of Western Australia" (p. 29-37)[1] gives a short history of the various mappings.

Map of the natural regions of Western Australia according to John Stanley Beard

In 1906, Ludwig Diels divided the state into an Eremaean Province and a South-West Province (together with further subdivisions), based on rainfall ranges, types of vegetation, and species' distributions (Beard, 2015:p. 30).[1][2] In 1944, C.A. Gardner modified Diels' description, adding the Northern Province, which comprised the Kimberley and Pilbara districts.[1] With Bennetts in 1956, he further refined this to give state-wide divisions.[1][3] Subsequent work by Beard and others[4][5][1] gave the current set of provinces used by Florabase[6] in its descriptions of plants. (See, for example, the entry[7] where Parsonsia diaphanophleba is described as being found in Beard's South-West Province.)

Beard's provinces are:

  • Northern Province (comprising North Kimberley, Central Kimberley, East Kimberley and Dampierland.)
  • Eremaean Province (comprising Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert, Tanami, Nullabor Region, Central Ranges, Great Victoria Desert, Murchison, Gascoyne, Pilbara and Carnarvon.)
  • South-Western Interzone (comprising the Coolgardie woodlands)
  • South-West Province (comprising Northern Sandplains, Wheat Belt Region, Mallee Region, Esperance Plains, Menzies, Warren, Dale and Drummond.)

Many of the subregions above have now been modified to give IBRA regions, among which are:

See also

References
  1. Beard, J.S. (2015) 'Plant Life of Western Australia.' (2nd Ed.) Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd: Dural NSW. (CAB Direct)
  2. Diels, L. (1906), Die pflanzenwelt von West-Australien südlich des wendekreises : mit einer einleitung über die pflanzenwelt Gesamt-Australiens in grundzügen, Verlag Von Wilhelm Engelmann, retrieved 20 June 2012
  3. Gardner, C.A.; Bennetts, H.W. (1956), The Toxic Plants of Western Australia, Perth, West Australian Newspapers. (CAB Direct)
  4. Beard, J.S. (1980), "A new phytogeographic map of Western Australia", W.A. Herb. Notes 3:37-58 (Kew bibliographic database) Archived 2018-04-19 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Beard, J.S.; Sprenger, B.S. (1984), "Geographical Data from the Vegetation Survey of Western Australia", Veg. Surv. WA. Occ Paper No 2, Vegmap Publications, 6 Fraser Road, Applecross
  6. "Florabase". Western Australian Herbarium, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  7. "Florabase: Parsonsia diaphanophleba". Western Australian Herbarium, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
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