Conservation and Environment

Part 1: Native plant lists
| back to Restoration and Revegetation home page | Zone brochures | North East zone map | Choosing the right plant list | Interpreting the plant lists | How the plant lists were developed |


Zone brochures
Each native plant list brochure contains:

• Background information on planning a restoration or revegetation project,
• Landscape profiles illustrated by graphics and descriptions of the land-form, geology and soils.
• Native Plant lists for each predominant EVC that is found on private land,
• A map to give an indication of which EVCs occur where in that area.

• Lists for EVCs which predominantly occur on public land (as most is existing, or extant, native vegetation, or is modified to a plantation).
• Lists for Alpine or Sub-alpine EVCs, as more detailed knowledge, best-management-practices and prescriptions or guides exist for this area. (The Australian Alps Rehabilitation Manual)

Choosing the right list Once you have selected the appropriate zone brochure, this note will help you to choose appropriate plant lists for a site. The first two pages are background information. The last two pages provide a worksheet to help you choose the appropriate profile and list/s. How to choose a plant list (PDF - 1.5 Mb)
Interpreting the plant lists Various codes have been applied in the plant lists to assist the User: Life-form codes are listed after species (eg M = medium shrub, SS=small shrub, LT = Large tufted grass-like plant etc). Life-forms are defined as “the structure, form, habitats and life history of an organism. In plants characteristic features, particularly morphological features are associated with different environments”. The codes used in the guide are based on the approach adopted by DSE, as in Appendix 6 of the Vegetation Quality Assessment Manual (2004). Underline – will indicate that a species is more likely to be available from plant nurseries. These are based on lists provided by plant nurseries in the North East of Victoria. (N.B. Some species may only be found at specialist nurseries, and you always need to check if ordering in advance is required.) Just because a species is not underlined, doesn’t always mean it can’t be grown. Please ask for these species and you may find a Plant Nursery that can grow, or will try to grow it for you. Some species are in ‘bold’. This is to identify a minimum subset of plants likely to be important in the composition and reconstruction of the vegetation community. This is to provide the structural ‘framework’ of the vegetation and the range of food types.
How the Plant Species Lists were developed The species lists for each EVC in the brochures are derived from the following sources: Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC) benchmarks and descriptions of the North East area (plus field notes from the EVC mapping projects); Species lists from quadrat (site based) data, defined area lists and 10’ grid data (broad area lists from the National Herbarium and various collectors), extracted from the Victorian Flora Site database (DSE 2005); and Additional species lists from community groups or individuals from the region, and personal communications with local plant enthusiasts. The species lists are a short list of what might occur in that EVC. Some EVCs have over 100 native plant species occurring in intact sites! But not all of these are suitable for restoration: some are too small for most people to consider finding and using; many are uncommon and others are only found for short periods of the year. We have attempted to select the more common species, which reflect a range of: life-forms ie. the structure, form and shape/habit of the plant, which provide different habitats. genera – which have different types of flowers, fruits and seeds, ie. different food types. Within the lists some of the plants are highlighted in bold. The selection of these was based on meeting at least one of the following criteria: Common: native species which occur frequently in quadrats or species lists for that floristic grouping. Dominant: Native species which have a high ‘cover abundance’ recorded in quadrat data (Braun Blanquet 2,3 or above). Pioneer: native species which are known to respond to disturbance and quickly colonise a site. Thus the inference is these are essential to initiating a restoration process. Often these are nitrogen-fixing (Acacia spp., Fabaceae spp.), or short-lived as adults (e.g. Cassinia spp.). Up to a dozen plants are highlighted in bold for each EVC plant list. After developing the lists using the above methodology they were circulated to a range of relevant people for each zone. Constructive comments were obtained from a range of people including local plant enthusiasts and used in compiling final drafts of the plant lists. We have kept an ‘intermediate’ list of native plants for each of the EVCs in the brochures. So if you need more detail, please contact a member of the Biodiversity team at DSE Wodonga or Wangaratta.