Other information
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| Australia |
Country |
Important |
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Australian federal and state
government agencies and some universities maintain
facilities for the scientific collection, storage, and
study of Australian plants. Updated knowledge about
those plants comes mainly from such institutions and
reaches the public through published handbooks, called
floras, listing and illustrating the species. The number
of general popular books dealing with the ornamental,
horticultural, medicinal, culinary, and other uses of
plants increased sharply following the publication of a
major new flora
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The characteristic part of Australia’s plant life that is little shared with other lands, together with those specialized characteristics that apparently originated on the continent long ago, form what has been designated as an Australian (or autochthonous) element. It includes many of the plants that are distinctive to typical Australian vegetation scenery and shows a marked tendency to sclerophylly |