New Book: Plant reaction to long dry

[Roberta Cowan]

A NEW BOOK FROM A LEADING AUSTRALIAN BOTANIST
The Long Dry
Bush Colours of Summer and Autumn
in South-western Australia

By Alex George
Four Gables Press, Kardinya, Western Australia
2002
In the mediterranean region of south-western Australia the summer and
autumn of 2000-01 were the driest for 120 years and this had a marked
effect on the native plants.  In many species (both monocots and dicots)
the leaves or stems turned shades of yellow, red or brown, or simply a pale
green, but did not die?when the first winter rain fell they regreened and
resumed their normal functions.  Apart from a few species such as Borya
known to change colour during a normal summer, this phenomenon has never
been recorded so widely before.  There is evidently a range of survival
strategies at work.  This book illustrates 60 of these plants, showing them
in both their ?coloured? and regreened states.  There are also photographs
of patches of bush showing general ?autumn colour?, and of other drought
survival strategies.  Paradoxically, some native plants flower during this
season, and a selection of these is shown.  The book is illustrated with
180 colour plates.
THE AUTHOR     For 21 years Alex George was a botanist with the Western
Australian Herbarium, then for 12 years executive editor of the Flora of
Australia in Canberra. He has botanised throughout Western Australia in all
seasons, collecting and photographing wildflowers and observing how they
live.  His special interests include Banksia, Dryandra and Verticordia, as
well as botanical history and bibliography.  He is now a freelance
botanist, editor and indexer.

RRP:  $A20.00   Postage extra
Overseas orders and inquiries: Bloomings Books, 7 Newry Street, Burnley,
Victoria 3121
Telephone   +61 3 9427 1234
Fax   +61 3 9427 9066
Email   warwick at bloomings.com.au
Other books by Alex George
The Banksia Book  (Kangaroo Press, 3rd edn, 1996)
William Dampier in New Holland: Australia?s First Natural Historian
(Bloomings Books, 1999)