Mosses and liverworts inhabit a miniature world hidden in our rainforests and often go unnoticed. This book seeks to raise the reader's awareness of these plants and reveals their beauty in the book's many high quality colour photographs. A comprehensive introduction is provided along with specific notes on these plants.
A richly illustrated, full-colour identification guide to almost 500 mosses, liverworts and hornworts in southern Australia. The book includes an introduction to the bryophytes, information on the collection, storage and naming of specimens, indentification keys, descriptions, thumb-nail anatomical sketches and more than 250 beautiful colour photographs.
Numerous taxonomic revisions and a substantial amount of additional floristic information have become available since the publication of Streimann & Curnow's Catalogue of Mosses of Australia and its External Territories in 1989. Monographs of Australian families and genera have included descriptions of many new taxa and the reduction of an even larger number of names to synonymy. Moreover, many taxa have been newly reported from Australia, while other Australian records have proved to be based on misidentifications or could not otherwise be confirmed. Taxonomic revisions from other regions have also resulted in many name changes among Australian taxa, and floristic research has provided numerous new State and Territory records.
Australian Rainforest Woods describes 141 of the most significant Australian rainforest trees and their wood. The introductory sections draw the reader into an understanding of the botanical, evolutionary, environmental, historical and international significance of this beautiful but finite Australian resource. The main section examines the species and their wood with photographs, botanical descriptions and a summary of the characteristics of the wood. A section on wood identification includes fundamental information on tree growth and wood structure, as well as images of the basic characteristics. With more than 900 colour images, this is the most comprehensive guide ever written on Australian rainforest woods, both for the amateur and the professional wood enthusiast. It is the first time that macrophotographs of the wood have been shown in association with a physical description of wood characteristics, which will aid identification. This technique was developed by Jean-Claude Cerre, France, and his macrophotographs are included in the book.
