A Field Guide to the Grampians Flora
Botany Australian Flora Field Guide Conservation Gardening & Horticulture Nature Reference Regional Interest Hiking & Outdoor
A Field Guide to the Grampians Flora is the 1984 classic that bushwalkers, native-plant gardeners and weekend naturalists still reach for first when they head west of Melbourne. In 144 concise pages, Rodger Elliot distils the Grampians’ 1,000-plus vascular plants into 230 of the most eye-catching and commonly encountered species, all laid out in the same easy-to-follow format that made his later guides famous: a sharp colour illustration opposite crisp diagnostic notes on size, habitat, flowering time and distinguishing traits. Because every flower, fern, shrub and tree is keyed to the exact walking track or picnic ground where Elliot first recorded it, you can stand on the Wonderland Range, flick to page 47 and know within seconds whether the yellow bloom in front of you is a Grampians Bitter-pea or a Narrow-leaf Wattle.
What makes this first-edition paperback special is that it captures the Grampians before the 2006 and 2014 bushfires reshuffled the understorey. Several of Elliot’s original populations no longer exist in those spots, so the book doubles as a botanical time-capsule for conservationists and ecologists. The 1980s line drawings—clean, accurate and life-sized—are still preferred by fieldworkers because they emphasise the structural details photographs often lose in dappled light. At only 180 g, the book tucks into a day-pack side pocket and the coated card cover survives misty mountain mornings better than most modern glossies.
Collectors value the Algona imprint for its tight binding and high-quality clay stock that keeps the colours true forty years on. This copy is smoke-free, unmarked and square-spined, so every plate sits flat for quick comparison in the field. Whether you’re identifying orchids on the Mount Zero track, planning a fire-retardant native garden in Horsham or simply want a reliable, Australian-published reference that doesn’t rely on phone reception, A Field Guide to the Grampians Flora remains the most compact, authoritative and affordable volume available.
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