Australian Palms

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Biogeography, Ecology and Systematics

By: John Leslie Dowe

eBook - February 2010 - eRetailers

A comprehensive introduction to the 60 species of palm found in Australia and the culmination of over 20 years of research.

Australian Palms offers an updated and thorough systematic and taxonomic treatment of the Australian palm flora, covering 60 species in 21 genera. Of these, 54 species occur in continental Australia and six species on the off-shore territories of Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Christmas Island. + Full description

Incorporating recent advances in biogeographic and phylogenetic research, Australian Palms provides a comprehensive introduction to the palm family Arecaceae, with reviews of botanical history, biogeography, phylogeny, ecology and conservation. Thorough descriptions of genera and species include notes on ecology and typification, and keys and distribution maps assist with field recognition. Colour photographs of habit, leaf, flowers, fruit and unique diagnostic characters also feature for each species.

This work is the culmination of over 20 years of research into Australian palms, including extensive field-work and examination of herbarium specimens in Australia, South-East Asia, Europe and the USA.

- Short description

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Reviews

"...a very scholarly, yet highly readable publication that enhances enormously our knowledge of Australian palms."
Bill Aitchison, Growing Australian, June 2011, p.17-18

"...this work will be of lasting value to our knowledge of the flora. It is also a beautiful book, lavishly and consistently illustrated with color photographs and maps throughout. No one knows the palms of Australia better than John Dowe, and so it is excellent that he has synthesized what he knows into this single 290 page volume."
John Dransfield, Palms, Vol 54(3) 2010

" 'All You Ever Wanted to Know About Australian Palms' could well be the title of Dowe’s book. There are beautiful pictures but these take a backseat to a stunning amount of detail."
John Kennedy, The Palmateer, Spring 2010

"The book is richly endowed with high quality photographs of the morphological features of all the species and subspecies, as well as very good maps of their locations and distributions. These photographs and maps will assist readers not confidant in the use of botanical keys, but still wishing to recognise the individual species and their centres of occurrence and distribution. This is a quality book and is a very useful field guide…"
Roger Good, Australasian Plant Conservation, Vol 19 No 1, Jul-Aug 2010

"Australian Palms is a good book of considerable scientific merit, It is a comprehensive systematic treatment of a charismatic element of a world famous flora, last monographed over 130 years ago, and therefore will be of interest to anyone eager to know more about these iconic plants. I was sure I knew a little bit about palms before I encountered this book, and now I am twice as sure that I knew a lot less than I thought I did. That, I should add, is a strong recommendation to buy it."
Darren Crayn, Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 142, March 2010

"...a beautifully presented and well laid out look at all Australian palms including those of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. The wonderful amount of colour photos in the descriptions helps set this book apart, and helps make it a very useful field guide, as I prefer a photo to a line drawing...the best, most up-to-date account of the palm flora of Australia..."
The Palm & Cycad Society of New Zealand, http://www.nzpalmandcycad.com/?pg=7, 2010

"…a very serious scientific study of the Australian palm flora and easily the most comprehensive, detailed and systematic treatment of this subject I have ever read. The photos used on the book are of mature plants and nearly all are captured in their natural habitat. This gives the subject matter so much more authenticity…this is a 'must have' reference book for the palm enthusiast and indeed any collector of Australian native flora, as palms are for the first time shown as an integral and historic part of the Australian plant landscape. This book beautifully explains that context. I think Australian Palms will also prove to be the definitive reference text for identifying Australian palm flora as it contains the most comprehensive and systematic taxonomic information I have seen on this subject."
Palm and Cycad Society of WA, April 2010

"Overall this is an excellent book. In nearly all instances the data and information incorporated is right up to date..."
Paul I. Forster, Austrobaileya 8(2): 132 (2010)

1 INTRODUCTION
2 EARLY DOCUMENTATION OF AUSTRALIAN PALMS
3 HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY
4 DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY
5 SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN PALM FLORA
6 SUBFAMILY 1: CALAMOIDEAE
7 SUBFAMILY 2: NYPOIDEAE
8 SUBFAMILY 3: CORYPHOIDEAE
9 SUBFAMILY 4: CEROXYLOIDEAE
10 SUBFAMILY 5: ARECOIDEAE
11 DOUBTFUL AND EXCLUDED NAMES
12 FIELD IDENTIFICATION OF AUSTRALIAN PALM SPECIES
Checklist of genera and species
Glossary
Abbreviations
Herbarium acronyms
References
Index

View the full table of contents (PDF).

Authors

John Leslie Dowe is a Research Botanist specialising in the systematics and ecology of the palm family Arecaceae. Since the early 1990s, he has focused on the Australian palm flora providing revisions and accounts of the genera Archontophoenix, Caryota, Licuala, Linospadix and Livistona, and describing over 25 new palm species. He was awarded a PhD in 2001, for research on the Australian fan-palm genus Livistona.