Robert Powell (author)

Last updated

Robert James Powell (1948- ) is a botanical author from Perth, Western Australia who has co-written books with Jane Emberson about the plants and trees of the Swan Coastal Plain and adjacent Darling Scarp.

Contents

His book An old look at trees was the careful archival retrieval of rarely seen photographs of coastal vegetation, jarrah and marri trees long since destroyed by urban development in the Perth region. It also provided very careful annotation of remnant vegetation, and appraisals of remnant vegetation in the region - with the Woodman Point book being a survey of an area to that point relatively undisturbed coastal vegetation. The later publications were more studies of the potential plants for utilisation in the Perth metropolitan area.

Powell has also worked for the Department of Conservation and Land Management, and written and produced photographs for its publications on plants, as well as other subjects.

Publication list

As co-author

Related Research Articles

<i>Eucalyptus marginata</i> Species of plant in the family Myrtaceae endemic to the south-west of Western Australia

Eucalyptus marginata, commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibrous bark, leaves with a distinct midvein, white flowers and relatively large, more or less spherical fruit. Its hard, dense timber is insect resistant although the tree is susceptible to dieback. The timber has been utilised for cabinet-making, flooring and railway sleepers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park</span> Protected area in Western Australia

Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park is a national park in the South West region of Western Australia, 267 km (166 mi) south of Perth. It is named after the two locations at either end of the park which have lighthouses, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. It is located in the Augusta-Margaret River and Busselton council areas, and is claimed to have the highest visiting numbers of any national park in Western Australia. The park received 2.33 million visitors through 2008–2009.

<i>Santalum acuminatum</i> Species of plant

Santalum acuminatum, the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the sandalwood family, Santalaceae, which is widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia. The species, especially its edible fruit, is also commonly referred to as quandong or native peach. The use of the fruit as an exotic flavouring, one of the best known bush tucker, has led to the attempted domestication of the species.

<i>Agonis flexuosa</i> Species of tree

Agonis flexuosa is a species of tree that grows in the south west of Western Australia. It is easily the most common of the Agonis species, and is one of the most recognisable trees of Western Australia, being commonly grown in parks and on road verges in Perth.

<i>Kingia</i> Genus of trees

Kingia is a genus consisting of a single species, Kingia australis, and belongs to the plant family Dasypogonaceae. The Aboriginal name bullanock is used as a common name for the plant. It has a thick pseudo-trunk consisting of accumulated leaf-bases, with a cluster of long, slender leaves on top. The trunk is usually unbranched, but can branch if the growing tip is damaged. Flowers occur in egg-shaped clusters on the ends of up to 100 long curved stems. Kingia grows extremely slowly, the trunk increasing in height by about 1½ centimetres per year. It can live for centuries, however, so can attain a substantial height; 400-year-old plants with a height of six metres are not unusual.

<i>Allocasuarina fraseriana</i> Species of tree

Allocasuarina fraseriana, commonly known as western sheoak, common sheoak, WA sheoak. Fraser's sheoak or just sheoak, is a tree in the family Casuarinaceae. Endemic to Western Australia, it occurs near the coast in the south west corner of the State, from Jurien to Albany . The Noongar peoples know the tree as kondil.condil, kulli or gulli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-capped parrot</span> Species of bird endemic to Western Australia

The red-capped parrot is a species of broad-tailed parrot native to southwestern Australia. It was described by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, with no subspecies recognised. It has long been classified in its own genus owing to its distinctive elongated beak, though genetic analysis shows that it lies within the lineage of the Psephotellus parrots and that its closest relative is the mulga parrot. Not easily confused with other parrot species, it has a bright crimson crown, green-yellow cheeks, and a distinctive long bill. The wings, back, and long tail are dark green, and the underparts are purple-blue. The adult female is very similar though sometimes slightly duller than the male; her key distinguishing feature is a white stripe on the wing under-surface. Juveniles are predominantly green.

<i>Banksia ilicifolia</i> Tree in the family Proteaceae endemic to southwest Western Australia

Banksia ilicifolia, commonly known as holly-leaved banksia, is a tree in the family Proteaceae. Endemic to southwest Western Australia, it belongs to Banksia subg. Isostylis, a subgenus of three closely related Banksia species with inflorescences that are dome-shaped heads rather than characteristic Banksia flower spikes. It is generally a tree up to 10 metres (33 ft) tall with a columnar or irregular habit. Both the scientific and common names arise from the similarity of its foliage to that of the English holly Ilex aquifolium; the glossy green leaves generally have very prickly serrated margins, although some plants lack toothed leaves. The inflorescences are initially yellow but become red-tinged with maturity; this acts as a signal to alert birds that the flowers have opened and nectar is available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodman Point</span> Point in Western Australia

Woodman Point is a headland on the west coast of Western Australia. It is located in the Perth suburb of Coogee, 22 km (14 mi) south-south-west of the city centre and 8 km (5.0 mi) south of Fremantle. It extends westward into the Indian Ocean. The coastal waters immediately to the north of the point are known as Owen Anchorage, while to the south is Jervoise Bay. Woodman Point marks the northern extent of Cockburn Sound.

<i>Corymbia calophylla</i> Tree found in Western Australia

Corymbia calophylla, commonly known as marri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a tree or mallee with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped adult leaves, branched clusters of cup-shaped or pear-shaped flower buds, each branch with three or seven buds, white to pink flowers, and relatively large oval to urn-shaped fruit, colloquially known as honky nuts. Marri wood has had many uses, both for Aboriginal people, and in the construction industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swan Coastal Plain</span> Bioregion in Western Australia

The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) regions. It is also one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger West Australian Shield division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Jarrah Tree</span>

The Old Jarrah tree is an exceptionally large and old Eucalyptus marginata (Jarrah) tree near inside the carpark the entrance at the corner Third Road and Church Avenue in Armadale, Western Australia. It is estimated to be between 400 and 800 years old. Trees of such a great size and age are rare in and around the Perth metropolitan area, because of extensive logging of the area in the 19th century. The tree is in fairly poor condition: about three quarters of its canopy is dead or gone, and it is less than half its normal height due to lopping. It was ringbarked by vandals in 1997, and it has responded by producing numerous epicormic shoots on its north side. Despite these issues, the tree is considered to be in a stable condition.

Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his name. He was Director of Kings Park in Perth for seven years, and CEO of the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority for five. He is currently Foundation Professor of Plant Conservation Biology at The University of Western Australia. He was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 2006 to 2012.

<i>Eucalyptus patens</i> Species of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus patens, commonly known as yarri or blackbutt, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped leaves, creamy-white flowers and spherical to oval fruit.

The Campaign to Save Native Forests (W.A.) (CSNF) was the name of a grassroots organisation which grew from a campaign started in Perth, Western Australia, in 1975, as a response to the development of a woodchipping industry in the south-west jarrah and karri forests of Western Australia. The Manjimup woodchip project aroused significant levels of protest in Perth and the South West region out of public concern that inadequate measures had been made for conservation alongside exploitation of the south west hardwood forests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwongan</span>

Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibulman Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as

...a type of country ...[that is] sandy and is open without timber-sized trees but with a scrubby vegetation. It consists of plains in an Australian sense of open country rather than in a strict sense of flat country. ... there are two principal plant formations in the kwongan, scrub heath and broombush thicket ... both ... are sclerophyll shrublands and possess a certain unity when contrasted with woodland and forest or steppe and succulent steppe communities.

Augustus Frederick Oldfield (1821–1887) was an English botanist and zoologist who made large collections of plant specimens in Australia.

<i>Corymbia haematoxylon</i> Species of plant

Corymbia haematoxylon, commonly known as mountain marri, is a species of tree that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to narrow egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and urn-shaped fruit.

<i>Eucalyptus lane-poolei</i> Species of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus lane-poolei, commonly known as salmon white gum, is a species of tree or mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth but scaly-looking bark, narrow lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy white flowers and hemispherical fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington Bushland Reserve</span> Nature reserve in Perth, Western Australia

Kensington bushland reserve is a significant remnant of Swan Coastal Plain vegetation, that has been reserved in the suburb of Kensington, in Perth, Western Australia, by the state government.

References

  1. Powell, Robert; Emberson, Jane, (joint comp.); Campaign to Save Native Forests (W.A.); Powell, Robert; Emberson, Jane (1978), An old look at trees : vegetation of south-western Australia in old photographs, Campaign to Save Native Forests (W.A.), ISBN   978-0-9597449-3-4 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Powell, Robert; Emberson, Jane; Powell, Robert; Emberson, Jane (1981), Woodman Point : a relic of Perth's coastal vegetation, Artlook, ISBN   978-0-86445-011-1
  3. Powell, Robert; Western Australia. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Extension and Publicity Service; Powell, Robert (1983), Re-establishing local trees and shrubs on farms, Extension and Publicity Office, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, retrieved 1 May 2023
  4. Powell, Robert; Pieroni, Margaret; Patrick, Susan J; Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management; Hopper, Stephen; Powell, Robert; Patrick, Susan (1990), Leaf and branch : trees and tall shrubs of Perth, Dept. of Conservation and Land Management, ISBN   978-0-7309-3916-0