Santalum is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, S. album. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites which photosynthesize their own food, but tap the roots of other species for water and inorganic nutrients. Several species, most notably S. album, produce highly aromatic wood, used for scents and perfumes and for herbal medicine. About 25 known species range across the Indomalayan, Australasian, and Oceanian realms, from India through Malesia to the Pacific Islands, as far as Hawaiʻi and the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of South America.
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.
Santalum album is a small tropical tree, and the traditional source of sandalwood oil. It is native to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Western Australia. It is commonly known as the true sandalwood, white sandalwood, or Indian sandalwood. It was one of the plants exploited by Austronesian arboriculture and it was introduced by Austronesian sailors to East Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia during the ancient spice trade, becoming naturalized in South India by at least 1300 BCE. It was greatly valued for its fragrance, and is considered sacred in some religions like Hinduism. The high value of the species has caused over-exploitation, to the point where the wild population is vulnerable to extinction. Indian sandalwood still commands high prices for its essential oil owing to its high alpha santalol content, but the lack of sizable trees has essentially eliminated its former use for fine woodworking. The plant is long-lived, but harvest is only viable after many years.
Eremophila longifolia, known by a range of common names including berrigan, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with weeping branches, long, narrow leaves and brick-red or pink flowers and is found in all Australian mainland states and the Northern Territory.
Eremophila oppositifolia, commonly known as weeooka, twin-leaf emu bush and mountain sandalwood, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with its leaves arranged in opposite pairs and has cream to red or sometimes maroon coloured flowers. It occurs in all mainland states, but not the Northern Territory.
Spinifex longifolius, commonly known as beach spinifex, is a perennial grass that grows in sandy regions along the seacoast. It also lives in most deserts around Australia.
Tricoryne is a genus of perennial herbs in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. All species are native to Australia with two species extending to New Guinea; within Australia they occur in all 6 states and the Northern Territory.
- Tricoryne ancepsR.Br. - New Guinea, Queensland
- Tricoryne corynothecoidesKeighery - Western Australia
- Tricoryne elatiorR.Br. - Yellow Rush-lily - all 6 states plus Northern Territory
- Tricoryne humilisEndl. - Western Australia
- Tricoryne muricataBaker - Queensland
- Tricoryne platypteraRchb.f - New Guinea, Queensland
- Tricoryne simplexR.Br. - New South Wales
- Tricoryne tenellaR.Br. - Mallee Rush-lily - Western Australia, South Australia
Xerochloa is a genus of Australian and Southeast Asian plants in the grass family.
Hakea lorea, commonly known as bootlace oak or cork tree, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae found in central and northern Australia. It has needle-shape leaves, yellow, white or green flowers and hard corky bark.
Rostellularia adscendens is an Australian plant species in the family Acanthaceae. It grows to between 10 and 50 cm high.
Myoporum acuminatum, commonly known as waterbush, pointed boobialla or mangrove boobialla, is a flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It grows in rainforest or wet eucalyptus forest near the coast and in the Coastal Ranges, and is occasionally associated with mangroves. Occasionally it is found in the drier rainforests. It grows naturally as far south as Mimosa Rocks National Park in far south eastern New South Wales, and north to Fraser Island in Southern Queensland.
Clerodendrum floribundum, known as the lolly bush or smooth clerodendrum, is a shrub or tree found in Australia and New Guinea. Its habitat is in or at the margins of coastal rainforests, up to 300 metres above sea level. In Western Australia it grows in drier areas, such as rocky sites, gorges, cliffs, floodplains and creek beds.
Anisomeles is a genus of herbs of the family Lamiaceae and is native to China, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, Madagascar, and some Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. Plants in the genus Anisomeles have small, flat, narrow elliptic to narrow e.g.-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs, the edges of the leaves sometimes wavy or serrated. The flowers are arranged in groups, with five sepals and five petals in two "lips", the lower lip with three lobes, the middle lobe much longer than the side lobes. There are four stamens that extend beyond the petals and a single style in a depression on top of the ovary. The fruit is a schizocarp with four nutlets containing small seeds.
Chloanthes is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in this genus are shrubs with hairy foliage, blistered or wrinkly leaves and flowers with five petals fused at the base, usually with two "lips".
Myoporum platycarpum, known by several common names including sugarwood, false sandalwood and ngural is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is rounded with bright green foliage as a young shrub and roughly fissured, dark grey bark when mature. Sugarwood is endemic to the southern half of continental Australia.
Cyperus concinnus is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to Australia, and found in New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
Fimbristylis acicularis is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to northern and north eastern Australia.
Exocarpos aphyllus belongs to the sandalwood plant family (Santalaceae). Noongar names are chuk, chukk, dtulya and merrin. It is a species endemic to Australia.
Samolus junceus in the family Primulaceae is a species of water pimpernel native to Western Australia.
Commelina lanceolata is a plant in the family Commelinaceae native to the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia. It is a scrambling perennial herb first described by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1810, who published his description in his work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.
