Publisher's Synopsis
Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants: Trees, Shrubs and Vines is an interactive identification and information system for 2154 species of trees, shrubs and vines of northern Australian rain forests. It includes the species in northern Australia, from Broome in Western Australia to Townsville in Queensland. This powerful identification tool provides an easy to use and simple means of naming a rain forest plant using whatever information is available. By selecting characters from the plant (or specimen), and responding to a series of choices, the user is able to achieve identification via a process of elimination. A total of 154 characters, covering the morphology - habit, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, buds and seedlings - and some geographic and ecological information ensure reliability of the key is high. Interpretation of the character information is assisted with help notes and images featuring colour or line drawings. A comprehensive information system for each species includes common name, the formal scientific name together with nomenclatural synonyms, geographic and ecological information, distinguishing features and natural history notes. The descriptions are combined with high quality colour images for most species, leaf X-ray images and a map showing natural distribution.