This unit provides a comprehensive introduction to the diversity of plants found in Tasmania. In lectures, we examine the major natural vegetation communities in Tasmania, the key processes shaping them in the present and in the past, and their conservation and scientific significance. In the practical component, we introduce fungi and the major groups of land plants (bryophytes, ferns and gymnosperms), key flowering plant families, and the features that enable you to identify each. This level of understanding of the diversity of plants, their communities, and the forces shaping them will give you a new appreciation of the Tasmanian environment. This unit is an ideal preparation for the summer school KPZ301 Field Botany, and this combination provides some of the best undergraduate botany training in Australia.

Theoretical topics include:

An overview of the Tasmanian environment

• Climate, geology, geomorphology and soils
• The role of fire in shaping the vegetation

Vegetation types of Tasmania

• Open and closed sclerophyll forests
• Coastal heath and buttongrass moorland
• Alpine vegetation
• Cool temperate rainforest

Introduction to fungi and the non-flowering plants of Tasmania

• Mosses and liverworts
• Ferns and conifers

Introduction to the diversity of flowering plants of Tasmania

Introduction to the vegetation of the past and origins of the Tasmanian flora

Ecological variation within and between species, using the Tasmanian eucalypts as examples.

Practical component includes:

Introduction to the key characteristics for species identification of

• Tasmanian fungi
• Non-flowering plants
  • Liverworts and Mosses
  • Ferns
  • Gymnosperms

• Flowering Plants
  • Key morphological characters
  • Eucalypts
  • Acacias/ Fabaceae
  • Rutaceae/ Dilleniaceae/Rhamnaceae/ Lamiaceae
  • Ericaceae/Proteaceae/ Myrtaceae
  • Asteraceae/Monocots

Excursion to Mt Wellington to examine clinal variation and variability in habitat in eucalypts

Excursion to Ridgeway/Waterworks