FLORA

The Great Victoria Desert is an area of substantial botanical diversity and beauty. It boasts several stately trees and hundreds of wildflower species have been recorded.

Some of this diversity is displayed in the slideshow below. Hover the cursor over an image to freeze the slideshow.

Our Yarldarlba (Ooldea mallee) page has photos and information on this spectacular flowering gum tree.

Grevillea treueriana, a very rare plant, found only in two locations, both of them in the GVD
Bush tomato, a Solanum species. Not for eating - some are poisonous.
Honeysuckle grevillea Grevillea juncifolia
Sandhill hibiscus, Alyogyne pinoniana
Cactus pea, Bossiaea walkeri
Ruby saltbush, Enchylaena tomentosa. Common in the GVD and favoured by emus.
Eremophila glabra, one of many spectacular Eremophila plants of the GVD
Spine bush, Acacia nyssophylla, a prolific flowerer, but spiky.
Christmas tree mulga, Acacia aneura var. conifera, a very rare variety of a very common outback tree.
Strap-leaf hakea Hakea francisiana. Named after George Francis, the first director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Lawrencella davenportii and Senecio gregorii, two daisies which blanket the sand after rain
Dead finish, Acacia tetragonophylla, one of the GVD's toughest plants
Acacia continua, rare in the GVD, but more common to the east
Cephalipterum drummondii, a paper daisy flowering profusely at Mt Finke

The Friends’ Botanical Work

From the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, the Friends collected plant specimens for the State Herbarium of South Australia on an opportunistic basis. These specimens were identified and archived by herbarium botanists. A duplicate set in two plastic crates was kept by the Friends and named the “Hilda Hewitson Herbarium” to honour Hilda, the driving force behind these collections. The crates hold over 250 plant specimens and are housed at the Arid Lands Botanic Garden in Port Augusta.

For about 10 years from the early 2000s, the Friends undertook more formal plant surveys on one-hectare plots identified by the State Herbarium. Hundreds of specimens were recorded and collected for the herbarium’s major botanical database. Unfortunately, funding cuts to the herbarium have meant that this material can no longer be processed and we have discontinued this work.

However, for many years we have also been photographing the vegetation at set points in three sections of the South Australian part of the GVD – the Googs Track area, the Mamungari area and around Maralinga. We generally get to one of these sections every year, so the recording of each photopoint is done every three years. These records are supplied to the Herbarium and they now fill several DVDs.

More recently we have supported research projects recording marble gum (Eucalyptus gonglyocarpa) distribution and the use of marble gums by the Wipu Wara (Princess Parrot). We have also provided substantial support for a project investigating camel damage to the desert vegetation.

The South Australian Department of Environment and Water’s new NatureMaps website allows plant lists to be compiled for various areas of the state, using SA Herbarium data. A list generated for the Mamungari Conservation Park can be viewed here.