Indigenous use of plants in south-eastern Australia

Abstract

The removal of Indigenous people from their traditional lands in south-eastern Australia has rendered it necessary to collect much of the information about plant use from nineteenth century sources. Despite these difficulties, a fully referenced database of species occurring in Victoria which have known Indigenous use in some part of Australia contains over one thousand entries, approximately one third of the total native flora in the state. Databases have been assembled also for New South Wales, Tasmania and the higher rainfall areas of South Australia. They contain plants used for food, medicines, fibre, implements, adhesives and cultural purposes. Underground storage organs constituted the major food source in higher rainfall areas, whereas seeds become more important in the arid lands. Microseris lanceolata (Walp.) Sch. Bip., and Microseris scapigera (Forst.) Sch.Bip., Murnong or Yam Daisy, widely used for food, present an interesting taxonomic and biogeographic study. © 2008 Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.