An Analysis of the Australian Grass Flora

The grass flora of Australia is analysed by several different methods complemented by 6 figures and 15 tables.Native and naturalized exotic entities are given equal treatment and comparisons between the floras of each state are enumerated.Taxonomic breakdowns and comparisons for each state are given at tribal and informal sub-family groupings.Reasons are suggested for the data where possible.The recently published check-list of Australian grasses (Simon, 1978) provided an incentive to analyse the data in this list along the lines outlined by a recent analysis of the flora of Victoria (Ross, 1976).Although the distributional data in the check-list is given on a state basis, it is realized that a more meaningful analysis would have been obtained had the geographical areas been based on the lines of topography, vegetation types, climate, soils and other general ecological factors as has been recently attempted at generic rank (Clifford & Simon, 1981).However, although political boundaries are in most cases artificial they are unambiguous, and are considered useful demarcations for the present analysis to be undertaken.The check-list deals only with Australian native and naturalized grasses, atiouet distribution of these grasses into New Guinea was also indicated, in the check-list.