Australian Grasses: A Guide to Native Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Grasstrees

Native grasses, sedges and related plants are abundant in most Australian ecosystems, from Tasmania to the tropics, from coastal dunes to the snow line, and from grasslands to wetlands. With many of them as strikingly beautiful as the finest exotic grasses, they attract ever-increasing interest. They are widely planted to create a softer and more natural look, from bush gardens to more formal plantings, as drought-tolerant lawns or just for the pleasure of their shifting patterns in a strong wind.

This fully revised and expanded second edition of Australian Grasses describes around 270 species and forms. Most of the photos are new and show each species in diverse settings, from wild places to farm dams, as dramatic specimens and as potted plants. The book goes beyond the garden uses of these plants to consider their roles as habitat, their adaptations to fire, their use by Indigenous peoples, and how some are even a significant genetic resource for improving edible grains.

Nick Romanowski is a zoologist who founded Australia's first specialist native wetland nursery in the 1980s. He has written many books on plants, wetland ecology and aquaculture, including Living Waters, Wetland Weeds, Wetland Habitats and Planting Wetlands and Dams.