Australian Rainforest Fruits: A Field Guide

This beautifully illustrated field guide covers 504 of the most common fruiting plants found in Australia’s eastern rainforests, as well as a few species that are rare in the wild but generally well-known. These spectacular plants can be seen from Cape York to Victoria, with some species also found in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and overseas. Rainforest fruits are often beautifully colored, and in this guide the species are arranged by color of ripe fruit, then by size and form. Five broad categories – pink to purple, blue to black, yellow and orange to red, green to brown, and white – allow people with even limited botanical knowledge to identify rainforest fruits.

Australian Rainforest Fruits includes stunning artwork by Australia’s leading natural history artist, William T. Cooper. It will be sought not just by bushwalkers and natural history enthusiasts, but also by those who admire botanical art at its best.

Wendy Cooper is the author of two previous titles specializing in fruits of the Australian rainforest. She received a Cassowary Award from The Wet Tropics Management Authority in recognition of her second book Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest. As a Research Associate at the Australian Tropical Herbarium she is involved in taxonomic studies of selected rainforest genera.

William T. Cooper AO (1934–2015) originally painted landscapes and seascapes but turned to painting birds because of a lifelong love of natural history. He collaborated on many bird monographs with Joseph M. Forshaw. In 1990, William was awarded the Philadelphia Academy of Science Gold Medal, and in 1994 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to art and to ornithology. A collection of his original paintings is owned by the National Library of Australia and many others are in private collections around the world.

Other books illustrated by William T. Cooper include Pigeons and Doves in Australia written by Joseph M. Forshaw, and Australian Rainforest Fruits: A Field Guide, written by Wendy Cooper.