So mauve and dainty the petals of Sturt’s desert rose, perched on our deserts’ blazing sand without so much as a whimper. This pretty darling is forceful. Resolute. 

She’s not alone.

The firewood banksia with its fluffy belly, petal-pink cap and sawblade leaves happily sacrifices  life for its seeds. Like many Australian plants, it needs fire to germinate. Some of our Proteaceae species also rely on fire—though smoke is their trigger. One ‘whiff’ of smoky chemical compounds and pop! Seed palooza.

Researching and crafting Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants was a time of open-mouthed wonder. As I compiled and collated a forest of information, I was not only struck by astonishing finds, I realised our perception of plants is still pretty much in its infancy. We can readily presume that plants are inert. Innocuous. Tethered. But the reality is jaw-dropping.

Plants, especially those rooted in Australia (with the oldest continental crust on Earth), are power personified. Our global flora makes up over 80 per cent of the planet’s biomass, while all forms of animal (including humans) make up just 0.47 per cent. Plants also provide 80 per cent of the world’s food and up to 75 per cent of its oxygen. They stabilise soil, regulate climate and water cycles, and most of all—in my eyes—ceaselessly spark wonder.

When I first started research for Flora, it was important to source information that rivalled my companion book Fauna: Australia’s Most Curious Creatures. Both books were written for upper primary school children, and after almost two decades in children’s publishing, one thing I know for sure is that animals are king. They are quirky, cool, fascinating, powerful, and even deadly.

Plants? Meh. Whack them in a salad or plop them in vase—maybe climb a branch or drop and roll on a daisy-spotted lawn. Inert. Passive. Dare I say—a little boring?

It was my mission to rewrite this narrative, and I’ll admit I may have been a little sensationalist to pluck the extreme gems I did for Flora. So be it. Kids need to know the truth…

The fact that Australia has not only the world’s tallest hardwood tree but also flowering plant (the Tasmanian Mountain Ash). 

That our gum blossoms not only fluff up pretty but can explode like grenades.

That even the lightest touch of the world’s most painful plant (the Gympie Gympie) feels like acid, fire and electrocution all at once.

Extreme themes—yes—but the central theme of my diabolical plan to enchant kids with our native flora, was the hope that they would take interest. To learn and care and even help our native plants thrive. That they’d come to understand the role our First Nations people held, and still hold, in the preservation of our flora. To know that while hundreds of Australian animals are threatened with extinction, almost three times the plant species face this same threat. 

And lastly, that our plants are breathtakingly quirky, cool, fascinating, powerful… and even deadly.

Buy Flora