Carnivorous Plants of Australia — in Pursuit of Australia's Murderous Flora
Slides and audio from a public talk about Australia's carnivorous plants, "In Pursuit of Australia’s Murderous Flora Seminar", presented by Dr Alastair Robinson at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne on 10 April 2019 (duration: 48 mins).
SYNOPSIS: With an estimated 230 recognised species of carnivorous plants from 6 different genera and 3 different orders, and a further assemblage of proto-carnivorous species, Australia has the highest rates and diversity of plant carnivory on Earth. Alastair, who has studied these unusual plants across Malesia, Papua and Oceania, provides an overview of the continent’s carnivorous flora, while addressing their ‘added value’—that is, not their mechanisms of carnivory, but the perhaps even more fascinating aspects of their biology that are accessory to the carnivorous syndrome, including unusual symbioses, novel infrageneric adaptive traits and their ecological value.
Keywords: Western Australia, Drosera, Utricularia, Cephalotus, Byblis, Nepenthes