Australian Rainforest Plants ~ Identification & Cultivation Resources

by Nan & Hugh Nicholson

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Terania Rainforest Publishing specializes in providing information about Australian rainforests. Photographer/botanist duo Hugh and Nan Nicholson have been involved in rainforest horticulture, regeneration and protection since 1974.

Their well-known publications on the indentification and cultivation of Australian rainforest plants have complemented their work as activists endeavouring to conserve all remaining rainforests.

Publications

square RPA app for website

Rainforest Plants of Australia ~ Interactive Key (Desktop App)

2.0 NEW RELEASE (March 2024)

Substantially revised & updated with 16 new species, 70 name changes. This digital identification key is comprehensive, easy-to-use, and stunning. With 12000 photos, it covers 1156 species of tree, shrub & vine from Rockhampton to southern Victoria.

More information & to ORDER

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Australian Rainforest Plants Vol I-VI ~ In the Forest & in the Garden

These 6 volumes have become references for beginners & experts alike, providing easy to understand information, identification & growing features of Australian rainforest.

More information & to ORDER

australian-rainforest-seeds-book (1)

Australian Rainforest Seeds

The Essential Guide to Collecting, Processing and Propagation ~ How to sustainably collect, process and germinate the seeds of 300 subtropical rainforest species.

More information & to ORDER

“This is the Rolls-Royce of botanical identification keys”

Dr Timothy Utteridge, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK

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🌿Authors, photographer, botanists
📕Books & Digital Key on Australian rainforest plants
🌳For gardeners, botanists, students & plant lovers
⬇️Info/Shop

These bats in a Costa Rican rainforest have nibble

These bats in a Costa Rican rainforest have nibbled through some veins of a palm leaf causing it to droop and make a ‘tent’ to shelter the bats from the frequent rains.

There are 15 species of tent-bats and others may well take advantage of already constructed shelters.
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#tentbats #rainforestpublishing

These delicate pink flowers belong to the lilly pi

These delicate pink flowers belong to the lilly pilly, Purple Cherry, Syzygium crebrinerve.
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#syzygiumcrebrinerve #lillypilly #purplecherry #australianrainforest #rainforestpublishing #rainforestplantsofaustralia #rainforestplants #rainforestidentification

The memorial for the botanist extraordinaire Alex

The memorial for the botanist extraordinaire Alex Floyd will be at 11am, 23rd January at the Wesleyan Methodist Church, 76 Bray St, Coffs Harbour.

It seems to be a rule that the more someone knows, the less they blow their own trumpet. He was a great example. His encyclopaedic knowledge of plants was legendary but you wouldn't know that from talking to him.

Floydia praealta, pictured, is just one of several plants named in his honour. It is listed as Vulnerable in NSW, Qld and the Commonwealth.

#rainforestplants #alexfloyd #australianrainforestplants #rainforestpublishing

With Christmas coming up, why not treat yourself t

With Christmas coming up, why not treat yourself to a set of our books - Australian Rainforest Plants I-IV - In the Forest & In the Garden. To order, go to www.rainforestpublishing.com.au

Many rainforest trees have spectacular red new gro

Many rainforest trees have spectacular red new growth. Fine-leaved Tuckeroo (Lepiderema pulchella), by contrast, has new growth which is pale straw-pink. This small tree is Vulnerable and restricted to the Tweed Valley - although, as its seeds germinate readily, it has weed potential outside its natural distribution. For instance, the many hundreds of seedlings carpeting the ground in Coffs Harbour Botanic Gardens. More information about this plant is in Australian Rainforest Plants Bk 2.
(Link in bio - makes great xmas prezz)

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#rainforestplants #australianrainforestplants #rainforestpublishing #lepiderema #fineleavedtuckeroo #tuckeroo

Curcuma australasica is known as Cape York Lily al

Curcuma australasica is known as Cape York Lily although it is actually in the ginger family. It dies back in the northern dry season. The extraordinary flower spike is the first thing to emerge from dormancy. Beautiful pink bracts protect the small yellow flowers.

#australianrainforestplants #curcumaaustralasica

Stunning epiphytes. . . . #rainforestpublishing #a

Stunning epiphytes.
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#rainforestpublishing #australianrainforestplants
#epiphytes

This is the photo on inside Australian Rainforest

This is the photo on inside Australian Rainforest Plants vol V, that Terri used as the base of her wood burning artwork we shared in our last post.

You can order any of the book volumes at https://rainforestpublishing.com.au (link in bio)

#rainforestpublishing #australianrainforestplants

Our daughter Terri has been experimenting with woo

Our daughter Terri has been experimenting with wood burning art. She modelled this off one of Hugh’s photographs in our Australian Rainforest Plants books.

#australianrainforestplants #rainforestpublishing #pyrographyart #woodburningart

Look who has come to use one of my nest boxes! Th

Look who has come to use one of my nest boxes! This Owlet Nightjar is probably just using the box as a day-time hide but I love the way it sits at the entrance during the day to watch what is going on.
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#owletnightjar #australianbirds #hughnicholsonphotography

We are excited to announce a new edition of Austra

We are excited to announce a new edition of Australian Rainforest Plants II - printed locally by Lismore City Printery.

The plants in our series of books are arranged alphabetically so a revision and update requires juggling. For example, the Umbrella Tree's genus name has changed from Schefflera to Heptapleurum - entailing a move from page 53 in earlier editions to page 35 in this new edition.

We have also added inset images of flower or fruit where this adds to the story about the plant.

To order: go to our website in bio >> https://rainforestpublishing.com.au
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#rainforestplants #australianrainforestpublishing
#australianrainforestplants

We were so warmed by the extraordinary turn out at

We were so warmed by the extraordinary turn out at the Australian Rainforest Seeds book launch at the Science-in-the-Pub. It was a sell-out event! Now we have more books in stock, and they are flying out the door. You can order yours from our website (free shipping): https://rainforestpublishing.com.au/index.php/publications/
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#rainforestpublishing #australianrainforestseeds

In some of my recent fire posts I have been talkin

In some of my recent fire posts I have been talking of the effects on the Terania Basin forests.
A recent communication from Dailan Pugh of North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) paints a more sobering picture. He writes, "Aside from Nightcap, vast swathes of rainforest have been burnt. My preliminary estimate is 80,000 ha burnt. I am currently mapping burnt rainforest in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, and have found that aside from Nightcap, (the rainforests of) Mt. Nothofagus, the eastern fall of Washpool and the Oxley Wild Rivers country have been very badly affected, particularly the smaller stands. Some have had all their canopy affected, many partially affected, and large areas had understorey fires with most understorey burnt and some trees." We have not yet heard in detail about rainforests in southern NSW but the forests where we took many of the photographs used in our Rainforest Key have been mentioned repeatedly in the ABC fire reports. I have grave fears for these southern, temperate rainforests.
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#rainforestpublishing #australianrainforest #rainforestfires #terania

Hugh has contributed the photos to this wonderful

Hugh has contributed the photos to this wonderful new book “Australian Rainforest Seeds” which is launching on 20th Feb. .
Northern Rivers Science Hub is teaming up with the local authors of a new guide to collecting and propagating the seeds of 300 subtropical rainforest species, ‘Australian Rainforest Seeds’ for a very special Science in the Pub event. .
We’ll officially launch this long-awaited book, and hear from some of Australia’s foremost rainforest ecologists and most experienced propagators on the science of seeds before they commence their interstate book tour.
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Authors Mark Dunphy, Steve McAlpin, Michelle Chapman, and Hugh Nicholson will lead us into the undergrowth to unearth some of the secrets of the rainforest. Sharing invaluable information based on 30 years of research in northern New South Wales, they will crack the shell on how to sustainably collect, process and germinate rainforest seeds. We’ll hear stories of some of the ‘eureka’ moments shared by these passionate folk as they first discovered the secrets of germinating the more enigmatic species. .
It seems fitting that we raise our glasses to the rainforest from a pub in the former heart of the Big Scrub, so for this seedy night the Science Hub will put down roots at the Eltham Hotel. Just 10 minutes from Lismore, the Eltham Hotel will have bar snacks and bistro open for dinner till 8pm. With free finger food served at 5:30pm, there will be time to charge your glasses in the name of science before we sprout into the science of seeds at 6pm. .
‘AUSTRALIAN RAINFOREST SEEDS: A Guide to Collecting, Processing and Propagation’ by Mark Dunphy, Steve McAlpin, Paul Nelson, Michelle Chapman, and photographs by Hugh Nicholson is published by CSIRO publishing. Books will be available for purchase in person from the authors, with signings after the event. .
The book will be available from our website after launch date of the 20th Feb.

In some areas of the Terania forest the winged fru

In some areas of the Terania forest the winged fruits of Coachwood, Ceratopetalum apetalum, are obvious. An event such as these fires followed by one species fruiting at the opportune time can cause the whole structure of the forest to change. The fruiting tree might have been a small component of the original forest but become a much more dominant component of the recovering forest.
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#rainforestpublishing #coachwood #Ceratopetalum #australianrainforest

These mistletoe seeds have been deposited on the b

These mistletoe seeds have been deposited on the burned branch of a bottle-brush bush growing high above the rainforest canopy on one of the crags.. Unfortunately the bush has been killed by the fires so there is little future for these seeds. At least there are still mistletoe birds alive and mistletoes fruiting. I do not know enough to identify the species of mistletoe from just these seeds.
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#mistletoe #rainforestpublishing #rainforest #australianrainforest

These are the strange flowers and distinctive leav

These are the strange flowers and distinctive leaves of Macaranga, Macaranga tanarius. It is a common small pioneer tree growing naturally north from the Richmond River in NE NSW to CapeYork and beyond. It has become naturalised because of plantings north from the Nambucca area.
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#macaranga #rainforestpublishing #australianrainforestplants #rainforestplants #rainforest

This crag within the Terania Basin has been comple

This crag within the Terania Basin has been completely scorched by a crown fire which seems to have removed all vegetation. This will take a long time to recover.
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#rainforestpublishing #terania #australianrainforest #nswfires #rainforestburns #teraniafires

Anybody interested to guess the name of this plant

Anybody interested to guess the name of this plant from the rainforest margins - often in damp places?

🌿Friendly Reminder ~ 10% off all Rainforest pub

🌿Friendly Reminder ~ 10% off all Rainforest publications in December🌿 Order now before 18th Dec to ensure it gets to you before Xmas. Free postage in Australia.

Here's the information again 🙂
As it's the month of December and Christmas time we've decided to give 10% off all orders of our rainforest publications during this period.
You just need to put in the coupon "dec-special" at checkout on our website.
*All postage is free within Australia.* Current publications:
Australian Rainforest Plants Vol I-VI ~ In the Forest & in the Garden
written by us 🙂
These 6 volumes have become references for beginners & experts alike, providing easy to understand information, identification & growing features of Australian rainforest. (You can also buy them individually if you are just missing a couple and don't need the whole set)

Rainforest Plants of Australia ~ Digital Identification Key USB
Created by botanists Gwen Harden, Bill McDonald, Nan Nicholson and photographer Hugh Nicholson. Terry Tame and John Williams also contributed.
13 years in the making, this digital key is comprehensive, easy-to-use, and stunning. It covers 1140 species of tree, shrub & vine ranging from Rockhampton to southern Victoria.

Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-Eastern Australia
Re-publication of Alex Floyd's classic, providing a comprehensive reference to all 402 rainforest tree species in Victoria and New South Wales, including some in south-east Queensland.

Just put the coupon code "dec-special" in at checkout and it'll adjust the cost to give you 10% off.
There is more info on all of these publications at our website https://rainforestpublishing.com.au.

Have a wonderful end of the year. Stay cool and safe from the fires.

All the best,
Nan & Hugh

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Blog Posts

Gardening with Australian Rainforest Plants by Nan Nicholson

Gardening with Australian Rainforest Plants by Nan Nicholson

by Nan Nicholson | Aug 1, 2016

Why grow rainforest plants? Rainforest species display a staggering diversity of shape, colour, size and appearance. Their attractiveness is due not only to their flowers, spectacular as some of these are, but to the plant forms, leaf shapes, colourful new growth...

Review by Tim Low: Rainforest Plants of Australia Interactive Key

Review by Tim Low: Rainforest Plants of Australia Interactive Key

by Nan Nicholson | Jun 23, 2016

Getting To Know Rainforests Review of interactive key: Rainforest Plants of Australia – Rockhampton to Victoria by Tim Low Identification of rainforest plants has become much easier with the arrival of an impressive new identification guide. Those who are...