Australian Grasses - Nick Romanowski

Australian Grasses: A Gardener's Guide to Native Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Grasstrees
by Nick Romanowski

Published Hyland House Publishing - September 2011 - Paperback - 192pp - 15.5cm x 21.5cm

Grasses took the gardening world by storm in the 1980s and Australian nurseries imported every exotic species they could find. Yet most Australian grasses remained virtually unknown, even though they are as spectacularly beautiful as the finest the rest of the world has to offer, while naturally being better adapted to our varied Australian climates.

Nowadays they are increasingly used as low-maintenance lawns and ground covers, colour-rich grasslands and pasture lands, as well as garden features and water-garden plants. Some are even being considered as perennial food crops.

Australian Grasses describes around 200 species of grasses, sedges, rushes, grasstrees and related plants, and is illustrated with photos taken in rainforests, wetlands, mallee scrub, and gardens from arid inland areas to the mountains and the coast.

Nick Romanowski is a zoologist who has spent three decades working with aquatic plants. His nursery, Dragonfly Aquatics, was the first to specialise in indigenous aquatic and wetland plants, growing species from all parts of Australia. He is the author of Edible Water Gardens: Growing Waterplants for Food and Profit.