The Flora of
Ashmore and Cartier Islands consists of 16 families, 23 genera and 27 species. Four of these species are introduced and naturalised. In addition, two species have been introduced but not naturalised. The vegetation is dominated by shrubs, grasses and creepers. The vast majority of species have seeds that are very easily transported by the wind, birds or the sea.
Flora of Ashmore Reef
The following plant taxa occur on the islands of Ashmore Reef:
In addition to these, ''
Zea mays
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
'' (Maize) and ''
Cocos nucifera
The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...
'' (Coconut) have been introduced by visiting
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n fishermen as food sources, but these are not naturalised.
Flora of Cartier Island
Cartier Island
Cartier Island is an uninhabited and unvegetated sand cay in a platform reef in the Timor Sea north of Australia and south of Indonesia. It is within the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, an external territory of Australia. The land area ...
is unvegetated. The only recorded plant is the seagrass ''
Thallassia hemprichii'', which forms meadows in pockets of sand among the reef.
References
* {{cite book , author = Kenneally, Kevin F. , year = 1993 , chapter = Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island , pages = 43–47 , title =
Flora of Australia
The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...
: Volume 50: Oceanic Islands 2 , location = Canberra , publisher = AGPS Press , isbn = 0-644-14446-7
Lists of biota of Western Australia
Lists of plants of Australia