Seed biology of tropical Australian plants

Australia has a diverse tropical flora. In this chapter we review some aspects of the seed biology of Australian tropical forest and woodland communities. Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge of seed biology of most species and some habitats in tropical Australia. Although much less research has been carried out on the tropical flora, in comparison with the temperate flora of Australia, some general trends begin to emerge from published studies. The Eucalyptus-dominated forest and woodland flora have a bimodal peak in seed production, with the woody vegetation flowering towards the end of the dry winter season, and the herb and grass understorey flowering around the end of the wet season. The rainforest communities show extended fruit production with a peak around early summer (i.e. December). These communities do not maintain a large seed bank. Many species produce dormant seeds, but for most species seed dormancy is broken at the beginning of the following summer wet season.