BETWEEN KANGEROOS AND KANGAROO PAWS (A PLANT EXPLORATION TRIP TO AUSTRALIA)

Within the framework of this project a first trip was made to the South of Africa (Malawi and Lesotho), to collect plants of interest. In 1986 a second trip was made to the subtropic zone of Australia. Australia is a continent with a very rich flora of about 20,000 species, West Australia being the richest area with about 6,000 species. Australia has a wet spring and a long hot and dry summer, such that there is a short but violent growing season.

Therefore it must be possible to collect plants suitable for a short and energy-efficient growing period, as neccesary for the Dutch growers.

At this moment hardly any Australian crops are available on the Dutch market, so new sources of genetic variation obtained during this trip could be of great importance.

The purpose of the trip was to collect plant material from the Australian flora, in order to investigate the possibilities of culture under Dutch climatic conditions and the suitability as cutflower or flowering potplant.