The dinosaurs and flying reptiles are long since gone and Gondwana has fragmented but the ancestors of many of the plant families around at that time are still with us, albeit now geographically widely spread. The earth's plate tectonics caused what are today's southern continents to 'drift' apart incrementally over the eons, carrying their floral passengers with them. Araucarias are little changed from their dinosaur-cohabiting predecessors and still dominate the landscapes in which they grew. This family has been around for 200 million years, so it is distressing to know that many are now facing extinction because of the human impact from over harvesting and an unprecedented rate of climate change!
The Inala Jurassic Garden is a small, privately-owned botanic garden located at Inala, on Bruny Island, off Tasmania's south-eastern coast. It is a repository for more than 700 species of plants with Gondwanan connections, planted in family groups for easy comparison of species from the southern continents (especially Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, South America and South Africa).
Its relatively remote location on an 'island off an island off an island', which is only accessible by vehicle ferry or boat, is a fitting setting for the Jurassic Park-like garden of living 'dinosaur plants'.
The garden was originally designed to demonstrate the Gondwanan connections of these plants but, increasingly, the focus is to grow ex-situ insurance specimens of species at most risk of extinction. Many are already listed as threatened in the wild. - Dr Tonia Cochran
Notes and further reading:
The text of this article is taken from an article that appeared in the April 2023 edition of Australian Garden History.
Additional articles about Inala's Jurassic Garden can be found at Australian Geographic and at Organic Gardener
Inala Jurassic Garden website: You can explore lots more about the Inala Jurassic Garden here
Dr Tonia Cochran
The dinosaurs and flying reptiles are long since gone and Gondwana has fragmented but the ancestors of many of the plant families around at that time are still with us, albeit now geographically widely spread. The earth's plate tectonics caused what are today's southern continents to 'drift' apart incrementally over the eons, carrying their floral passengers with them. Araucarias are little changed from their dinosaur-cohabiting predecessors and still dominate the landscapes in which they grew. This family has been around for 200 million years, so it is distressing to know that many are now facing extinction because of the human impact from over harvesting and an unprecedented rate of climate change!
The Inala Jurassic Garden is a small, privately-owned botanic garden located at Inala, on Bruny Island, off Tasmania's south-eastern coast. It is a repository for more than 700 species of plants with Gondwanan connections, planted in family groups for easy comparison of species from the southern continents (especially Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, South America and South Africa).
Its relatively remote location on an 'island off an island off an island', which is only accessible by vehicle ferry or boat, is a fitting setting for the Jurassic Park-like garden of living 'dinosaur plants'.
The garden was originally designed to demonstrate the Gondwanan connections of these plants but, increasingly, the focus is to grow ex-situ insurance specimens of species at most risk of extinction. Many are already listed as threatened in the wild. - Dr Tonia Cochran
Notes and further reading:
The text of this article is taken from an article that appeared in the April 2023 edition of Australian Garden History.
Additional articles about Inala's Jurassic Garden can be found at Australian Geographic and at Organic Gardener
Inala Jurassic Garden website: You can explore lots more about the Inala Jurassic Garden here
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