Local Plants
It has become common practice for government agencies, land owners and community groups to embark upon programs to replant native vegetation, or at least representatives of the local flora.  As part of these programs, it is often necessary to remove non-native species which are growing wild in the area.  This means that those partaking in the work need to know which plants are native to the area - and need to be encouraged - and those which are non-native (or naturalised aliens) - and need to be removed.  This not always as simple as it appears, as the invasive species often mimic the natives rather well.  In many cases the non-native species are of the same genus and from another part of Australia (e.g. many NSW wattles) or even another part of the state (e.g. Sweet Pittosporum, native to East Gippsland but an aggressively invading species in other areas).

Viridans Identification Aids
Viridans can provide you with plant lists, descriptions and photographs of the native and non-native plant species that are known to occur in your area. 

Viridans Identification Training
We can also provide you with advice on which plants may be difficult to identify and even set up simple training programs to assist in this process.  The training may be on-site or in-house.  Contact us for more information on these services.

The table below shows examples of three native species, each with a similar non-native counterpart.  Unless you know the identification characters well mistakes can easily be made.

Actites megalocarpa - Dune Thistle - native	Lissanthe strigosa - Peach Heath - native	Mukia micrantha - Mallee Cucumber - native
Sonchus asper - Sow Thistle - alien	Erica lusitanica - Spanish Heath - alien	Citrillus lanatus - Camel Melon - alien

Plants for a Purpose
Not all planting programs are strictly re-vegetation projects. Some are simply a way to restore a little of the natural flora to an otherwise non-native area. Others may simply be domestic garden planting guides for a particular effect or for a specific purpose; such as, plants which are salt tolerant, plants which will not grow to a great height, plants that attract birds, a list of plants with range of flowering times so that something is always in bloom.

Viridans can help by providing clients with a list of plants suitable for specific areas and then categorising them according to a wide range of features such as flowering time, flower colour, maximum height, general plant life form (e.g. tree, shrub, herb, climber, fern etc). Contact us to discuss how this can best be done to suit your needs.

The table below shows a very small sample of how plants we have information on can be characterised for planting purposes. 

Hairy Fan-flower	Red Ironbark	Narrow-leaf Desert Cassia	Tasman Flax-lily
Characteristics:  Ground cover, purple flowers (spring-summer-autumn), sandy soil, full sun.	Characteristics:  Medium tree, rocky soil, bird-attracting flowers (spring).	Characteristics:  Shrub, grey leaves, yellow flowers (winter-spring), low rainfall.	Characteristics:  Tussock, purple fleshy fruit (summer), shade tolerant, high rainfall.
Holly-leaf Grevillea	Prickly Spear-grass	Large Bindweed	Grey Mallee
Characteristics:  Dense shrub, red bird attracting flowers (spring), sandy soil.	Characteristics:  Dense tussock, salt tolerant, wind tolerant, coastal.	Characteristics:  Climber, large pink flowers (spring-summer), wetlands.	Characteristics:  Small tree, cream flowers (summer), low rainfall, sandy soil.