Mark C Brundrett

University of Western Australia | UWA · Biological Sciences

A comprehensive appraisal of the mycorrhizal literature provides data for 336 plant families representing 99% of flowering plants, with regard to mycorrhizas and other nutritional adaptations. In total, arbuscular (AM), orchid, ectomycorrhizas (EM) and ericoid mycorrhizas and nonmycorrhizal (NM) roots occur in 74%, 9%, 2%, 1% and 6% of Angiosperm s...

AimsKnowledge about mycorrhizal associations is important for understanding mineral nutrition, stress tolerance and regeneration dynamics of trees. Here we address the mycorrhizal status of 940 species of important trees growing in ecosystems or cultivated in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere by resolving conflicting mycorrhizal trait in...

Nearly 150 years of research has accumulated large amounts of data on mycorrhizal association types in plants. However, this important resource includes unreliable allocated traits for some species. An audit of six commonly used data sources revealed a high degree of consistency in the mycorrhizal status of most species, genera and families of vasc...

The Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) is a global biodiversity hotspot with exceptional plant species richness, endemism and rarity linked to ancient landscapes, extremely infertile soils, complex habitats and a relatively stable climatic history. It contains about 9000 plant taxa (~8000 species), the majority of which are endemic. Key...

Context. The Southwest Australian Floristic Region has exceptional plant evolutionary complexity for fire, nutrition and pollination traits. Aims. Our aim was to allocate pollination strategies to all vascular plants in this biodiversity hotspot by analysing existing and new data. Methods. Here we assigned a flower syndrome to ~8800 plants in this...

Context: The Southwest Australia Floristic Region (SWAFR) is a global hotspot for plant taxonomic and functional diversity. This region has many orchids with highly specialised associations with pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi that also face increasing threats from habitat loss, grazing, weeds, fire and climate change. Aims: To identify short and...

Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity, altering landscapes, ecosystems, and mutualistic relationships like pollination. Orchids are one of the most threatened plant families, yet the impact of invasive bees on their reproduction remains poorly understood. We conduct a global literature survey on the incidence of invasive honeybees (Apis...

These are minimal estimates of transitions using data from Table S1 from Brundrett et al. 2024. This table lists families and genera and provides the phylogeny and taxonomy references on which these estimates are based (Table S1 link)

Pollination syndromes were allocated for all plants in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region, an ancient landscape and global biodiversity hotspot. Allocations based on floral traits were highly consistent and well supported by visitor records and scientific studies. Their complexity was highest in large plant families, involving many pollinati...

Biological invasion is one of the leading threats to global biodiversity. Invasive species can change the structure and dynamics of landscapes, communities, and ecosystems, and even alter mutualistic relationships across species such as pollination. Orchids are one of the most threatened plant families globally and known to have established special...

Flowers have many traits to appeal to pollinators, including ultraviolet (UV) absorbing markings, which are well-known for attracting bees at close proximity (e.g., <1 m). While striking UV signals have been thought to attract pollinators also from far away, if these signals impact the plant pollinia removal over distance remains unknown. Here, we...

Flowers have many sensory traits to appeal to pollinators, including ultraviolet (UV) absorbing markings, which are well known for attracting bees at close proximity (e.g. < 1 m). While striking UV signals have been thought to attract pollinators also at greater distances of meters, how the signals impact the plant pollination success over distance...

Tree root anatomy figures from Brundrett & Tedersoo 2020 (Figures 1 -5 at higher resolution)

Glomeromycotan propagules (spores) are morphologically diverse in the Early Devonian Rhynie chert; however, only relatively few of these fossils have been documented and critically evaluated. This study re-examines propagules previously described informally as ‘reproductive unit 1’, and identified as glomeromycotan acaulospores borne within the nec...

Questions Globally, ecological restoration is required to restore degraded landscapes and to contribute to biodiversity conservation. Ecological theory suggests that manipulating dispersal, abiotic and biotic filters limiting plant re‐establishment will improve restoration outcomes. Here, we manipulated spread depth of soil containing a salvaged so...

New banksia woodland vegetation was established at two sites totalling 40 ha in the Perth region of Western Australia as part of an offset-funded project. Restoration methods included topsoil transfer (16 ha), planting of nursery-raised local provenance seedlings (46,000 seedlings) and direct seeding with machinery or by hand (16.5 ha). Six years o...

Testing of ecological, biogeographical and phylogenetic hypotheses of mycorrhizal traits requires a comprehensive reference dataset about plant mycorrhizal associations. Here we present a database, FungalRoot, which summarizes publicly available data about vascular plant mycorrhizal type and intensity of root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi, acco...

This paper presents a comprehensive and adaptive framework for orchid conservation programs illustrated with data from published and unpublished case studies. There is a specific focus on West Australian terrestrial orchids, but many of the approaches have universal relevance. Aspects of the framework include (1) setting appropriate objectives, (2)...

A detailed study of taxonomic features of the Eriochilus dilatatus (Orchidaceae) complex (white bunny orchids) in Western Australia found that there were no consistent differences among most subspecies when herbarium specimens or living plants were compared. These subspecies were originally segregated primarily by differences in leaf size and shape...

Vegetation impacts on ecosystem functioning are mediated by mycorrhizas, plant–fungal associations formed by most plant species. Ecosystems dominated by distinct mycorrhizal types differ strongly in their biogeochemistry. Quantitative analyses of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning are hindered by the scarcity of information on mycorrhizal...

Dirk Hartog Island is the largest island off the West Australian coast. From the 1860s to 2008, the island was managed as a pastoral lease. In 2009, the island was gazetted as a National Park and the process of removing introduced animals, to allow for the reintroduction of a suite of 12 native mammal species, began. With the removal of high number...

It is appropriate to also consider the diverse fungi that occur there, because these are essential to ecosystem functioning, connectivity and resilience of the proposed park. This may be through a multitude of functions, such as their mycorrhizal associations with many of the plants, through their symbiotic association with algae to form lichens wh...

The urgent need to better understand profound impacts of mycorrhizas on functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, along with recent debates on resolving plant mycorrhizal associations, indicate that there is a great need for a comprehensive data of plant mycorrhizal associations able to support testing of ecological, biogeographic and phylogenetic hyp...

The pollination of 20 common terrestrial orchids was studied in a 60-ha urban banksia and eucalypt dominated woodland in Western Australia. Five years of data (24,000 flowers, 6800 plants) measured fruit set relative to floral areas, capsule volumes, climate, phenology, pollination mechanisms, disturbance tolerance and demography. Pollination varie...

Based on a long-term field experiment involving 35 tree species, Sun et al. (1) suggest that mycorrhizal types of plants differ in decomposition rates of leaf litter, but not root litter. Although the authors refer to several publications regarding mycorrhizal status of plants and claim to have performed their own observations, we contest that they...

We draw attention to a worrying trend for the uncritical use of ‘recycled’ mycorrhizal data to compile host species lists that include obvious errors or undertake risky analyses that correlate mycorrhizal colonisation levels with environmental or physiological factors despite inherent limitations in datasets. We are not suggesting that all meta-stu...

Recognition of plant diversity hotspots is of great value for conservation planning and helps gain public support for conservation initiatives. The entire Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) is an internationally recognised plant biodiversity hotspot. However, in Western Australia additional hotspots have been designated at overlapping sp...

Here, we compare the efficiency and accuracy of remote sensing and plot‐based methods for measuring vegetation cover for the understory and canopy of banksia woodland in an urban area of Western Australia. Methods compared were visual estimation, foliage cover computation from photographs, satellite imagery and aerial photographs. Observations and...

The Banksia Woodland Restoration (BWR) project was established in September 2011 and has initiated large-scale restoration and rehabilitation works in banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) within the conservation estate of the Perth Metropolitan Region. The main objectives of this project are to: 1. Restore banksia woodland by creating...

Vegetation impacts on ecosystem functioning are mediated by mycorrhiza, a plant-fungal association formed by most plant species. Ecosystems dominated by distinct mycorrhizal types differ strongly in their biogeochemistry. Quantitative analyses of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning are hindered by the absence of information on mycorrhizal...

This poster was 5 m wide and features the photography of Bert and Babs Wells Most photographs are by Babs and Bert Wells courtesy of the Department of Conservation and Land Management Text: Mark Brundrett & Andrew Brown, Artwork: Mark Brundrett

The majority of vascular plants are mycorrhizal: 72% are arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), 2.0% are ectomycorrhizal (EcM), 1.5% are ericoid mycorrhizal and 10% are orchid mycorrhizal. Just 8% are completely nonmycorrhizal (NM), whereas 7% have inconsistent NM–AM associations. Most NM and NM–AM plants are nutritional specialists (e.g. carnivores and para...

The natural distribution of Acacia trigonophylla is from the Geraldton Sandplains through to the Avon Wheatbelt and the Mallee regions and probably also the eastern Jarrah Forest Bioregion of Western Australia. However, extensive roadside and revegetation plantings, combined with poorly documented collections of these non-native plantings, has give...

In this report completion criteria were defined for major components of the vegetation structure; total diversity and average diversity, tree diversity, tree density, Carnaby’s cockatoo (CC) food plant diversity and density, understorey diversity, native perennial plant density, native annual plant diversity, diversity and density of key understore...

This report summarizes the approaches used to develop a ranking process that was used to select sites for restoration by the Banksia Woodland Restoration Project. Restoration sites were chosen after ranking all Bush Forever sites according to a comprehensive set of selection criteria that focused on biodiversity conservation values and similarity t...

A recent publication in Botany introduced two new taxa: a fossil orchid seed (Mycophoris) and a fossilized basidiomycete fungus (Synaptomitus) in an alleged relationship with this orchid, encased in 15–20 million year old Dominican amber (Poinar, G. 2017. Two new genera, Mycophoris gen. nov., (Orchidaceae) and Synaptomitus gen. nov. (Basidiomycota)...

Monitoring of restoration areas for comparison with the completion targets requires a combination of different methods. Monitoring is carried out twice a year in spring and autumn. It is most efficient to use nested plots, because it allows different categories of plants to be counted at scales which are appropriate for their size and density. Rain...

A continental-scale review of the distribution of different mycorrhizal types and nonmycorrhizal (NM) plants with specialised nutrient-acquisition strategies, as well as nitrogen-fixing associations, is presented here. The importance of mycorrhizas and other mineral nutrient uptake mechanism in roots of major families of Australian plants is summar...

Knowledge about the mycorrhizal root traits of plants is critical for understanding ecosystem processes from landscape to global scale. In spite of >130 years of research, information about the mycorrhizal status of plants is scant for multiple taxonomic groups and geographic regions. By critically evaluating published information about mycorrhizal...

The definitions of different types of mycorrhizas and problems with mycorrhizal diagnosis, especially for plants with sparse or inconsistent mycorrhizal colonisation, are discussed. These include plants which have arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) in some habitats but have nonmycorrhizal (NM) roots in others (NM-AM plants). NM and NM-AM plants are most c...

The BWR project was established in September 2011 and has initiated large-scale restoration and rehabilitation works in banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) within the conservation estate of the Perth Metropolitan Region. Works undertaken or underway for the BWR project in the first five years include: 1. Selection of restoration site...

Vegetation and plant diversity patterns are strongly linked to soil properties, such as fertility, texture and depth in all parts of Australia. This results because many parts of Australia have relatively old and highly weathered soil profiles compared to most other regions. However, interactions between soils and vegetation are very complex becaus...

This popular article summarises taxonomic issues and current research which concerns the status of closely related genera (Caladenia, Elythranthera, Cyanicula, Glossodia, Pheladenia and Praecoxanthos).

This popular article summarises a two year study of vegetation recovery after severe fire. The relative importance of seed germination and resprouting as regeneration strategies for native plants is summarised and illustrated.

Established in September 2011, the BWR project initiated large-scale restoration and rehabilitation works in banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) within the conservation estate of the Perth Metropolitan Region. Works undertaken or underway for the BWR project in the first four years include: 1. Selection of restoration sites using a c...

Vital-statistics data concerning population viability were gathered for four of the rarest orchids in Western Australia using surveys to define population sizes and habitat areas and annual measurements of plant demographics. These orchids were Caladenia melanema, C. graniticola, C. williamsiae and Drakaea isolata from the wheatbelt of Western Aust...

Please note this chapter is not yet available as a pdf Abstract: The ability of terrestrial orchids to recolonise ecosystems after total loss of vegetation is highly variable. Some orchids re-establish quickly, others are slow to return while some remain absent for at least several decades after disturbance. Orchid seed is minute, has been found t...

This book is divided into two sections, each of which has a different purpose. The introductory chapters provide an overview of the orchid family and unique features of their biology and ecology. Key topics include the global importance of Western Australia as an orchid diversity hotspot, the amazing interactions between orchids and pollinating ins...

Background and Aim: One of the greatest challenges in restoration practice is to develop completion targets based on flora and vegetation data that represents local plant community types while acknowledging limitations to plant recovery in disturbed habitats. This presentation describes how data from flora surveys were used to set targets for and m...