THE unique qualities of flora and fauna in deserts across Australia was the topic of a talk by Wail East resident Graham Goods at the January meeting of Horsham Probus Club.
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Mr Goods used the title A Desert Experience for his illustrated talk.
A co-author of the book Birds and Plants of the Little Desert, Mr Goods outlined survival characteristics of desert plants. These include attracting insects or birds to improve pollination and the ability to revive after long periods of little or no rain.
He spoke about plants including eremophilas, the western myall, which can survive for 400 to 500 years and spinifex, or triodia.
Mr Goods also spoke about desert animals. These included the knob-tailed gecko, which can survive temperatures of 50 degrees or more, goannas and the camouflage abilities of the multi-coloured lorikeets.
He also showed photographs of the spinifex pigeon, grass wren, white-winged wren and the bustard.
Mr Goods and wife Maree have undertaken many trips with Desert Discovery, a national group that works with indigenous people doing surveys on desert wildlife and plants.
Birthday congratulations went to Henry Mitchell, Huxley Mitchell, Stuart Newell, Graham Schultz and Graeme Meyer.
