page_title: Western Mallee
section_title: Vegetation
hierarchical_section_title: Western Mallee / Vegetation
caption_attribution_description: This is a monochrome photograph of mallee vegetation in the vicinity of Hyden, Western Australia.
context_page_description: Western Mallee is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia subregion in southern Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated subregion with an area of about 47,000 square kilometres, roughly centred on the town of Newdegate. Largely cleared for intensive agriculture, it still retains patches of native vegetation, but these are under environmental stress from threats such as rising salinity, and are poorly managed.
context_section_description: Only about 30% of the subregion retains its native vegetation. Within this area, most soil types carry mallee communities consisting primarily of Eucalyptus species. Sands and laterites support scrub-heath of Myrtaceae and Proteaceae, and the finer-textured soils support Eucalyptus woodlands; the latter have a particularly high diversity of flora, of which around 25% is rare. Granite outcrops also support a characteristic vegetation.
  There are also a number of vegetation communities of lesser extent, including some that are considered endangered or at risk. Most notable is the critically endangered community of Muehlenbeckia horrida subsp. abdita and Tecticornia verrucosa that occurs on the lake beds of the Lake Bryde-East Lake Bryde wetland system. Gypsum dunes support a vulnerable ecological community of herblands and bunch grasslands, and an at-risk community of Eucalyptus aff. incrassata over low scrub; at least 80 plant species are likely to occur only on gypsum dunes, including several threatened species. Some plant communities of the Bremer Range are also considered vulnerable.
caption: Mallee woodland near Hyden
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