Our place within the Cumberland Plain Woodland

All 25,000 plants in our landscape have been grown in our nursery from seeds and cuttings, gathered from the surrounding Cumberland Plain Woodland.

The Cumberland Plain Woodland surrounding the Australian PlantBank is a critically endangered ecosystem under threat from invasive species and the urbanisation of Western Sydney.

How was the landscape designed?

The PlantBank landscape, designed by landscape architects 360 Degrees, has three main elements:

The first section, or 'woodland creep', adjacent to the critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland, brings together a continuous groundcover layer of native grasses (e.g.Themeda triandra, Microlaena stipoides) and a shrub layer (e.g. Bursaria spinosa, Indigofera australis and Dodonaea viscosa subsp. cuneata), planted with a density that balances biomass with Bushfire and Asset Protection Zone (APZ) constraints.
The second section, the entry 'cut' through the embankment, is a dramatic introduction to the building that engages and welcomes visitors and staff to the Australian PlantBank.
The third section is the Living Laboratory or 'an abstracted woodland garden', a collection of plant experiments vital to the Australian PlantBank’s conservation research. Many Australian plant species are just beginning their journey from wild habitat to suburban garden; others have the potential to provide food, textiles or medicines. Here visitors and staff observe and study local wild plants.

Facts and figures: the PlantBank landscape

The PlantBank landscape is quite small at just 0.6 hectares (1.6 acres), compared to the Australian Botanic Garden’s 416 hectares (1028 acres)
Almost 1700 m³ of top soil was imported to ensure the plants would have suitable growing conditions.
The lichen garden is composed of 150 m² of sandstone from the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and Sydney Hospital. It took a a team of stone masons nearly six weeks to create! Our scientists are experimenting with different ways to encourage the growth of cryptogams: lichens, mosses and liverworts and explained this process to Gardening Australia's Costa Georgiadis.

What species are in the garden beds?

The understorey species in the landscape include Cheilanthes sieberi, Cheilanthes distans, Pellaea falcata, Poa labillardierei, Einadia nutans subsp. linifolia, Indigofera australis, Themeda australis, Plectranthus parviflorus, Ozothamnus diosmifolius, Hardenbergia violacea, Pimelea spicata, Goodenia hederacea, Chloris truncata, Scaevola albida, Sida corrugata, Eremophila debilis, Microlaena stipoides, Wahlenbergia stricta, Calotis lappulacea, Chloris ventricosa, Lomandra filiformis, Ajuga australis, Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Mentha satureoides, Rubus parvifolius, Sorghum leiocladum, Rhodanthe anthemoides, Ranunculus lappaceus and Linum marginale.