Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 79(4), December 1996 249 A floristic survey of the Tingle Mosaic, south-western Australia: applications in land use planning and management G Wardell-Johnson 1 & M Williams 2 1 Science and Information Division, Department of Conservation and Land Management, PO Box 51 Wanneroo, WA 6065. present address, Department of Biology, University of Namibia, Private Bag 13301, Windhoek, Namibia. 2 Science and Informa- tion Division, Department of Conservation and Land Management, Research Centre, Hayman Road, Como WA 6152 Abstract A floristic survey of the Tingle Mosaic, an area of 3 700 km 2 which includes the wettest, least seasonal and southern-most part of Western Australia recorded a total of 857 vascular plant taxa in 441 quadrats (20 m x 20 m). These included 825 indigenous and 32 introduced taxa. Important families included the Papilionaceae (74 species), Proteaceae (73), Myrtaceae (64) and Orchidaceae (63). Cluster analysis and ordination techniques defined five floristic communities supergroups, 12 community groups and 44 community types. The Open-forest, Tall open-forest and Shrubland/ woodland Communities Supergroups included most of the quadrats (356 of 441), and also occu- pied the largest areas within the region. There was high alpha diversity for the Woodland and Open-forest communities supergroups, while there was low alpha and gamma diversity for the Tall open-forest Communities Supergroup. Considerable variation in vegetation structure, and high gamma diversity was found for the three non-forest communities supergroups. An ex- panded program of survey would be required to target the exceptional variety of sites in the Swamp and outcrop Communities Supergroup. The Tingle Mosaic had high levels of local ende- mism, many taxa (both wet and dry country taxa) which have range limits in the area, and several relictual high rainfall taxa whose distributions are centred in the area. A high proportion of the region lies within the conservation reserve network. Nevertheless the conservation signifi- cance and complexity of the fine-scale biotic pattern in the area urge increased attention in management and policy for the conservation of biodiversity. Methods to integrate site-based work, to define complexes of community types, and of the mapping of these floristic assemblages are presented. These applications would be invaluable in management for the conservation of biodiversity in the region. Symposium on the Design of Reserves for Nature Conservation in South-western Australia © Royal Society of Western Australia 1996 Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 79:249-276, 1996 Introduction The south-west of Western Australia includes an ex- traordinary diversity of vascular plants in a generally subdued landscape (Hopper 1979; Hopper et al. 1992). This diversity has been especially noted for the inland transitional rainfall zone (TRZ sensu Hopper 1992) which is dominated by speciose genera of woody peren- nials in families such as the Myrtaceae, Proteaceae, Fabaceae and Epacridaceae (Hopper 1979; 1992) but not the high rainfall zone (HRZ) closer to the coast. Never- theless wetland monocotyledonous taxa, including gen- era of Cyperaceae, Xyridaceae, Juncaginaceae, Restionaceae and Orchidaceae, are species-rich in the re- gion. For example at least 1947 taxa are known from the Warren Botanical Subdistrict alone, despite limited sur- vey (Hopper et al. 1992). The HRZ is also notable for its high diversity of eucalypts compared with similar areas elsewhere in the Darling Botanical District (Christensen 1980; Smith et al. 1991, Wardell-Johnson & Smith 1991; Wardell-Johnson & Coates 1996, Wardell-Johnson et al. in press). At least four species of large forest eucalypts, Eucalyptus brevistylis (Rates tingle), E. jacksonii (red tingle) , E. guilfoylei (yellow tingle), and E. ficifolia (red-flowering gum) are locally endemic to the south-west between Walpole and Denmark. Each occurs in several allopatric populations in an area of high landscape and vegetation structural diversity. Because it was the tingles that first drew attention to the conservation significance of this landscape mosaic (Fernie & Fernie 1989), the survey area is described as the Tingle Mosaic. The Tingle Mosaic is also notable for its scenic diver- sity and has been the subject of intense public interest (Smith et al. 1991; Wardell-Johnson & Smith 1991; Wardell-Johnson & Horwitz 1996). It occurs in close proximity to the towns of Walpole, Denmark and Al- bany (Smith et al. 1991) but includes areas that are gen- erally remote and have not been explored botanically. The vascular flora has been chosen for study because of its richness (Hopper et al. 1992) and because of its pro- pensity to describe landscape pattern (Havel 1981; Wardell-Johnson et al. 1989). The identification and clas- sification of plant community types is a useful first step in land-use planning (Havel 1981; Wardell-Johnson et al. 1989). This allows the identification of rare or vulnerable communities at a regional level and allows a manage- ment context to be provided. Historically, vegetation classification in Australia has been based on a structural or physiognomic basis (Diels 1906; Speck 1952; Webb et