Lesueur National Park, Nature reserve in Shire of Coorow, Australia.
Lesueur National Park is a nature reserve in Western Australia that combines coastal dunes, heathlands, and woodlands across a large area. The varied terrain creates many different environments to discover.
The park takes its name from French explorer Charles Lesueur, who traveled along this coast in the early 1800s. His expeditions helped map this part of Australia.
The low shrubland around Mount Lesueur is known as kwongan, the Noongar word for this heath. The Amangu people are the Traditional Owners of the country the park occupies. The German source notes that this kwongan, only about a metre tall, holds more plant species per area than any other vegetation type in Western Australia.
The park lies about 210 km north of Perth and 100 km south of Geraldton, reached via the Brand Highway near Jurien Bay. Phytophthora dieback kills plants and spreads through infected soil and water, so clean footwear and vehicle tyres before entering and stay on marked paths. The western side holds sand dunes, swamps and low limestone hills.
On the laterite plain around Mount Lesueur, up to 80 plant species can be counted in ten square metres, and a few hundred metres away a different plant community takes over. Botanists compare this kwongan shrubland, rarely more than a metre tall, to tropical rainforest for species richness. About 200 of the park's 820 plant species are specially protected.
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