Which genus of plants is endemic to Australia, Retama or Baeckea?
Baeckea Baeckea is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. There are about 75 species, of which 70 are endemic to Australia; the others are distributed in New Caledonia and Southeast Asia.
Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 20,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, and below the family level has a highly endemic angiosperm flora whose diversity was shaped by the effects of continental drift and climate change since the Cretaceous. Prominent features of the Australian flora are adaptations to aridity and fire which include scleromorphy and serotiny. These adaptations are common in species from the large and well-known families Proteaceae ("Banksia"), Myrtaceae ("Eucalyptus" - gum trees), and Fabaceae ("Acacia" - wattle).