Flora and vegetation of the banded iron formations of the Yilgarn Craton: the northern Yerilgee Hills, Menzies.

A survey was undertaken on the flora and plant communities associated with the northern Yerilgee Hills, located some 110 km west of Menzies and in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia. The hills are the formed by the exposure of the northern Yerilgee greenstone belt, and consist of seams of banded iron formation and mafic volcanics. A total of 183 taxa (182 native) were recorded from 51 quadrats and opportunistic collections. Four taxa were of conservation significance, two of these being new records for the survey area. At least three potentially new taxa, two regional endemics and one near-endemic taxon were also located. No range-restricted endemic taxa were reported. Six floristic community types were derived from numerical classification analysis of a presence/absence dataset of perennial species. Nonparametric ANOVA found significant differences between community types in site physical and soil chemical parameters. Ordination (nonmetric multidimensional scaling) analyses indicated generally highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) correlations between floristic composition and topographic position, substrate and edaphic factors. These outcropping landforms are currently unreserved and occur on unallocated crown land and mining tenements cover the entire area. Exploration activities are the most immediate threat to the Yerilgee communities, while mining is a future potential threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]