Kruckerberg, A.R. 1979. Plants That Grow on Serpentine - A Hard Life. Davidsonia. 10(2):21-29

This will not be a tale about plants with reptilian affinities, despite its title! Nor is it about an herbaceous border along a sinuous path. It is a story about a curious affinity of certain plants for a most demanding habitat - the magnesium-rich soils derived from serpentine and other ultramafic rock. The only allusion to snakes is the rather fanciful likeness of the lustrous, mottled green serpentine rock to the pattern of a snake’s skin. But first, I must put this exceptional union of plant and soil in its proper global setting.