Australia's inland plants are among those most likely to be affected by rising temperatures, challenging the concept the country's weather extremes would make them less susceptible to global warming, a new study has found.

The research, published in the Global Change Biology journal, studied the upper-canopy leaves of 218 plant species across 19 sites around the world.

Ten of the sites were in Australia, reflecting the nation's remarkable array of biomes, said Owen Atkin of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the Australian National University, who led the study.

The potential for damage from warming temperatures was found to be most severe in hot inland areas in mid-latitude regions. In Australia, these areas include study sites near Kalgoorlie in WA, Alice Springs in the Red Centre and Renmark in SA.