G'day bangor,

While I'm not a huge fan of XML::Simple for general XML work, it may suit your needs with minimal coding such as this:

use Data::Dump;
use XML::Simple;
dd XMLin('document.xml');
[download]

Here's an example of the output using the sample XML you provided.

{
  latin_name => "Fraxinus Excelsior",
  name => "Ash",
  uses => {
    use => [
             { description => "Furniture making" },
             { description => "Firewood" },
           ],
  },
}
[download]

That seems fairly close to the "simple text representation' you're after. See the XML::Simple documentation for how to tweak that output.

Just for completeness, I generated that output using a here-doc with the XML you posted. The code's in the spoiler for those interested.