Author Archives: Jürgen

New journal articles: April 2021

Stenanthemum leucophractum, growing in Wanilla Settlement Reserve (Eyre Peninsula). Photo: J. Kellermann.

The State Herbarium of South Australia published three articles in Vol. 35 of its journal Swainsona online, today, 7 April 2021. In these articles, State Herbarium botanist Dr Jürgen Kellermann and colleagues, continue the publication of results of the research project on Australian Rhamnaceae, which is funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra (ABRS).

(1) J. Kellermann, Further lectotypifications and nomenclatural notes on Rhamnaceae from northern Australia. (8mb PDF).

Ventilago ecorollata from rainforests in eastern Queensland. Line drawing by Anita Barley.

In this paper, the nomenclature and typification of seven species of Rhamnaceae from genera occuring in northern Australia, is discussed and lectotypes are chosen for some of them. Several species are illustrated with excellent line-drawings by Anita Barley (see below).

(2) J. Kellermann & K.R. Thiele, The other ‘propeller plant’ – Notes on Stenanthemum Reissek (Rhamnaceae: Pomaderreae) and a key to the genus in Australia. (3.2mb PDF).

The genus Stenanthemum was reinstated by Western Australian botanist Barbara Rye, who also published several new species in 1995, 2001 and 2007. While she provided detailed descriptions of all new species and subspecies, no recent descriptions are available for most of the already existing taxa. These ten plants are treated in this paper by Jürgen Kellermann and Kevin Thiele, who also select lectotypes for most of them and present a key to all species of the genus in Australia.

(3) J. Kellermann, The importance of the ‘h’ – Parahomonymy in Trymalium (Rhamnaceae: Pomaderreae. (2.2mb PDF).

Spyridium daphnoides, formerly known as S. spathulatum, from Deep Creek Conservation Park (Fleurieu Peninsula). Photo: J. Kellermann.

The history of the species names Trymalium spatulatum (Labill.) G.Don from Western Australia and T. spathulatum F.Muell., the basionym of Spyridium spathulatum (F.Muell.) Benth., from South Australia is discussed. The author concludes that the names are so similar that they are likely to be confused and that they should be treated as homonyms under the International Code of Nomenclature (ICN). This means that the current name for the South Australian species is illegitimate and needs to be replaced by the new combination S. daphnoides (Reissek) Kellermann, which is published in this paper.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

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Post-fire field work on Kangaroo Island

The native plants from Kangaroo Island’s Flinders Chase continue to recover from the intense and devastating bushfires of 2019/2020. In the last week of February 2021, a team from the State Herbarium of South Australia – Helen Vonow, Tracey Spokes and Andrew Thornhill – went to Kangaroo Island to conduct a week-long botanical survey of the national park areas where bushfires had occurred. The purpose of the trip was to assess and collect plants that had grown back one year on. The team collected 350 plant specimens over the western, northern and central parts of Kangaroo Island at 13 different sites. They also visited another 12 sites and made observations of which species of plants were growing back. More than 60 species could be identified in the field; these species appear to be recovering as expected, given that the Australian flora is tough and has evolved and adapted to fire over a long time. Other species recovery will need to be observed over the coming months and years. This field work, along with upcoming trips in May, contribute to tracking the recovery of the KI wild vegetation and assist in supporting the recovery of rare and threatened species, with a number of other projects underway seeking to protect the unique and diverse flora of the island.

Tracey & Helen examining plant regrowth in the field. Photo: A. Thornhill.

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The South Australian bryophyte DigiVol project

The bryophyte collection in the State Herbarium. Photo: A. Thornhill.

In the middle of 2019, I began developing a project to make a database of the South Australian bryophyte collection. There are over 30.000 bryophyte specimens in the State Herbarium of South Australia (AD), most of them stored in envelopes with the information typed or hand written on to the front of the envelope (like most bryophyte collections in herbaria). All of the envelopes had accession numbers but very few of them had barcodes or were databased.

With the help of Nunzio Knerr from CSIRO we developed some scripts that would read printed barcodes from a digital image and put the barcode number in the file name. Another script read any typed information and turned it into a text file. At the same time I was told about DigiVol, an Australian initiative that has citizen scientists transcribe scientific information, such as institute collections or camera-trap images. With the help of Eleanor Crichton and Ainsley Calladine from the State Herbarium we developed a bryophyte transcription template to capture the information from each envelope.

The second stage was the biggest part of the project. At the end of 2019 and start of 2020 we began the task of recording accession numbers of each envelope, printing out a barcode, sticking the barcode onto the envelope, and taking a photo of each envelope.

A typical envelope containing a moss collection. Photo: A. Thornhill.

With the help of summer student scholars Joel Bowes and Sam Billings, as well as weekly volunteers Catherine Courtney and Bonnie Newman we started off with a bang and were processing around 500 envelopes a day. A number of test DigiVol “expeditions” were created, and we began to transcribe the envelopes with the idea that we would iron out errors before making the expeditions live.

At the end of March 2021, Covid-19 hit Australia and everything came to a screeching halt. No volunteers could come to the herbarium nor staff. What had started off so promising had now stopped. We had around 2.000 envelopes already imaged and set up as expeditions, but they were yet to be made live. At the end of April 2020, it was decided we should make the expeditions live and see what happen

Photographing the bryophyte envelopes. Photo: A. Thornhill.

The first expedition with 477 envelope images was made live in May. It was completed in five days. The second expedition was made live and finished just as quickly. Soon, we started running out of a bank of images. In mid-May there were a slight lifting of restrictions and we were allowed to return to work or one or two days a week. I made the decision that I would take the images by myself to try and keep ahead of the DigiVol volunteers. From June to October, I imaged around 15.000 envelopes and just managed to stay ahead of the volunteers, who transcribed at a rapid rate.

In November it was agreed that Bonnie could return as a volunteer and with her help the imaging productivity skyrocketed. By the end of 2020 we had barcoded and captured the image of 24.000 envelopes. At the start of January 2021, I dedicated two weeks to finish the remaining 6.000 envelopes, which we completed at the end of January.

State Herbarium bryophyte volunteers and student scholars busy at work. Photo: A. Thornhill.

As it currently stands the DigiVol volunteers have transcribed over 25.000 envelopes, which is about 80% of the collection. The transcribing is likely to be finished by the end of March at our current rate. Once this is done we will curate our records and then the information will be made available through the Australasian Virtual Herbarium.

When I designed the project I had no idea that it would be completed so quickly. The fact that many Australians had not much to do due to lockdown and so turned to DigiVol certainly helped, but it also helped that we had a dedicated team of volunteers, both at the herbarium and online, who dedicated many hours to complete this project so quickly. If you are interested to see what the DigiVol project looks like then it can be viewed here.

Written by State Herbarium botanist Andrew Thornhill.

New Journal articles: Dec. 2020

Swainsona katjarra, a new species from Western Australia. Photo: K. Brown.

The State Herbarium of South Australia published three articles in Vol. 33 of its journal
Swainsona online, today 22 Dec. 2020: A paper on the genus Swainsona in Western Australia, and two papers on nomenclature and typification in the plant family Rhamnaceae.

This volume of the journal concludes with these articles; hardcopy of Vol. 33 will be printed within the next few months.

(1) J. Kellermann, Nomenclatural notes on the Alphitonia Group in Australia (Rhamnaceae). (3.4mb PDF).

The Alphitonia Group consists of four genera from Australia and the Malesian/Pacific region: Alphitonia (10-15 spp.), Emmenosperma (5 spp.), Granitites (1 sp.) and Jaffrea (2 spp.). The nomenclature and tyification of seven species are clarified in this paper.

(2) R.W. Davies & T.A. Hammer, A key to species of Swainsona (Fabaceae) in Western Australia and description of S. katjarra from the Little Sandy Desert region, Western Australia. (1.7mb PDF).

In this paper, a new dichotomous identification key to all 50 species and phrase names of the iconic genus Swainsona is presented. A new species from Katjarra (Carnarvon Range) in the LIttle Sandy Desert (Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area) is also described. (A survey of the flora of Katjarra was published in 2014; 3.6mb PDF).

(3) J. Kellermann & F. Udovicic, A review of Colletieae and Discaria (Rhamnaceae) in Australia. (1.1mb PDF).

The authors describe the two species of Discaria in Australia and review the nomenclature and typification of D. pubescens; the type of the species is a rare and unusual example of a pre-1959 holotype. This species occurs in Tasmania, Victoria, N.S.W. and southern Queensland. The second species, D. nitida, has a more restricted distribution in the high country of Victoria and New South Wales. In areas where the distribution overlaps, sometimes hybrid plants can be found. The genus has also one species in New Zealand, D. toumatou, and three in extra-tropical South America: D. americana, D. articulata and D.chacaye.

Flowers of the Queensland tree Alphitonia petriei. Drawing by Anita Barley.

During the next year, 2021, the State Herbarium will publish two volumes of Swainsona:

  • Vol. 34 will contain several historical monographs, the first of which was published recently.
  • Vol. 35 will contain regular papers.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona, JSTOR or the Swainsona back-up site.

State Herbarium closed

As you would be aware, the State Government has announced that South Australia will enter into a six-day lockdown from today in an effort to stop the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak in Adelaide.

This means that we will be closing Adelaide, Mount Lofty and Wittunga Botanic Gardens, and the State Herbarium, until at least Wednesday 25 November 2020.

Keep safe and we look forward to seeing you very soon.