Author Archives: Jürgen

Congratulations!

Richard Tretheway (NRM Board President), Bev and Dean Overton, Damian Miley (DEWNR) (Photo: KI NRM)

What do an adventure tourism operator, a boutique winery and long-time Kangaroo Island residents Bev and Dean Overton have in common? They have all been recognised Kangaroo Island high achievers, for their outstanding efforts in conserving and raising awareness of KI’s natural environment at the Local Achievers Natural Resource Management Board Awards ceremony held on Australia Day.

The award categories included a special Lifetime NRM Achievement Award, which acknowledged Bev and Dean’s contribution to environmental projects in the KI community for more than 35  years. In particular, they have been recognised because they were:

Bev and Dean Overton in their natural habitat (Photo: KI NRM)

In addition, Bev and Dean have been indefatigable contributors to the State Herbarium of South Australia, collecting plant specimens from the island for more than 30 years. They are listed as main or associate collectors on over 4000 herbarium specimens. Bev’s first specimen lodged at AD was collected at Kingscote in Nov. 1983. Both are also long-time friends of many staff and Hon. Associates of the State Herbarium. They have helped with fieldwork on Kangaroo Island, assisted and collaborated in many projects.

Thank you!

Season’s greetings

The State Herbarium of South Australia wishes all its friends, volunteers, Hon. Associates and Affiliates a happy Christmas break and all the best for the New Year.

We hope to see you all again in 2016!

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the end of another year at the Herbarium with our volunteers. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the institution, all volunteers and Hon. Associates also received certificates thanking them for their contribution. During the last year, Herbarium volunteers donated over 13.000 hours of their valuable time. Our longest serving volunteer has worked with us for 34 years!

The traditional Herbarium Christmas party, 10 Dec. 2015.

Plant of the month: Dec. 2015

Acacia alcockii, habit

This month’s Park of the Month is Coffin Bay National Park on southern Eyre Peninsula. The State Herbarium has chosen Acacia alcockii Maslin & Whibley (Alcock’s wattle) as the Plant of the Month, as the species is endemic to southern Eyre Peninsula. It grows in coastal and near-coastal areas, mainly in sand over limestone. Alcock’s wattle is listed as ‘rare’ for South Australia.

The species was described by Bruce Maslin and David Whibley in 1987. It is a bushy shrub, 2-3 m in height, and can be distinguished from its closest relatives, A. anceps and A. leiophylla, by the combination of racemose inflorescences consisting of small pale yellow globular flower heads, and transverse seeds in the pods (see line drawing from worldwidewattle, below).

The collector: C. Ray Alcock (1921-2015)

The wattle is named after Ray Alcock, one of the State Herbariums most prolific collectors, who died earlier this year. Besides A. alcockii, he is also commemorated in the species name Rumex alcockii Rech.f., now a synonym of R. brownii Campb.

Charles Raymond Alcock (1921–2015) followed his father’s footsteps into the field of agriculture. Ernest Simpson Alcock was an early (1904) graduate of Roseworthy College, where his son was later to study as a scholarship student. Ray’s childhood was spent on the Kybybolite Experimental Farm in the south-east of SA, where his father was employed as a supervisor. From Roseworthy, Ray left to serve in World War II, later with the RAF in Britain, gaining a DFC for his efforts.

Acacia alcockii, phyllodes and pods

Although Ray also gained a diploma in dairy studies from Hawkesbury College and spent his early working in the dairy industry, he turned his attention to plants (and specifically weeds) in the 1950s. Plants and nature conservation became his passion from then until his death, and he became a prolific collector for the State Herbarium, which holds around 12,000 specimens under his name. He joined the Nature Conservation Society of SA in 1964, only 2 years after its formation. He was nominated for membership by then head of the State Herbarium, Dr Hansjörg Eichler.

Most of his earlier plant collections are from Eyre Peninsula, where he was employed by Local and State Government as a Weeds Officer for the Eastern Eyre Peninsula Weeds Board / Lincoln Council and the Department of Agriculture. His collections were certainly not restricted to weeds, and early correspondence with the Herbarium indicates that he found a number of plants not previously recorded for the Eyre Peninsula region. In 1971 he was transferred to the head office of the Agriculture Department in Adelaide, where he was employed as an agronomist with the Weeds Section. He was the Local Government Liaison Officer for some time and latterly specialised in weeds identification and advice with the Pest Plants Commission, building up an extensive herbarium of weed specimens, which has since been transferred to the State Herbarium.

In his retirement he worked with the State Herbarium as a volunteer and collected widely around Australia during his holiday trips. Plants even extended to his hobbies, as he was an avid and talented wood carver.

worldwidewattle.com

Fungi expert honoured

Pam Catcheside and SA Governor Hieu Van Le (Photo: P. Canty)

State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate Pam Catcheside has recently been invited to Government House to celebrate her inclusion in the 2015 South Australian Women’s Honour Roll. This recognises her outstanding contribution in the field of mycology, ranging from the collection and observation of fungi in the field to the detailed examination & description of specimens and the publication of her results; the honour also recognises the fact that she is South Australia’s only official mycologist, filling a void in a significant area of South Australia’s biodiversity knowledge, as well as her dedication to volunteers and to making the information accessible to the community (see here for the official citation).

Congratulations Pam!

The South Australian Women’s Honour Roll pays tribute to SA women who have made an outstanding contribution to our community. The 2015 Honour Roll was launched by the Hon Gail Gago MLC, Minister for the Status of Women. This year, 30 women were included in the Honour Roll.

ASBS Conference 2015

ASBS Conference booklet cover 2015Chief Botanist Michelle Waycott, State Herbarium staff members Ed Biffin, Juergen Kellermann & Ainsley Calladine, and Herbarium Honorary Research Associates Robyn & Bill Barker attended the Annual Conference of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS) in Canberra last week (30 Nov.-2 Dec. 2015).

Presentations were given by Ed (on molecular systematics and species identification in seagrasses), Robyn (on problems with old type specimens) and Michelle (on the South Australian eFlora platform). In addition, Michelle presented the current status of the national work towards the development of a decadal plan for systematics research in Australasia (ASBS Newsl. article, 3.3MB PDF). Bill Barker completed his tenure as President of ASBS, his work for the Society was greatly appreciated. The conference had strong themes in digitisation, data sharing and initiatives to facilitate working across Australia and New Zealand including the development of a new electronic Flora application by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).

PhyloLink, a new application in ALA was launched during the conference and delegates were able to attend a PhyloLink workshop following the conference (Juergen attended that workshop). Scott Edwards from Harvard University‘s Museum of Comparative Zoology presented a workshop on phylogenomic analyses, which was attended by Michelle and Ed.

The program booklet, including abstracts of all talks, can be downloaded here (460KB PDF).