Author Archives: Jürgen

The Herbarium at the Museum

Science & Art: 12 years of the Waterhouse Prize is currently on display at the South Australian Museum. The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize was launched in 2002. The exhibition features the overall winning works from the last 12 years, paired with material from the collections of the South Australian Museum, National Archives of Australia, the State Herbarium of South Australia and State Records of South Australia. The exhibition is on display until Sunday 19 July. The Museum is open 7 days, 10am – 5pm. Entry to the Museum and the exhibition is free.

Several specimens from the State Herbarium are on display along with the artwork to illustrate and explain the connection between science and art. Two examples are featured below.

Anatye by Margaret Loy Pula. Photo by Tim Gilchrist (SAM).

Above is Margaret Loy Pula’s artwork Anatye (Bush Potato), overall winner of the 2013 Waterhouse Prize, with a specimen of bush potato (Ipomoea costata) from the State Herbarium.

Nikki Main’s work Flood Stones (below) was the overall winner of the 2010 Waterhouse Prize and references flood as an important phase in the hydrologic cycle. It is paired with examples of ephemeral plants from the collection of the State Herbarium: Pink tongues (Rostellularia adscendens var. pogonanthera), curly flat-sedge (Cyperus rigidellus), downy cress (Phlegmatospermum cochlearinum), button grass (Dactyloctenium radulans), cup velleia (Velleia connata).

Flood stones by Nikki Main. Photo by Tim Gilchrist (SAM).

Cactus book launched

Bob Chinnock during the book launch

On Friday evening, 19 June 2015, Bob Chinnock‘s new book on weedy opuntioid cacti was launched by Michelle Waycott, State Herbarium of South Australia, and John Virtue, Manager NRM Biosecurity. Over 30 colleagues and friends of Bob gathered to celebrate this achievement.

Feral opuntioid cacti of Australia is published in two parts. The first part, covering the cylindrical stemmed genera Austrocylindropuntia, Cylindropuntia and Corynopuntia is now available. The book includes many colour photos, detailed line-drawings and descriptions of the cacti’s stems, fruit and flowers, as well as information on suitable controls and the occupational health and safety issues associated with dealing with them. The second part, containing the flat stemmed genus Opuntia (incl. Nopalea), is currently in preparation.

More information on the book and how to purchase it can be found on the following web-page: know.ourplants.org/cacti/.

Herbarium specimens of opuntioid cacti on display during the book launch, Cylindropuntia pallida in foreground (formerly C. rosea)

From snow melt to seashore: fungal tales from the land of the long white cloud

It’s All About the Plants
Tuesday, 16 June 2015, 10:00–12:00
Ground Floor Meeting Room / Tea-room,
State Herbarium of South Australia,
Old Tram Barn Building, Hackney Road

by Teresa Lebel
Senior Mycologist , National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne

I have just returned from a two year fellowship in New Zealand, where I was fortunate to be able to work on a series of different projects and travel quite a bit around the islands. New Zealand has an amazing range of ecological zones and a diverse plant flora (including many introduced species), all of which provide an array of substrates and hosts for fungi. While my particular research interests are focused on the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of truffles and truffle-like fungi, I am also intrigued by interactions between fungi and other organisms, whether positive or negative, or in balance. In this talk I will provide snapshots of a series of fungal projects; and every completed project generates many more questions!

All Herbarium staff, honoraries, volunteers, students and guests welcome.
Morning tea provided.

Seminar date change

Please note that the next It’s all about the plants seminar has been postponed to
Tue., 16 June 2014 (10am).

Presenter will be Dr Teresa Lebel, Senior Mycologist at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

Life in the sea: Miniscule and mysterious

State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate Bob Baldock reports on the following two images.

They depict not a sea shell, or a coral, but a red coralline alga — no more than 2 mm tall! It was found scattered on the fine branches of a brown alga, Cystophora (2.6MB Algae Revealed fact-sheet) from 20 m deep at Pearson Island, off Ceduna, by the Marine Park Monitoring Group in March 2015. Finding a name for it is proving difficult. It doesn’t fit exactly into diagnostic features of known species. The closest match that has been suggested is Hydrolithon farinosum (link to species entry in the online version of H.B.S. Womersley‘s Marine benthic flora of southern Australia).