Author Archives: Jürgen

New fungi guide for the Hills

Last week, the Adelaide Mt Lofty Ranges NRM Board (AMLR NRM) released a Fungi of the Adelaide Hills identification chart (1.8MB PDF). It was published in collaboration with the Adelaide Fungi Study Group, which is lead by State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate Pam Catcheside (and associated with the Fields Naturalists Society of South Australia).

This is one of a number of fact sheets on local flora and fauna, published by AMLR NRM. The news was reported by the Adelaide Advertiser today (25 May 2015, p. 5) and also posted on the Advertiser’s web-site, as well as The Australian‘s web-site.

State Herbarium open days

On the weekend of 9 & 10 May 2015, the State Herbarium of South Australia was open to the public as part of the About Time: South Australia’s History Festival. This is the fourth year that the State Herbarium has participated in South Australia’s History Month events.

Over 60 people booked to come on four guided tours, held by Herbarium Manager Peter Canty and several staff members. Visitors learned about the history of the old trambarn building (1.1MB PDF brochure) and the Municipal Tramways Trust, and the history and work of the State Herbarium. The groups were also shown examples of specimens from the Herbarium, which did not only include pressed plants, but also algae, fungi, mosses and lichens, and saw some of the published outcomes of the Herbarium’s work.

New version of AVH

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (AVH) provides access to the plant specimen data held by Australian herbaria, enabling detailled mapping of plant distributions. Last week, the new version of AVH was released. It comes with significant interface improvements, additional querying capabilities and a new design that also works well on small screens and portable devices. Please read the AVH News item for more information.

AVH is an initiative of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria and pools the collection data of about 7 million specimens from Australia’s major herbaria, data for over 5 mio of these is already available online.

Did you know this book?

SturtPea 100dpi levels A few years ago, the Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium published an authoritative account of the South Australia’s floral emblem, Sturt’s desert pea (Swainsona formosa), one of Australia’s most striking and recognisable flowers. Written by the late David Symon (former Hon. Research Associate of the State Herbarium) and then Botanic Gardens staff member Manfred Jusaitis, the book gives an insight into the botany of the plant, its discovery and naming, and discusses its biology, propagation and cultivation. The volume also features chapters on the Sturt pea as a State flower, and its use in decorative and commercial art and literature. It contains a wealth if knowledge about this plant and is profusely illustrated with many colour illustrations and photographs.

Symon, D. & Jusaitis, M. (2007). Sturt pea: a most splendid plant. (Board of the Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium: Adelaide). 151 pp.

While this is not a new release, it still is the only in-depth account of South Australia’s floral emblem. It was published in three editions, softcover ($39.95), hardcover ($50) and leather bound ($150), and all three editions are still in stock and available for purchase. The book makes a great present for friends and family, too.

Volunteers and staff members of the State Herbarium of South Australia are eligible for a discount on this publication. Please speak to Jürgen Kellermann for more information. For a list of all books published by the State Herbarium, please go to flora.sa.gov.au/publications.

Many arms (and legs) make light work!

Crowdsourcing the digitisation of invertebrate collections at the South Australian Museum

It’s All About the Plants
Tuesday, 5 May 2015, 10:00–12:00
Goodman Building Lecture Theatre,
adjacent to the State Herbarium of South Australia
Adelaide Botanic Garden, Hackney Road

by Alexis Tindall
South Australian Museum

Photo: Alexis Tindall

New technologies have the potential to make museum and herbaria collections useful in new ways, and expose them to new audiences, but making our collections digital is a huge challenge for these organisations.

The South Australian Museum has, like many museums around the world, turned to online volunteers as one way to speed the digitisation of our collections. Alexis Tindall, Project Manager, will share her experience using the DigiVol crowdsourcing portal to digitise the museum’s marine and terrestrial invertebrate collections. She’ll talk about the benefits and opportunities of crowdsourcing, as well as the challenges they encountered along the way.

Alexis Tindall joined the South Australian Museum in late 2010 to establish a volunteer program to digitise terrestrial invertebrate types for delivery online through the Atlas of Living Australia. Volunteers in that program create thousands of high resolution digital photographs and database records to make these taxonomically significant specimens more discoverable and accessible. Since then the digitisation project has expanded to provide images on demand to inquiring researchers for analysis and publication, exploring crowdsourcing as a method of rapid digitisation, and the development of digital products such as the Field Guide to the Fauna of South Australia app.