Author Archives: Jürgen

Plant DNA barcoding in the genomics era

It’s All About the Plants
Tuesday, 14 April 2015, 10:00–12:00
Goodman Building Lecture Theatre,
adjacent to the State Herbarium of South Australia
Adelaide Botanic Garden, Hackney Road

by Ed Biffin
State Herbarium of South Australia

Barcoding DNADNA sequences have long been used to identify biological specimens. The DNA Barcoding initiative has sought to standardise this process through the development of one or a few short regions of DNA that can be routinely obtained from all living species and can distinguish among them. The ‘official’ plant DNA barcode, comprising two DNA fragments from the chloroplast genome, has several favourable qualities but also has limitations. With the recent development of new sequencing technologies, the availability of genome scale data has dramatically increased. Ed will talk about these developments, and how new sources of data may be used to improve the plant DNA barcoding solution.

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

New Journal article, Mar. 2015

Roebuckiella oncocarpa

When Phillip Short published his revision of Brachyscome at the end of 2015, he also described a new genus of daisy, Roebuckia. Unfortunately he discovered soon afterwards that the name had already been used for a genus of fossil fern, described by Steve McLoughlin in 1996.

In contrast to living seed plants, where there are catalogues of plant names available (IPNI, and for Australia APNI), there is no unified index of fossil plant names, and it is very difficult to search for them.

According to the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants (which also covers fossils), Phil Short has created a homonym, i.e. a new generic name that is the same as an already existing one. Homonyms are illegitimate names, according to the Code, and cannot be used. To rectify this, the author has now published a paper, renaming his genus as Roebuckiella and providing new combinations for the 9 species and 5 varieties under the new genus name.

P.S. Short
Roebuckiella P.S.Short, nom. nov., a replacement name for Roebuckia P.S.Short (2014), with new combinations (183kb PDF)

To access content of all volumes of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/jabg (the Journal is also available through JSTOR).

State Herbarium seminars in 2015

The dates for this year’s It’s All About the Plants seminar series have now been fixed. The talks will again take place in the Botanic Garden’s Goodman Building Lecture Theatre (Hackney Road, Adelaide) on the first Tuesday of every month from 10:00–12:00, except July, August and December. In August, the State Herbarium of South Australia plans a mini-symposium to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The following speakers have agreed to give talks in 2015:

  • 14 Apr. — Ed Biffin (State Herbarium)
  • 5 May — Alexis Tindale (South Australian Museum)
  • June (TBC) — Teresa Lebel (National Herbarium of Victoria)
  • 8 Sep. — Jose Facelli (The University of Adelaide)
  • Nov (TBC) — Doug Fotheringham (State Herbarium, our newest Hon. Research Associate)

Hope to see you all.

Ruppia translocation in the Coorong

It’s All About the Plants
Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 10:00–12:00
Lecture Theatre, Goodman Building

by Katherine Ryan
Senior Project Officer, CLLMM Recovery Project

Come and hear how an excavator can be used for positive outcomes in large- scale aquatic plant restoration.

The aquatic plant, Ruppia tuberosa is a key primary producer in the Coorong, providing food (foliage, turions, seeds) for waterbirds, and habitat for fish and invertebrates. During the millennium drought, the population of R. tuberosa in the Coorong was severely depleted, including its seed bank. Therefore when improved water conditions returned, the plant was not able to respond quickly without intervention. Continue reading →

State Herbarium botanist honoured

Kunzea toelkenii

A new species of New Zealand kānuka genus Kunzea was named after State Herbarium Hon. Associate Dr Hellmut Toelken.  Peter de Lange, botanist at the New Zealand Department of Conservation, published the results of a 15-year study examining Kunzea ericoides, a taxon that was thought to be shared between New Zealand and Australia.  De Lange examined the plants with traditional herbarium studies, hybridisation, molecular and ecological studies.  It turned out that K. ericoides does not occur in Australia, and that there are actually ten different species in New Zealand, seven of which were newly described in his revision, among them Kunzea toelkenii de Lange.  Hellmut Toelken is joint author of four of the new species and combinations in the paper, and was acknowledged by Peter de Lange for his long-standing research interest in Kunzea and his contributions to the taxonomy of the genus.