Here is a first look at some more artwork created by Lisa Waters. It is inspired by her research on the life and work of 19^th century amateur botanist and collector Jessie L. Hussey.

Lisa says

…Jessie L. Hussey had a significant collaboration with Prof. Jacob Agardh of Lund, Sweden, who was the leading phycologist of his time. Sadly Jessie died in March 1899, only aged 36, with so many plans left unfinished, whilst Prof. J Agardh was able to live a long and productive life working on his beloved algae up until his death at age 87 in January 1901.

After Jessie’s death Agardh continued to work on her algae specimens and one of the last things he did was describe a new genus from her collections, which he named in her honour in a paper published after his death in 1901. The genus Husseya has one species, which he named Husseya australis. Diagnostic characters for this species include a distinctive central cell structure and that older plants grow a thick outer wall of cells which is absent in younger plants.

These two paintings are of transverse sections of Husseya australis as seen under a high powered microscope and represent the collaboration between Jessie and Agardh. The younger plant represents Jessie, who did not get to live the long productive life she had planned and therefore did not get to develop the thick outer wall of cells. The older plant represents Agardh, who lived a long productive life and was able to develop the intricate outer wall of cells.

The current name for Husseya australis is Husseya rubra. The Algae revealed fact-sheet for this species can be found here on the eFloraSA web-site.

Please click here and here to see some of Lisa’s previous artwork and more information about her project. She is continuing her work, so keep following this blog for updates.

Mundulla Primary School’s new microscope, plant press and books. Photo: Jenny Dungey.

At the end of September 2014, State Herbarium Weeds Botanist Chris Brodie cut the ribbon at the official launch of the Mundulla Primary School Herbarium Project. He also conducted a “weeds walk” with school children in nearby bushland. The launch was a great success and highlighted the partnership between the school and the community, the NRM Board, DEWNR and the State Herbarium of South Australia. The school received an NRM grant, which was used to purchase a high performing microscope, capable of connecting with an interactive white-board, as well as a number of reference books.

The Principal, Mr Jo Artz stated that

… as a major component of my year 3/4/5 Science class work this term (Biology: Plant Science), students have been instructed and engaged in the learning associated with collecting, identifying and writing information reports about plants they have found.
… The main purpose of a Herbarium is to allow for identification of plants, so that appropriate actions may be implemented if weeds require eradication or rare species need a helping hand to survive. Much of this work has been very professionally conducted by one of our local volunteers Dee Provis. Her knowledge and enthusiasm has rubbed off on many students and we have at least ten youngsters who want to be Biologists later in life.

Weeds Botanist Chris Brodie, NRM Officer Becky McCann, Principal Jo Artz and volunteer Dee Provis (from left to right) with Mundulla Primary School students. Photo by Benn Gransden, Border Chronicle.

The Mundulla herbarium and the books will be stored in the local library, to assist with increasing the knowledge held within the local community of both indigenous and exotic plants. Both the school and the community will add to the herbarium over time. It is hoped that the project will serve as a model that can be transferred to other local government areas in the South-East.

The launch has been reported in the local Border Chronicle. The paper also gave permission to reproduce the photographs in this blog article.