Author Archives: Michelle

National Tree Day – 31 July 2022

Today is National Tree Day and in Australia across many parts of the country the dominant trees are the eucalypts. There are over 800 species of eucalypts and I often find myself trying to identify them as I drive along country roads or ride my bike to and from work. More often than not the best I can say is… ‘yes that it is a Eucalyptus‘. My cycle route around Adelaide takes me through a number of areas where eucalypts have been planted or left to remain. As a guess, I think I would ride past at least 20 species of eucalypts a day. We are lucky to live in a city that has extensive parklands surrounding it and a botanic gardens at its heart. In addition, in the area less than 15 minutes from central Adelaide City you can be in some kind of woodland, be it planted or remnant. There are not many other cities in the world that can claim the same.

The remarkable diversity of eucalypts can make them challenging to identify. In fact only a small group of extremely talented people (I’m not one) can tell you the species name by sight. Some eucalypts are quite distinct and can be identified by looking at the shape of the tree, or the gloss of the leaves. In fact to identify a ‘Euc’ it often takes a combination of bark, buds, leaf shape, number of gum-nuts and a few other characters to be confident you have the correct species.

If you have a chance on this National Tree Day, or the coming week,  you should see if you can visit a eucalypt. Unless you are in the Nullarbor region there will be a eucalyptus close by wherever you are. It may be a mallee if you are in the outback, it might be planted if you are near a park, or if you are really lucky it might be a 400 year old River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis).

Enjoy looking at the eucalypt, observe the bark and the nuts and the leaves. See if you can figure out what species it might be. If you are interested to learn more about eucalypts then we will be hosting tours of the Adelaide Botanic gardens as part of the ‘Nature Festival’  programme that the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium has planned for 2022. We hope that we will see you in the gardens for it.

Written by State Herbarium botanist Andrew Thornhill

International Women’s Day

Celebrating International Women’s Day in 2022

Lets celebrate the Wonderful Women in Science and Conservation at the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium and they work they do! A huge thank you to all the amazing women I work with and who inspire and challenge me every day! International Womens Day 2022

I encourage everyone to take a moment to think about the women you work with who you respect, admire and want to recognise in small or grand ways! Then do so!

Michelle Waycott
Chief Botanist

 

Fascination of Plants 2020

International Fascination of Plants Day, 18th May, has been celebrated since 2012 and has provided a focus for plant enthusiasts to share their interest and passion for the amazing world of plants. Last year events across 51 countries were held. While we are still primarily working from home the Staff and Honorary Research Associates of the Science and Conservation programme at the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium (South Australia) decided to celebrate by sharing some of the plants they find fascinating!
Enjoy!
Michelle Waycott
Chief Botanist

Griffithsia monilis, a small, annual alga with delicate chains of ruby coloured cells, looking like sweets good enough to eat, spectacular under the microscope—Bob Baldock
Cephalotus follicularis (Albany Pitcher Plant), is a single species in its own family and endemic to near where I grew up in south Western Australia. These carnivorous plants are fascinating because they are not closely related to any of the other carnivorous plants such as Drosera (sundews)—Michelle Waycott
Ginkgo biloba, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, on its 250th anniversary in 2012, with admiring cohort of ‘geriatric teenagers’—Pam Catcheside
Capparis spinosa ssp nummularia, I’m fascinated by the way the flowers change from bright white (to attract pollinators at night) to pink once its too late—Helen Vonow
Rhizanthella gardneri, an underground orchid. These fascinating plants flower where no-one can see them and only some animals can find them—that’s not an orchid! —Robyn Barker

CC BY 2.0 Fred Hort
Ptilotus sp. (mulla mulla), amazing combination of texture, colour and shape in this smoky pincushion—Teresa Lebel
Two bearded orchids from Mark Oliphant Reserve. One is Calochilus robertsonii, a bearded orchid. The other is Pterostylis plumosa, a bearded greenhood. Both are trying to trick insects into pollinating them. I like the thrill of the hunt of trying to find them 🙂 —Andrew Thornhill

Reflections—an ordinary little stump can be turned in to an intriguing complex pattern—Teresa Lebel
Acrotriche fasciculiflora (Mt Lofty Ground-berry) is fascinating for its cauliflory, with flowers packed around the base of its main stems, an adaptation for pollination or fruit dispersal by small vertebrates perhaps?—Peter Lang
Washingtonia robusta (Cotton Palms), native to Mexico, can be seen emerging from the skyline in older suburbs and rural towns in drier districts. An occasional though generally benign weed, it appeared in gardens and parks in the later 19th and early 20th centuries—Laurie Haegi
Tillandsia ‘Houston’ (T. stricta x T. recurvifolia) are fascinating because of their novel growth habit (air plants) and because they lend themselves so readily to decorative use around the home—Manfred Jusaitis
Hakea aenigma, found only on the western lateritic sands of Kangaroo Island, is sterile and unable to fruit. It resprouts after fires from suckers over distances of more than 30 km. A single plant that is an evolutionary dead-end but surviving for perhaps thousands of years—Bill Barker
Nuytsia floribunda, The West Australian Christmas Tree, is a parasitic plant that is actually a mistletoe! It has a unique way of parasitising the roots of nearby plants, a set of hard and sharp ‘shears’ cuts through the root so Nuytsia can attach feeding points to enable it get water and minerals from its hosts—Ainsley Calladine

 

 

Happy National Eucalypt Day 2020!

Eucalyptus pimpiniana​, growing in front of the State Herbarium. Photo: A. Thornhill.

March the 23rd marks National Eucalypt Day (see fact sheet from 2018, 360kb  PDF) in Australia. Prior to COVID-19 the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium had been preparing for two different eucalypt themed tours at Adelaide Botanic Gardens with State Herbarium and Botanic Gardens staff on the 22 and 23 March 2020. Unfortunately we have been forced to cancel them.

We will reschedule these tours sometime in the future but until then we will share some thoughts about this interesting group of plants that marks the occasion.

The eucalypts are actually three genera of predominantly Australian plants: Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus (see also Australian Plants Society fact sheet, 4.5mb PDF). There are over 800 named species of eucalypts. While the majority of eucalypts are purely native to Australia there are a handful of species that have escaped the continent to the north and are native to Timor, New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippines. The revised Flora of South Australia treatment for eucalypts was published in 2014 (33.8mb PDF).

May Gibbs Stamp, 2016

The living species that occur outside of Australia have fossil ancestors. In fact, the oldest known eucalypt fossil comes from Patagonia and is 52 million years old. Eucalypt fossil leaves have also been found in New Zealand, estimated to be about 20 million years old. We know though that eucalypts are not now native to either South America or New Zealand so at some point they became extinct in those countries and left Australia with an iconic plant group. An article on The Conversation last year discussed how the eucalypts came to dominate Australia.

The eucalypts gained great popularity through the creative works of May Gibbs in 1920s. These artworks have also been celebrated in Australian Stamps.

May Gibbs Stamp, 1985

It is poorly known that when May Gibbs first came to Australia as a child she first lived in South Australia, including in Norwood for a short time. Her family then moved to Western Australia where she spent most of her formative years. May Gibbs’ most famous characters, the gumnut babies Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, use various parts of eucalypts for their clothes. The most well-known pictures of the gumnut babies sees them sitting in big gumnuts which in fact are Corymbia fruit and not of Eucalyptus, most likely Corymbia ficifolia a native tree of Western Australia, and also a common street tree all around Australia. The hats that the gumnut babies wear are the calyptra (cap) of a eucalypt — petals that have evolved to form a protective bud cap. When a eucalypt flower opens the bud cups are pushed off and hundreds of anthers pop out. To raise public awareness for the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1919 May Gibbs painted a scene of a Kookaburra and a gumnut baby both wearing gum leaf facemasks — apt for our times.

On that note we want to say — Happy Eucalypt Day!

We hope that you stay safe and tucked away in your gumnuts until it is safe to come out.

Compiled by Andrew Thornhill, State Herbarium of South Australia & The University of Adelaide.