Category Archives: Events

Kangaroo Island fungi in art

As part of this year’s SALA South Australia’s Living Artists Festival, the National Wine Centre of Australia will host an exhibition featuring art inspired by the fungi of Kangaroo Island.

“Fairy Castle” by Cath Cantlon

How do we Love Thee? Let us count the ways… KI Fungi

Crepidotus sp. Photo by David Catcheside

Fine Art Kangaroo Island presents exciting new works by exceptionally talented celebrated and emerging artists. Thoughtful selections combine fascinating art, pristine natural environment and creative community. Remarkable for large areas of remnant vegetation the island hosts a diversity of unique ecosystems. Interconnected by an extraordinary sense of place 22 artists reveal the obscure delights of fungi — essential for life — often furtive and mostly inconspicuous.

A wide variety of media are exhibited, ranging from jewelry and sculpture, to prints, painting and photographs.

“Mycelium magic” by Fred Peters

State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate and fungi expert Pam Catcheside was heavily involved in the preparation of the exhibition and advising artists and the gallery about mushrooms and toadstools of Kangaroo Island. She will also give a talk at the National Wine Centre on 11 August 2015 at 11 am.

The exhibition is open every day in August, 10am–5pm.

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).

State Herbarium Open Day

The State Herbarium of South Australia will be open to the public on 9 & 10 May 2015 as part of the About Time: South Australia’s History Festival.

The heritage-listed 1909 Tram Barn A was once part of a complex housing the Adelaide tram fleet. Now the State Herbarium, it houses over one million plant specimens instead. See some of the first plants collected in the state on Matthew Flinders’ voyage and learn how all these dried specimens are critical to the effective preservation of living plants.

Read more about Tram Barn A (1.15mb pdf), the State Herbarium (733kb PDF) and the over one million plant specimens (561kb pdf) in booklets published by the institution.

Guided walking tours will be available on both 9 & 10 May at 11am & 1pm (duration 45-60 min, max. 15 persons per tour).

Bookings are essential.

Tram and bus depot, Hackney Road, 1956 (photo: DEWNR).

Open House Adelaide 2014 update

Today we saw the second two groups of this years Open House visitors in the Herbarium, a mix of locals, people from interstate and overseas. Together with yesterday’s guests we’ve seen over 90 people through to have a look at the herbarium both as an old tram barn but also as modern, working herbarium. To any that are unaware the State Herbarium of South Australia is housed in the heritage-listed, 1909-built Tram Barn A building.
Open House 2014

The Open House tours were very well received. People took photographs, including aspects of the building not commonly seen, and of herbarium display material, like specimens collected on the Flinders Expedition in 1802. Presentations covered a wide range of topics including type specimens, preservation techniques, insect pest control in the vaults, weed monitoring, historic specimens, insights from molecular (DNA) data and the Herbarium’s contribution to the Global Plants Initiative.
Open House 2014

4th South Australian Weeds Conference

Next week, State Herbarium staff will attend this year’s South Australian Weeds Conference at the Plant Research Centre, Waite Campus, Urrbrae. On 6 & 7 May 2014, weed experts, land managers, botanists and others will discuss the latest developments in the area, and hear of experiences on weeds and weed management from across a range of land uses, from agriculture to conservation, and across a variety of regions in South Australia.

Weeds botanist Chris Brodie from the State Herbarium will give a presentation on new weed threats in South Australia. He will also demonstrate how to collect and press “difficult” plants to get adequate herbarium specimens (e.g. some weeds are very spiny and hard to collect or preserve, such as cacti or thistles). A recent post in this BLOG also examined the number of weeds in the State and gave an account by region.

The Conference is organised by the Weed Management Society of South Australia.