Today, the State Herbarium of South Australia published two articles in the online version of Swainsona.

In Vol. 30 we continue to publish papers from the Proceedings of the Botany Symposium “Botany 2016 — Past, present and future“, which was held at the 2016 NRM Science Conference. to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the State Herbarium.

(1) G.R. Guerin, M.J. Christmas, B. Sparrow & A.J. Lowe, Projected climate change implications for the South Australian flora (0.6mb PDF).

The authors explore the implications of climatic warming for individual plant species and the State’s plant biodiversity. As case study they use Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustissima. The authors conclude that significant climate change will influence ecophysiology, leading to changes in primary productivity and water stress. This is predicted to ultimately lead to lower species richness, altered species composition and more uneven abundances.

Vol. 31 of Swainsona contains one new taxonomic paper.

Type specimen of Lindernia scapigera, collected by Robert Brown in 1802 and examined by Bill Baker for his paper. Photo: Natural History Museum, London (CC-BY 4.0).

(2) W.R. Barker, Notes on the taxonomy of Australian Lindernia subg. Didymadenia (Linderniaceae) (1.3mb PDF).

Subgenus Didymadenia (Linderniaceae) contains the majority of taxa of Lindernia that occur in Australia. Bill Barker divides the subgenus into five sections and describes 22 new species. The typification of 5 existing taxa is discussed and resolved. This paper is partly based on the most recent phylogeny of Lindernia by Ed Biffin and co-authors, which will be published shortly in Australian Systematic Botany. It is a precursor to a forthcoming larger study of the genus.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

Today, the State Herbarium of South Australia published three articles in the online version of Vol. 30 of Swainsona and two other papers in Vol. 31.

Vol. 30 of Swainsona is the first volume of our journal under its new name. It is a special issue containing the Proceedings of the Botany Symposium at the 2016 NRM Science Conference., celebrating the 60th anniversary of the State Herbarium. More information on the conference and videos of the presentations can be found online.

To co-incide with this year’s NRM Science Conference, the State Herbarium publishes the first three article of the Proceedings of the Botany Symposium, which was entitled Botany 2016 — Past, present and future.

(1) H.B. Cross, E. Biffin & M. Waycott, The Sturt pea through 300 years of Australian botanical exploration (1.3mb PDF).

The introductory paper to the special volume examines the history of research on South Australia’s floral emblem, the Sturt pea, from the species’ first description to the latest Next Generation Sequencing techniques.

(2) R.S. Hill, M.A. Tarran, K.E. Hill & Y.K. Beer, The vegetation history of South Australia (2.1mb PDF)

Hill and co-authors review the fossil evidence for plant life in South Australia though time, in the context of latest research and discoveries, noting the role that fire may have played in the development of the Australian flora.

(3) G. Kantvilas, South Australian lichens — A Kangaroo Island case study (3.3mb PDF)

The author reports on his long-term study of the lichens of Kangaroo Island, outlines the major vegetation types that lichens occur in and their threats, like clearing and fragmentation of habitat. He also discusses two remarkable lichens occurring on the island.

Vol. 31 of Swainsona contains the following new regular papers:

(4) A.S. George, The type of Sturt pea found (0.7mb PDF)

Micarea kartana, a new lichen species from Kangaroo Island. Photo: J. Jarman.

For many years, the type collection of Sturt pea was thought to be lost. George reports the rediscovery of the specimen and corrects the collection locality of the type, the specimen that was used to describe the species.

(5) G. Kantvilas, Micarea kartana sp. nov. (lichenised Ascomycetes) from Kangaroo Island, South Australia
(0.7mb PDF)

Continuing his research on Kangaroo Island lichens, Kantvilas describes a new species from moist log of rotting eucalypt in dry sclerophyll forest.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

Today, the State Herbarium of South Australia published one paper in the online version of Vol. 31 of Swainsona.

Gintaras Kantvilas, Pertusaria crassilabra Müll. Arg. – a reinstated name for an Australasian lichen (935kb PDF).

The author from the Tasmanian Herbarium continues his contributions to lichenology with a review of the use of the name Pertusaria crassilabra. For a long time, this lichen has been known as P. melanospora in Australia, but this name actually applies to another taxon. Pertusaria is one of the largest genera of lichenised fungi and, with 191 formally recorded taxa, certainly one of the largest in Australia.

The lichen Pertusaria crassilabra, collected on Kangaroo Island. Photo: G. Kantvilas.

To access content of all issues of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

Goodenia asteriscus, flower. Photo: P.J. Lang.

(1) Today, the State Herbarium of South Australia published one paper in the online version of Vol. 31 of Swainsona. The journal was formerly known as the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and was renamed this year.

P.J. Lang & R.J.-P. Davies, Goodenia asteriscus (Goodeniaceae), a new arid zone species from northwestern South Australia and eastern Western Australia (1.6mb PDF).

In this article, the authors describe a new species of Goodenia. The plant is a perennial rosette-forming herb, occuring north-western South Australia and eastern W.A. It was first discovered during vegetation surveys in Western Australia in 2011. Later matching specimens were found in the herbarium collections of the State Herbarium of South Australia and the Western Australian Herbarium. A visit to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the NW of South Australia enabled Peter Lang to collect new material, including the type specimen.

Goodenia asteriscus, habit. Photo: P.J. Lang.

(2) Furthermore, the Proceedings of next week’s joint meeting of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS) and the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB), including the biennial Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation Meeting, were published as Supplement no. 5 of Swainsona (5.1mb PDF). More information on the Conference can be found on its web-site systematics.ourplants.org. More than 140 delegated are expected to attend the 3-day meeting.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

Hibbertia fumana, a species rediscovered after over 210 years. Photo: A. Orme.

In a recent post we reported on State Herbarium research into the genus Hibbertia. One of the species, H. fumana Sieber ex Toelken, was described by Hon. Associate Dr Hellmut Toelken in 2012 (Toelken & Miller, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 25 (2012) 71-96, 1.8mb PDF) and was only known from three herbarium collections made in the Sydney area in the early 19th Century. The species was presumed to be extinct. Late in 2016, a population of the plant was discovered during vegetation surveys, which lead to a reassessment of the species and its listing as critically endangered.

Now Hellmut and a team of botanist, lead by Marco Duretto from the New South Wales National Herbarium, have published a revised account of the species in the journal Telopea. The newly collected material and live plants enabled them to describe the species in more detail and to assess its ecology.

Duretto, M.F., Orme, A.E., Rodd, J., Stables, M. & Toelken, H. (2017). Hibbertia fumana (Dilleniaceae), a species presumed to be extinct rediscovered in the Sydney region, Australia. Telopea 20: 143–146 (1.6mb PDF).

The authors state: “This is the second significant discovery in Hibbertia made in the Sydney region recently and follows the discovery and description of H. spanantha (Toelken & Robinson, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 29 (2015) 11-14, 720kb PDF), a species endemic to the northern suburbs of Sydney. Further field studies, collections and research are required in the greater Sydney region to accurately ascertain the full diversity of the genus found in this region.”