Category Archives: Publications

New Journal volume, Dec. 2014

Today, 1 Dec. 2014, a new special volume of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens was published.  Volume 28 of the Journal consists of one article: P.S. Short’s magnum opus, the revision of the Australian species of Brachyscome (Asteraceae).

Brachyscome tatei near the SA/WA border

A taxonomic review of Brachyscome s.lat. (Asteraceae: Astereae), including descriptions of a new genus, Roebuckia, new species and new infraspecific taxa. (10mb PDF)

The 219 page article is the result of over 20 years’ of research. All Australian species of Brachyscome and related genera are reviewed. 17 new species and 4 subspecies of Brachyscome are described as new, totalling the number of species of the genus to 87. The new genus Roebuckia is split from Brachyscome. It is named after William Dampier’s ship, the Roebuck, which landed on the W.A. coast in 1699. Roebuckia contains 9 species, of which 5 species are new described, as well as 5 new varieties.

The paper is illustrated with photographs and very detailed line-drawings of fruits by botanical artist Sue Wickison from New Zealand. The articles concludes with a large appendix, listing the character states for 87 morphological and other characters for all species discussed.

To access content of all volumes of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since 1976, please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/jabg.

New Flora chapter published, Nov. 2014

Eucalyptus alatissima

Today, 17 Nov. 2014, the first part of the chapter of Myrtaceae (32.9mb) for the 5th edition of Flora of South Australia was published. On 102 pages, the author Dean Nicolle describes all native and naturalised taxa of Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora, occurring in South Australia. Identification keys are provided and most species are illustrated with drawings and photographs. Other genera of Myrtaceae are in preparation and will be published shortly.

With over 100 species this is one of the largest and most complex chapters published to date, editing of which took over two years and included extensive work on plant distributions and synonyms, to bring the Flora chapter and the SA Plant Census in synch. Many thanks to Robyn Barker and Peter Lang for their help during this time.

The general link to the 5th edition of Flora of South Australia is flora.sa.gov.au, providing current treatments, glossary, introduction and cover pages for printing. Previous versions of Flora treatments are still available from our Superseded treatments page.

New Journal articles, Oct. 2014

Yesterday, 29 Oct. 2014, the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens published two new articles online:

  • H.R. Toelken: Notes on Hibbertia (Dilleniaceae) 10. Hibbertia hirsuta (subgen. Hemistemma: H. vestita group) does occur in South Australia and Tasmania. (600kb PDF)
  • G. Kantvilas & J.A. Elix: Additions to the genus Lecidella (lichenised Ascomycota: Lecanoraceae). (820kb PDF)

Lecidella leucomarginata, a new lichen described by Kantvilas & Elix. Scale bar = 1 mm.

State Herbarium of South Australia Hon. Research Associate Hellmut Toelken discusses the rediscovery of Hibbertia hirsuta in south-eastern South Australia, 130 years after it was first collected in the State. For a long time the species was thought to only occur in Tasmania.

Lichenologists Gintaras Kantvilas (Tasmanian Herbarium, Hobart) and Jack Elix (Australian National University, Canberra) describe one new species and one new subspecies of the lichen genus Lecidella; their paper also includes a key to the genus for temperate Australia.

To access content of all volumes of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since 1976, please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/jabg.

New Journal article, Aug. 2014

Rhododendron dissilistellatum

Today, the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens published an article (700kb PDF) by Lyn Craven describing three new species of Rhododendron from Sulawesi and New Guinea, and new combinations for six other taxa. This is one of the last papers by this author, who submitted the final manuscript three weeks before he passed away in mid-July 2014.

Craven_Lyn_2004Lyn Craven was for many years a research botanist at the Australian National Herbarium, Canberra (CANB), and during the last few years an Honorary Research Fellow at this institution. His research focused on several groups, including Myrtaceae (non-eucalypt genera, especially Syzygium, Eugenia and Melaleuca incl. Callistemon), Malvaceae (Gossypium, Hibiscus), Ericaceae (Rhododendron), Fabaceae (Glycine), Boraginaceae (Heliotropium) and other plants from Australia, Malesia and the Pacific. In collaboration with Brendan Lepschi, he also authored the treatment for several genera of Myrtaceae for the new edition of Flora of South Australia, which will be published later this year. More information on Lyn’s life and work will be published in a forthcoming article in the Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter.

To access content of all volumes of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since 1976, please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/jabg.

JABG and JSTOR

JSTOR logoRecently, Michelle Waycott, Chief Botanist of the State Herbarium of South Australia, signed an agreement with the not-for-profit organisation JSTOR on behalf of the Board of the Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium: The Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens (JABG) will soon be available through the JSTOR shared digital library of scholarly content, to which the majority of Australian and overseas university and institutional libraries subscribe. This is in addition to free access through the Journal’s web-page, and strengthens the Journal’s presence in libraries worldwide.

This week, a complete set of back issues was couriered to JSTORs scanning facility in India, where the journal issues are scanned, OCRed and the final PDFs created. Hardcopy journals will be stored in perpetuity in JSTORs secure storage facility in the United States.

JABG26 outside cover 100dpiThe Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens is a peer-reviewed open-access journal, publishing papers in plant systematics, evolution, biogeography, taxonomy, nomenclature and related botanical fields, with a focus on Australia and the region. It is one of five botanical journals published by Australian herbaria and botanic gardens. Articles are published online and in hardcopy; all back issues are available on the Journal’s web-page.

In addition, the State Herbarium of South Australia is also a partner of JSTOR Global Plants, contributing very high resolution images of herbarium type specimens as part of the Global Plants Initiative (GPI). This initiative aims to digitise and make available plant type specimens from around the world, together with other botanical resources, for research purposes.