The State Herbarium of South Australia published one article in the online version of Vol. 30 of the journal Swainsona, today. This volume of the journal contains 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.

J.M. Huisman & R.N. Baldock, The marine benthic algae of South Australia (1.6mb PDF)

Inkyluea ballioides, a marine algae from S.A., Vic. and Tas. (also known as Ballia ballioides). Photo: B.Baldock.

The authors review the history and current status of phycological research in South Australia. They point to the importance of Prof. Bryan Womersley‘s work, whose Marine benthic flora of southern Australia (1984-2003) documented the algal diversity of our coasts in exemplary detail and critically revised many groups of algae. They also discuss the impact of new molecular methods and the continuing importance of herbaria, as well as pointing out some current and future challenges.

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.

Scanned volumes of the Marine benthic flora of southern Australia are available on the Enviro Data SA web-site:

I – Introduction, Seagrasses, Chlorophyta and Charophyta (1984) (21.2mb PDF)
II – Phaeophyta and Chrysophyta (Vaucheria) (1987)  (31mb PDF)
IIIA – Rhodophyta: Bangiophyceae and Florideophyceae (Acrochaetiales, Nemaliales, Gelidiales, Hildenbrandiales and Gigartinales) (1994) (36.6mb PDF)
IIIB – Rhodophyta: Gracilariales, Rhodymeniales, Corallinales and Bonnemaisoniales (1996) (29.3mb PDF)
IIIC – Rhodophyta: Ceramiales – Ceramiaceae, Dasyaceae (1998) (36.3mb PDF)
IIID – Rhodophyta: Ceramiales – Delessariaceae, Sarcomeniaceae, Rhodomelaceae (2003) (40.3mb PDF)

The scans are made available in collaboration with the Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Fact-sheets on all south Australian algae, based on the book series, are also available through the eFloraSA system.