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Newsletter No. 140 September 2009 Price: $5.00 Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 140 (September 2009) AUSTRALIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY SOCIETY INCORPORATED Council President Vice President Marco Duretto Peter Weston Tasmanian Herbarium National Herbarium of New South Wales Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Private Bag 4 Mrs Macquaries Road Hobart, Tas. 7001 Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: (03) 6226 1806 Tel: (02) 9231 8111 Fax: (03) 6226 7865 Fax: (02) 9251 7231 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary Treasurer Kirsten Cowley Michael Bayly Australian National Herbarium School of Botany GPO Box 1600 The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010 Canberra, ACT 2601 Tel: (03) 8344 7150 Tel: (02) 6246 5024 Fax: (03) 9347 5460 Fax: (02) 6246 5249 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Councillor Councillor Dale Dixon Tanya Scharaschkin Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney School of Natural Resource Sciences Mrs Macquaries Road Queensland University of Technology Sydney, NSW 2000 PO Box 2434 Tel: (02) 9231 8171 Brisbane, Qld 4001 Fax: (02) 9241 2797 Tel: (07) 3138 1395 Email: [email protected] Fax: (07) 3138 1535 Email: [email protected] Other Constitutional Bodies Public Officer Hansjörg Eichler Research Committee Kirsten Cowley Barbara Briggs Australian National Herbarium Rod Henderson (Contact details above) Betsy Jackes Kristina Lemson Chris Quinn Affiliate Society Chair: Peter Weston, Vice President (ex officio) Papua New Guinea Botanical Society Grant applications close: 14 September 2009 ASBS Website www.anbg.gov.au/asbs Webmaster: Murray Fagg Cover Image: Boronia jensziae (Rutaceae), reproduced Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research with the permission of Peter Neish (the artist) and Australian National Herbarium ABRS. Email: [email protected] Publication dates of previous issue Austral.Syst.Bot.Soc.Newslett. 139 (June 2009 issue) Hardcopy: 29 July 2009; ASBS Website: 22 July 2009 Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 140 (September 2009) From the President This will be my last ‘From the President’ as, in the Newsletter (December) there will be a box as already discussed, my 6th and final term to tick to state you would rather download your on Council is coming to an end. It has been a Newsletter from the ASBS website. That is, stop rewarding experience and I would like to take receiving hardcopies in the post. This will reduce this opportunity to say thankyou to everyone on the annual running cost [printing & postage] of Council and the membership for making it so. the society, thus liberating money that can be The last few months have been fairly quiet for better spent supporting meetings, students etc, and the society. One important event that did occur reduce the carbon footprint of you and the society. was the dissolution of the Palynological and Several other societies have opted for electronic Palaeobotanic Association of Australia (PPAA). only newsletters with an email notification system The dissolution has been happening over a number and it is high time ASBS does this too. Council is of years (c. 10) and has involved a number of discussing this action at the moment and the detail ASBS Councils. What this has meant for ASBS of how it will happen will be in the December is that we have received the remaining PPAA issue. If you have a good idea or concern about funds (a bit like in a will) that will be invested this then do not hesitate to contact me or another and used to support botanical systematics in member of the Council. Australia. The full details of the transfer etc will The Armidale meeting is shaping up to be an be in the Treasures report for 2008/9. It is sad exciting meeting – have a look at the website. to see a society like this dissolve. Many past In 2010 ASBS will be meeting in Lincoln (near members of the PPAA are members of ASBS and Christchuch, New Zealand) in late November. We the use of palynological and palaeobotanic data will have more details available in time for the in systematics research is becoming increasingly Armidale meeting. Of course in 2011 there will important. The opportunity exists for specialised be a Melbourne meeting in conjunction with the meetings within ASBS conferences and articles IBC. All in all a very exciting few years ahead. in the Newsletter to promote palynological and All the best and see you in Armidale. palaeobotanic research. Marco Duretto The next time you receive a subscription notice From the Editors This issue is somewhat shorter than normal, largly requiring a certain volume of content to justify due to the busyness of spring for contributors the costs of publication and distribution. Collation and editors alike. We consider it important that biannually or annually for printing would minimise announcements are made available in a timely the concern over ‘slim’ editions of the Newsletter manner, and for this reason support the current while still making a hardcopy available for those four issues per year, but have an interest in the who wish to continue receiving it. idea of making the Newsletter available primarily Peter Jobson has been kept busy with a move to a electronically. new company in PERTH, so please note his new Another option to Marco’s suggestion above on contact details at the back of the Newsletter. electronic delivery of the Newsletter is for each Robyn Barker continues to provide various notices issue to be placed on the ASBS website as soon for the Newsletter. If you come across websites as it is complete, with a hardcopy then printed and notices that you think may be of interest to annually or biannually (this would reduce printing other members of the Society, please pass them on costs somewhat, but particularly save on postage to us so we can include them in the Newsletter. and packing rates). This also has advantages from an editorial perspective, a hardcopy printing Thanks for your ongoing contributions! 1 Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 140 (September 2009) Article The Australian Flaveria Powell (1978) provided a systematic revision of (Asteraceae): its correct name Flaveria. While he accepted F. australasica as a species, he commented that it “is exceedingly and origin status close to F. trinervia” and that “when attempting A.R. Bean to identify herbarium specimens, reference to Queensland Herbarium distribution is often the most reliable method”. He noted some differences in habit and leaf Flaveria Juss. is a genus of daisies comprising width between glasshouse-grown F. trinervia around 23 species. Many species are endemic (Spreng.) C.Mohr and F. australasica, but such to the warmer parts of the Americas, while two minor differences are readily observable between species are naturalised in Africa or southern provenances of any single widespread species. Asia, and one (F. australasica Hook.) has been Powell (loc. cit.) went on to say that the Australian considered endemic to Australia. plants “exhibit slightly longer involucres, Flaveria australasica was named by William somewhat thicker phyllaries, slightly larger disc Hooker in the published journal of explorer Thomas corollas, and longer achenes”. It was this last Mitchell. With respect to the Flaveria, Mitchell character that Powell used in the ‘Key to Species’; (1848) stated “Sir W. Hooker has determined the range in achene length for F. trinervia was [this] to be a very distinct and undoubted species given as 2–2.6 mm, and for F. australasica 2.3– of FLAVERIA of which all the other species are 4.5 mm. On the face of it, this seems a quite useful natives of the New World”. Hooker’s brief Latin distinction, but closer inspection reveals that this description appeared as a footnote. He described is not the case. in general terms the shape of the leaves, the The range of achene lengths given by Powell clustering of the involucres and the involucral (1978) for F. trinervia appears to be too small. bracts, but made no comparisons with any other It is difficult to find achene measurements in the species of Flaveria. literature that have been independently made; F. australasica was based on a collection from most authors appear to copy straight from Powell the Balonne River in the far south of Queensland, (1978). However, Matthew (1983) gave the achene in an area not previously visited by Europeans. length for F. trinervia as “3 mm”. Yarborough Robert Brown had previously collected it from & Powell (2006) repeated the achene length islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1802. By range as “2–2.6 mm”, and yet the accompanying 1900 it had been collected from Western Australia, illustration shows an achene 3.0 mm long. Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, I have measured numerous achenes on Australian and New South Wales. It has been classified as specimens of F. australasica and find the range an indigenous Australian species, based on its to be 2.3–3.5 mm. None could be found that supposed endemism on the continent. exceeded 3.5 mm in length. Morphology Hence the key difference between F. trinervia and The first murmurings about the lack of F. australasica is much weaker than Powell had morphological distinction of F. australasica suggested: F. trinervia achenes reach at least 3 were expressed by Bentham (1867). He stated mm in length, and probably more; F. australasica “there is very little to distinguish this from the achenes do not exceed 3.5 mm. common S. American F. contrayerva”. The latter Molecular studies is now considered a synonym of F. bidentis (L.) Kuntze. None of the Australian state or regional In recent years, there have been several studies floras produced since then has commented on the dealing with the various relationships between taxonomic relationship between F.