Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens Number 88 April 2018

Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens

Patron Her Excellency Lady Cosgrove Vice Patron Mrs Marlena Jeffery President Lesley Jackman Vice President TBA Secretary Jann Ollerenshaw Treasurer Helen Elliot General Committee Wendy Antionak Golden Moon Glow (Dimelaena oeina) Pencil drawing, Emma Kelly, Linda Beveridge Christianna Cobbold from the exhibition Small Worlds Jonette McDonnell In this Issue David More Public Officer Wendy Antoniak Exec.Director ANBG Dr Judy West 3 Digitising and more Post: Friends of ANBG, GPO Box 1777 Canberra ACT 2601 5 Seed imaging project — a hidden world exposed Telephone: (02) 6250 9548 (messages) Website: www.friendsanbg.org.au 6 Vibration pollen collection at flowers of native

Friends’ activities and contacts lasiandra, Melastoma affine & the Darwin hypothesis Fronds Committee: Anne Rawson Barbara Podger 8 Eucalyptus dye research at the ANBG Pam Rooney Denis Warne 10 Friendly Chatter Cathy Robertson Photographic Group [email protected] Membership Lesley Harland Guides Pam Cooke Growing Friends [email protected] Growing Friends John Connolly Friends Botanic Art Groups Guides Christianna Cobbold Botanic Art Groups Helen Hinton Science Group Photographic Group Brian Moir Plant Science Group Anne Campbell 12 An ANBG role in high altitude tropical plant Social Events Tricia Morton conservation Talks Convenor Doug Laing For all these groups contact: [email protected] 15 What's new in the ANBG Image Collections? Booked Walks: [email protected] 16 Gardens Shorts Fronds is published three times a year. We welcome your articles for inclusion in the next issue. Material 19 Friends Briefs should be forwarded to the Fronds Committee by mid-February for the April issue; mid-June for the 20 Botanical Bookshop August issue; mid-October for the December issue. Email or post material to the Fronds Committee at 21 What's On, including Thursday Talks the above addresses or, place in the Friends letterbox, located inside the Gardens’ Visitor Centre, between 9.30 am and 4.30 pm, Monday to Sunday. Editorial messages: telephone (02) 6250 9548. Front Cover: Two lichens, Austroparmelia pseudoreclina & Cladia aggregata (the green Design and layout: Pam Rooney & spiky one), The Pinnacles. A photograph from an exhibition by Brenda Runnegar, Printing: Union Offset Printers Small Worlds, Visitor Centre Gallery, January 2018. The aim of the exhibition was ISSN 2207-6492 to highlight the diversity and beauty of these often overlooked and inaccessible mosses, lichens and fungi. Identification of the items included in the exhibition was 2 April 2018 Fronds 88 assisted by ANBG staff Christine Cargill, Heino Lepp, and Judith Curnow. Digitising lichens and more Denis Warne

ucked away near the benchmark specimens, nominated by the community. First of all, internet publish- Gardens’ library is that part botanists who first described each new ing, in this case as part of the Global of the Australian National species. They define that species to the Initiative (plants.jstor.org), aids Herbarium responsible for world. It is this 1600 that were digitised in international scientific collaboration. Tpreserving specimens of cryptogams the Project. Perhaps more importantly for the Herbar- – fungi, lichens, bryophytes (mosses, ium, it helps protect the specimens, some Herbarium specimens are more than hornworts and liverworts), algae, and of which may be over one hundred years just the organisms themselves. Each ferns. Over the years the Friends have old. The need for the specimens to be specimen is accompanied by the notes of supported this aspect of the Gardens shipped across the world, with potential the collecting botanist including defining work, funding development of and for loss or damage, is greatly reduced. characteristics, collection location, and enhancements to the Bryophyte, Fungi, other comments. There may be freehand Against this background a pilot project and Lichen websites (see inset). Most sketches or images, and the results of any here in the Gardens in 2016 established recently, the Friends have funded the chemical analyses. All this supplementary a protocol for the digitisation of crypto- Lichen Digitisation Project which material must also form part of the gams and generated the first 150 images achieved its goals and more in November digitised material. of lichen specimens. At that point the 2017. Friends, jointly with the Centre for Benefits of digitisation are widely rec- The Cryptogam herbarium holds over Australian National Biodiversity Research ognised these days among the scientific 300,000 specimens, but some 1600 of (CANBR), agreed to fund the digitisa- these, mostly lichens, are particularly tion of the remaining 1030 lichen Type precious. They are the internationally Specimens in our collection. recognised Type Specimens – the Digitisation of cryptogam specimens Cryptogam websites sponsored by brought its own special challenges. Speci- ANBG Friends mens of flowering plants and ferns are typically pressed, dried and mounted on www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte cardboard providing a two dimensional www.anbg.gov.au/lichen presentation which is readily handled and www.anbg.gov.au/fungi imaged. Cryptogams, other than ferns, on the other hand, are not pressed, both to preserve form and because they often come attached to a piece of the rock or log on which they grow. Cryptogam specimens are three dimensional and are typically stored in folded envelopes or small boxes. This complicates both the handling and the imaging. But all challenges were met and the project delivered. In fact, not only were the lichens digitised as originally planned, but all the fungi and bryophyte Type Specimens were digitised within the origi- nal budget, bringing the total to 1600. All the digitised data is now available globally on JSTOR’s Global Plants site. Cryptogams are fascinating. Should you want to dabble, each of the Friends- sponsored websites is spectacular (see inset for links). If you want to see the digitised product, you too can go on

Phaeoceros engelii (hornwort), herbarium specimen and specimen in the wild contd. p4

Fronds 88 April 2018 3 Digitising lichens & more (contd.) line to the repository on JSTOR at A final note of interest: we have all no cyano-bacteria. They are considered as plants.jstor.org . A word of caution, doubt observed the delicate presence of one entity as the cannot survive this repository is made for scientists lichens on rocks and logs as we stroll. without its symbiotic partner(s). who know the scientific name of at At the microscopic level they can be Many thanks to Drs Chris Cargill and least the species, or its family or genus, even more fascinating. A lichen is, Cécile Gueidan for their time and a that they are looking for. Have a go - in fact, not a single organism, but a fascinating conversation on cryptogams try an advanced search with Family: symbiosis of two or more organisms, and their digitisation. PARMELIACEAE and Herbarium one a fungus the other(s) algae or All images: CANBR Code: CANB.

An example of a digitised Herbarium specimen. This one is for Hertelidea wankaensis (lichen) including the typical associated information

4 April 2018 Fronds 88 Seed imaging project — a hidden world exposed Brook Clinton

ver 1000 species of Australian native seed from the collections of the National Seed Bank here at the Gardens are now available as digital images thanks to a project just completed by the Centre forO Australian National Biodiversity Research. The images, and accompanying precise measurements of seed traits taken during the imaging process, help to explain the biological and ecological function of these important species. The images, each with a corresponding herbarium voucher specimen, provide a definitive resource for land managers and also highlight the beautiful biodiversity of seeds. The Australian Native Seeds: a digital image library project was supported through funding from the Bush Blitz Program, a partnership between Australian Government, BHP Billiton and EarthWatch Australia. Explore the seed images on the Australian Plant Image Index to learn more: www.anbg.gov.au/photo/complex-search.html Search class = ‘nsb’ for seed images, or search for particular species. All nsb seed images are free to use under a creative commons Above: seed of Hibbertia circumdans which is also seen in the image licence, with the following attribution 'CC BY The National below (the line at bottom right measures 1000 μm) Seed Bank, ANBG' Below: the beautiful biodiversity of seeds (In order to identify each of the seeds in the image below go to bit.ly/2CNCvlh )

Fronds 88 April 2018 5 Vibration pollen collection at flowers of native lasiandra, Melastoma affine & the Darwin hypothesis

Roger Farrow some loose pollen on the vector is deposited on the when the bee he native lasiandra, brushes against it. Most are particu- Melastoma affine larly attracted to the yellow of the central (Melastomataceae), is a anthers because this colour is thought to common pioneer shrub of indicate a good pollen source, but it is Tthe wet tropics and subtropics and is not clear what attracts them to land on distinguished by its attractive mauve the purple outer anthers. flowers that are present for much of Over a two-week period, I recorded four the year. It has been confused with 1. Flower of M. affine showing two types different solitary bee species collecting M. malabathricum but the latter has of with poricidal anthers and the pollen from Melastoma flowers at the stigma and style (centre right) longer and fewer flowers in the edge of rainforest at two places in the terminal clusters. M. affineis common Daintree: one at Cape Tribulation at throughout south-east Asia from where the Dubuji and at Diwan in the garden it probably colonised northern Australia, at my property (2). No honeybees were possibly at the peak of the last ice age seen on the flowers although they are when a land bridge to Papua/New present in low numbers in the area. They Guinea existed. The nectarless flower are not buzz pollinators. One blue- is unusual in that it has two types of banded bee, cingulata, was seen stamens (heteranthy): one central set of flying around the flowers of the Melas- five with pale filaments each terminating 2. Lasioglossum sp. (left) and Palaeorhiza toma but not landing. I also saw several disrupta (right) collecting pollen at Diwan. in conspicuous yellow anthers and a weevils, Baris sp., and a bush cricket Note the white pollen contained in the second, outer set consisting of curved basket of the hind leg of the Lasioglossum. nymph, Caedicia sp., feeding on the pink filaments branching from yellow The Palaeorhiza stores pollen in its crop. central anthers. forked structures and terminating in purple, cap-like anthers (1). Both The first species observed was Palaeorhiza types of anther release pollen through disrupta, a wasp-like, hairless, short- apical pores (poricidal anthers) when tongued bee in the plasterer bee family stimulated by thoracic vibration from (Colletidae: Hylaeinae). It stores pollen a visiting bee, the so called buzz in its crop and constructs its nests in pollination mechanism. In most plants, natural holes in stems and twigs. This the anthers split longitudinally to expose species is endemic to tropical north the pollen for collection. In Melastoma Queensland and is thought to have ssp. a simple style projects between the arrived here from Asia via the land 3. Palaeorhiza disrupta collecting pollen at outer stamens. Individual plants are self- bridge at the peak of the last ice age. The the central anthers. The forked structures compatible but the individual flowers etymology of the genus means ‘ancient are at the join between the two sections of the outer filaments. The stigma and style are not (autogamy) and require pollen root’ from the Latin and the species was extends to the left. One of the outer anther transfer between flowers by a carrier to originally thought to be the ancestor of caps and terminal pore is shown at the ensure fertilisation. Although the central the modem bees but molecular studies bottom of the picture. anthers are yellow, the pollen grains suggest that Colletidae are a later derived contained inside are white. group, although Palaeorhiza would be ancestral within this group. This species Solitary bees visit these flowers to collect was observed moving rapidly between pollen to provision their larvae with the two types of anther and extracting food at their nests. The pollen is usually pollen (3) at both Dubiji and Diwan. packed in baskets of bristles (scopae) on the bees' legs or on the underside of the The second bee observed on Melastoma abdomen for transport but in hairless in my garden at Diwan was Mellitidia bees it is stored in the crop. There is tomentifera, a ground-nesting, short- no guarantee that any of the collected tongued, solitary bee in the family 4. M. tomentifera extracting pollen from the pollen will land on the stigma of another Halictidae, that has only been reported outer anthers and inducing pollen discharge. The stigma is to the right of the bee flower to ensure cross-pollination, unless from the Cairns region. Again, it was

6 April 2018 Fronds 88 observed moving rapidly between the In a study of Melastoma pollination and Tibouchina from Central and South two types of anthers collecting pollen undertaken in the Paluma area near America (both introduced garden plants (4). The pollen is stored for transport Townsville by Gross (1993) eight species in Australia) also have dimorphic stamens, between bristles (scopae) on the hind of bee visitor were identified, of which presumably with the same function, but legs and some supplementary bristles on only four: two blue-bandeds (Amegilla pollen collection has not been studied the side of the thorax. This bee was also spp.), one carpenter (Xylocopa sp.), and in these species, as far as I am aware. seen visiting other flowers in the garden, one Nomia were involved in pollen Other native members of this family in notably Cuphea sp (exotic). transfer between the outer stamens and the genera Memecylcon (poor flower), stigma, by buzz pollination. The large Otanthera (bush strawberries) (8) and The third and commonest bee observed bees in the genera Xylocopa Amegilla Pternandra (cursed shade) have only one at Diwan was a species of Lasioglossum and Melastoma type of porocidal anther. (Chilalictus) also in the family Halicti- were not observed visiting in the Daintree during the observation dae. This small bee invariably landed on Although are often described period but may be more active at other the outer rather than the central anthers as pollinators, they are fundamentally times of the year. (5a) and spent most of its time on the pollen harvesters and feeders or are former collecting pollen. It was obviously While I was not able to view the ejection attracted to flowers by other attract- successful at this task as it could be seen of pollen from the terminal pores of the ants such as nectar, scent and other transferring pollen to its scopae on the outer anthers during buzz pollination, chemical odours. They are not altru- hind legs. This bee is also suspected of several studies have confirmed that the istic pollinators per se and the act of being a destructive pollen collector, biting bees are sprayed with pollen in response pollination occurs as a result of often into the closed anthers that then release a to the vibration of the thorax and wing chance contacts between pollen-covered cloud of pollen (5b). muscles. This has been mimicked with parts of an and the stigma. The complex behavioural interactions and The fourth bee seen on the flowers a tuning fork (Wee 2014). It has also morphological adaptations between at Diwan is possibly a species of been shown that this pollen, rather than flowering plants and their insect visi- Homalictus, a small, ground nesting bee the pollen from the central anthers, is tors, one of which is described here, are in the family Halictidae but it was not involved in transfer to the stigma and cross often described in terms of co-evolution observed buzz pollinating. fertilisation because some is placed out of grooming reach of the bees involved (Luo but I believe it is better interpreted as et al 2008). It is not clear what is attracting a mutual exploitation, as suggested by bees to the outer anthers where no pollen Westerkamp (1996). is visible unless there are odour or nectar I would like to thank my colleague attractants involved. Michael Batley for identifying the bees Charles Darwin was the first to discuss and for helpful discussions on buzz the contradiction between the supply pollination, bee biology and evolution. of pollen as an attractant and food for References: flower-visiting insects and the need to Gross CL (1993). The Breeding System and Pol- ensure that some pollen was used in 5a. Lasioglossum (Chilalictus) sp. attempting linators of Melastoma affine (Melastomataceae); to extract pollen from the terminal pore of fertilisation. He proposed that there A Pioneer Shrub in Tropical Australia. Biotropica the anther. The stigma & style are top right. could be a ‘division of labour’ among 25 (4): 468-474. stamens between those providing Forbes H (1882). Two kinds of stamens with food and those providing pollen for different functions in the same flower. Nature reproduction, the situation found in 26: 386. Melastoma. The function of the two Luo Z, D Zhang, SS Renner (2008) Why two kinds of stamens in buzz-pollinated flowers? kinds of stamens in members of the Experimental support for Darwin's division- Melastomataceae was recognised as early of-labour hypothesis. Functional ecology 22 (5): as 1882 by Henry Forbes (Forbes 1882), 794–800. coincidentally the year of Darwin’s death. Wee YC (2014). Melastoma malabathricum and buzz pollination. Posted on Bird Ecology Study Other Melastomataceae, including Group Web Site (Singapore) Dec . native plants in the genera Medinella 5b. Pollen cloud emitted from an anther Westerkamp C (1996). Pollen in Bee-Flower bitten into by the Lasioglossum bee and Osbeckia and exotics including Relations Some Considerations on Melittophily. All images: Roger Farrow Dissotis (Spanish shawl) from Mexico Plant Biology 109(4) 325-332.

Fronds 88 April 2018 7 Eucalyptus dye research at the ANBG

Sally Blake

am a Canberra-based visual artist extraordinary, ranging from soft creams and copper. You may have seen the 2017 who works with natural materials to vivid oranges and reds. The Eucalyp- exhibition of the results, The Colour of and processes, including plants tus Dye Database (sallyblake.com/euca- Eucalyptus in the ANBG Visitor Centre and their dyes. I was originally an lyptus-dyes-1) is a web-based resource artist-in-residence at the ANBG through This year I have received ArtsACT I in which I documented the dye colours funding to undertake further eucalyptus the CraftACT program in 2014. from 230 eucalypt species growing at dye research at the ANBG. The focus In 2016 I was fortunate enough to the ANBG, as well as the recipes I used of the current research will be the 40 undertake an Australia Council-funded to produce the dyes. Each week I col- plus eucalypts that grow naturally in the project at the ANBG which examined lected leaf and bark samples with the ACT. The research will include collecting the bark and leaves of eucalypts for their ANBG rangers which were then used to plant materials for dyes and collecting dye colours. Eucalypts produce dyes dye a range of seven natural fabrics and meaningful, personal stories from which are fairly resistant to fading and threads. The colour range was extended people in the ACT about specific trees the range of colours across the genus is by using three mordants—alum, iron or a species of local eucalypts. During the 2016 research people volunteered many stories about their favourite eucalypts and these stories fascinated me. In the current research I will collate personal stories which examine eucalypts as physical and emotional indicators of place. These stories will inspire a new body of artworks. As well as collating local stories about eucalypts, I will collect leaves and bark from the 40 plus naturally occurring eucalypts in the ACT, whose range extends from the Australian alps to the tablelands, to make dyes to colour Held Mysteries, 2017. Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and hemp, copper wire natural fibres and threads. I will create a record of the dyes, and dye the raw materials from which I will develop art- works for exhibition. The leaf and bark collection will be done at the ANBG which ensures correct identification of each species. Environmental sociologist Frank Vanclay writes, 'place' is generally conceived as being 'space' imbued with meaning. Discovering the meaning that people find in connection to particular eucalypts will be a rich resource for developing work ready for exhibition. It will challenge and open up my practice to work with other people’s meanings and connections to place. As I develop artwork in response to the stories I will use dye colours from the eucalypt particular to the story.

Eucalyptus leaf drawing detail, 2016. Pressed eucalyptus leaves, pencil on paper

8 April 2018 Fronds 88 Working with local eucalypts means I delightful tales of tree-huggers, about the biophysical conditions the trees are can undertake more in-depth research. I spiritual connection to particular trees growing in. A plant's rootedness makes will investigate the effect of place on dye and the use of various eucalypts in art the dyes they produce excellent indicators colours by testing the dyes from the same practice. One story brings attention to of place. I may publish the stories either species, from different locations. I will the deciduous aspect of eucalypts as they in book form or online in 2019 (but only test the effect of seasonal and weather shed their barks each year. with the permission of each contributor conditions on dye colours by collecting and dependent on funding). I am hoping that readers may have stories leaves weekly from the same eucalypt for to contribute to the project. The stories I will use the stories as source material twelve months. can be long, short, poetic, scientific, for a new body of artworks for exhibition Including stories and dyes in this project funny, whimsical, a family anecdote, in 2019. The project will be a meaning- will provide physical data (from the dyes) whatever people want to share. It seems ful way of linking art and science, the and psychological and emotional data to me that eucalypts are important physi- work of the ANBG with art practice. (from the stories) from which to develop cal and emotional place markers for many The collection and recording of the dyes a body of work about place. I already people. The dyes themselves change in will be undertaken following rigorous have received some stories, and have read response to seasonal changes, rainfall and methodologies. The stories will provide another, less predictable element. The tension between order and emergence will provide a fertile ground for new artworks to arise in response. Email: [email protected] Website: www.sallyblake.com Phone: 0410 003 680 I would love to hear from you if you would like to contribute to this project. References: Frank Vanclay, 'Place Matters,' in Making Sense of Place: Exploring Concepts and Expressions of Place through Different Senses and Lenses, eds Frank Vanclay, Matthew Higgins, Adam Black- shaw (Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press, 2008), 3. Dye Diary (eucalypt bark). Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen

Dye Diary (eucalypt leaves), 2016. Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen

Fronds 88 April 2018 9 Friendly Chatter Photographic Group Guides Activities The photographic group provides The new committee has planned an Guides have been busy over summer opportunities for Friends who have an exciting year with a mixture of many showing visitors the wonders of our interest in photography to share their inspiring speakers plus practical hands- Gardens on walks and Flora tours. experience while also extending their on learning opportunities. The photo- December and January are peak times knowledge. Members regularly provide graphic group started the year with a for visitors as shown in the statistics images which can be used for promo- special twilight access to the Gardens collected every day. More than 4000 tional purposes following involvement after official closing. After last year’s visitors joined our tours in 2017. in Gardens events throughout the successful meeting dedicated to hands- Every tour is different as guides are year, such as Summer Sounds and the on macro techniques, the commit- constantly reviewing their knowledge Enlighten Festival or the construction tee is planning a similar hands-on of plants and guiding practice. In 2017, and opening of the new Treehouse. telephoto lens techniques workshop we introduced a new professional to be presented by some of our own development program which encourages bird photographers, followed by a guides to undertake specific activities practical bird photography morning at of their own choice in these two areas Jerrabomberra wetlands the next day. over a year. The first year of a two-year Future events include, on 19 May, a pilot is now complete and guides have full day basic photographic workshop embarked upon year 2. An analysis of open to all members of Friends who the program is underway, and results will wish to take better photos by under- be presented in April. The program is standing the basic operation and endorsed by the ANBG. principles of their camera. This ‘Intro- Many guides developed new walks for duction to Photography Workshop’ is the 2017 biennial Australasian Botanic offered at a cost of $150 and will be a Gardens Volunteer Guides Conference. fund raising exercise for Friends. (see These were a wonderful development 'What's On' p21) opportunity for both the guides who Details of our program are updated regu- developed them and other guides who larly on the Friends website. The Group acted as trial walkers. In 2018 we have Derek Corrigan always welcomes potential speakers and several small research groups looking at Photographic Group member Tim Leach presents Judy West, ANBG Executive new members. Contact us at photo@ particular areas of the Gardens including Director, with a print of his photograph of friendsanbg.org.au the new Pomaderris garden and the area the Macleay Swallowtail Butterfly,Graphium Derek Corrigan around the Paperbark Treehouse. These macleayanum. professional development activities ensure that guides are able to continue to offer the highest standard of tours for visitors. Growing Friends Christianna Cobbold After ending 2017 on a high with a lovely Christmas lunch, our meetings and propagation sessions have started for 2018. Several people have joined Growing Friends recently and we continue to welcome new members. Our meetings, The Growing Friends AUTUMN PLANT followed by morning tea and a propagation session, are held on the first SALE will be held on Saturday 7 April. Saturday morning of each month, usually in the Crosbie Morrison building. A Details of the sale including a list of the working bee is held on the third Tuesday of each month. Please talk to one of available plants will be on the website the Growing Friends today, or telephone John Connolly (0477 257 188) or www.friendsanbg.org.au one week prior Maurice Hermann (0429 361 256) if you’d like to join us. to the sale. We have access to propagation material from the ANBG. You will be Kath Holtzapffel has stepped down as our coordinator although remains an able to buy good quality plants, many active member of the group. Growing Friends thanks Kath for her tireless of which you don’t see in nurseries, at efforts in this role over many years. John Connolly and Maurice Hermann fantastic prices. And even better, the are our new co-coordinators. Lastly, a special mention of thanks to Yvonne money raised from the sale goes to Robinson for her contributions to Fronds on behalf of the Growing Friends. support the ANBG. Wendy Merritt

10 April 2018 Fronds 88 Botanic Art Groups The Friends Botanic Art Groups are of cards will be for sale and there will be a raffle of a beautiful painting,Grevillea proud to present our annual exhibition 'Burgundy Beauty' by Cornelia Buchen-Osmond. open until 15 April at the Visitor Centre All artwork is for sale. So bring your family and friends to the exhibition. Entry is free gallery. This year we have over 90 entries. and all commissions go to support the work of the Friends. Although each artist can submit one work of their choice, all other entries must be Kate Ramsey judged by a team of botanists from the Gardens to ensure botanical accuracy, as well as two artists who judge artistic merit. This year the judges, Halina Steele and Helen Fitzgerald, commented on the high standard of work which was presented. Many artists have chosen to work in watercolour again this year, but some have chosen to use graphite, coloured pencil and black scraperboard. This year there was a special theme of Threatened and Endangered Species and some artists chose to paint or draw one of these plants as a subject. All work in the exhibition features native plants. A member from one of the three Botanic Art Groups is available during the exhibition to answer questions about the work and to provide information about how to join one of the art groups, each of which meets once a month at the Gardens. This year we have asked artists to present some of their work in a matted format which means that works are less costly Qualup Bell, physodes by artist Susan Botanic Art Raffle Prize: Grevillea 'Burgundy and are easier to transport. A number Spiller, watercolour. Beauty' by artist Cornelia Büchen-Osmond, watercolour. Plant Science Group The Plant Science Group meets for highlighting how to keep track of post-Gondwanan world by migrating technical talks on the first Monday embedded information which forms the across oceans and diversifying into new morning of the month (public holidays backbone of biodiversity data. After the environments, especially the fiery, arid excepted). Where speakers permit, we presentation, Anne co-hosted a Q&A Australian interior. file talks on one of the computers in session with Anna Monro, ANBG’s Our Plant Science Group subcommittee the Botanical Resource Centre for open Manager, Botanical Information Group for 2018 comprises Anne Campbell access (viz: The right hand side computer and Web. (Convenor), Maureen Connolly, Murray as one faces the window). In the second talk, 'Callitris: a chronicle Fagg, and Lesley Harland. Murray The first talk for 2018 in February of extinction, survival, dispersal and Fagg continues to arrange the speaking highlighted the increasing complexity of rediversification', Emeritus Professor program, for which we are most grateful. and data storage. Anne Fuchs, Mike Crisp of the Research School For further information or to be put on Manager of the ANBG's Integrated of Biology, ANU discussed the rich the emailing list, email: plantscience@ Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) and ancient fossil record of Callitroid friendsanbg.org.au or see the Friends spoke on 'Maintaining databases for conifers going back 140 Myr to Website under Activities. Names, Nomenclature and Taxonomy' Pangaea, including adaptation to the Anne Campbell

Fronds 88 April 2018 11 An ANBG role in high altitude tropical plant conservation Toby Golson

p on the Atherton Tableland Over almost 10 years I pestered Matt generously agreed to open their extensive in north Queensland, with a plan to visit the Atherton Arbore- private rainforest collection to us. Also at the CSIRO’s Tropical tum (AA) and also a number of experi- we were to pursue opportunistic collect- Forest Research Centre, mental high altitude rainforest plots in ing of material suitable for display in the Uthere is an extensive arboretum of over the area that CSIRO had established planned Ian Potter conservatory. 800 Australian rainforest taxa. It was as permanent monitoring sites in the Following a Sunday of travel to Atherton established by botanists Geoff Stocker 1970s. Finally, in early 2017, the Friends I, with colleagues Caroline Chong from and Bernie Hyland to serve primarily Public Fund agreed to cover half the the seed bank and Sally Hawkins from as a living collection for material for project costs to send three ANBG staff the nursery, set off at dawn on Monday a comprehensive illustrated key of all ...to secure EPBC listed and climate 9 October heading north through known woody indigenous tropical change threatened high altitude rainfor- Mareeba. We were aiming for the fabled rainforest species. Like the ANBG, est taxa currently unrepresented in our Mt Lewis Forestry Road which traverses the vast majority of this collection is collection, to assist in their long term the coastal range west of Mossman for linked to herbarium vouchers, and at conservation, thereby 'spreading the risk' 30 km, most of this length at over 1000 the minimum, to extensive provenance in securing genetic material in ex-situ metres altitude. Growing on ancient records. The curator of the arboretum, holdings as well as for horticultural and granite, the flora here is some of the Matt Bradford, emphasised it was open educational display. richest and evolutionarily oldest in the to public benefit and kindly agreed to In addition to working with Matt, noted continent. Often cloud shrouded, we send seed to us when available. North Queensland amateur botanist were fortunate to be enjoying the very This transfer of material is crucial to couple, Garry and Nada Sankowsky, end of the dry season and (sadly!) missed developing the ANBG Rainforest the anticipated mass of leeches and miles Gully (RFG) collection since the high of mud and rivers of perspiration. altitude flora of the Wet Tropics is not Twenty-eight km along the road, we only generally suited to cultivation in reached the CSIRO plots; each one of Canberra but many of its component these has been fully floristically docu- species are threatened by the effects of mented and all of the large trees marked climate change in their wild populations. and plotted. With Matt’s intimate Hence they are prime candidates knowledge, finding target trees was for ex-situ conservation. Difficulties relatively straight forward, especially in with obtaining collecting permits this unlogged ‘clean’ rainforest which in Queensland and general resource was easy to negotiate on foot. Obtaining constraints, precluding field collection good cutting material from 20-40 metre activities, also underlined the value and trees, almost all without low hanging efficiency of this collaboration. lateral branches, was a challenge met by pulling small branches down with rope shot from a custom made bow Matt usually used for obtaining fertile speci- mens for herbarium vouchers. Back out on the road, the Sankowskys led some gentler roadside collecting necessitated by Garry having recently undergone major back surgery. With good company and an unlimited supply of suitable material to collect, the day flew and we arrived back in Atherton tired but buoyant that evening. On Tuesday Matt took us to a second plot at a height of 1120 metres on Sally at Atherton Arboretum in front of a One way to take cuttings! At Mt Lewis Mt Haig, on the north shore of Lake magnificent Native Gardenia,Atractocarpus Forestry Hut with the ATH crew. fitzalanii, a potential conservatory planting. 12 April 2018 Fronds 88 Tinaroo, in rainforest dominated by The morning drive out east to the site collections made over the day, another the magnificent emergent conifer gave us magnificent views of the Lamb eight were priority listed. Blue Kauri, Agathis atropurpurea. You Range and further south Queensland’s Thursday gave us another opportunity can see two 3-4 metre saplings of this highest peak, Mt Bartle Frere. Over the to sample Mt Lewis Forestry Road, conifer in section140 of the RFG. course of the day, we made another 11 this time in the company of Darren collections from our priority list to add Crayn, Director of the Australian to the 14 from Mt Lewis, as well as a Tropical Herbarium, and his colleagues swag of supplementary material for both from James Cook University (JCU), the RFG and conservatory. Stuart Worboys and Alex Chessman. On Wednesday we had the great privilege Once again we were blessed with good and pleasure of being guided around company, good weather and, most and collecting from the Sankowsky’s two importantly, botanical expertise allied to hectare garden near Tolga. Around 2500 specific local knowledge. We traversed species have been planted here over the the length of the road and armed with last 35 years with Garry curating the an extension pole high pruner made The fernery at the Sankowsky's woody species and Nada specialising in a series of collections, including the the cultivation of ferns, expertise she stunning Triunia montana which was happily shared with us over a busy anec- in full flower. From the old forestry hut dote-filled day, interrupted only briefly which marks the end of the drivable part by a feast of home-made scones and tea. of the road a short path leads through One of the highlights here was trowelling granite boulders and delicate Linospadix out root suckers of the well-known bush apetiolata palms, under a windswept low tucker tree Backhousia citriodora originat- canopy of Leptospermum wooroonooran, ing from material collected at the species’ to an extensive outcrop looking south northernmost population not far away back towards Mareeba. This was a perfect Polyscias wilmottii beginning to flower at the at Silver Valley near Ravenshoe. Though lunch spot with masses of Rhododendron Rhodendron site Mt Lewis Forestry Rd extensively planted in our Gardens, this viriosum and Agapetes meiniana trailing is our first collection of documented wild out from pockets of humus over the rocks origin material. Among more than 30 amidst shrubby forms of Alyxia orophila,

Harpullia rhyticarpa fruit

Triunia montana was in full flower along the Leptospermum wooroonooran canopy at Rhododendron site Alyxia orophila in foreground. side of Mt Lewis Forestry Rd

Fronds 88 April 2018 13 An ANBG role in high altitude tropical plant conservation (contd.)

Acrothamnus spathaceus and Polyscias but this is our first chance to propagate living collection. Of the 75 remaining, wilmottii, all of which are growing wild provenance material. We spent the 56 were identified as growing in the Mt happily at the ANBG. We returned evening filling out field books, pressing Lewis and Haig areas we visited, at the home that night with another seven specimens and packing our eight excess AA or at the Sankowsky’s. We secured priority collections to process and pack luggage pieces. propagation material from 45 of these away in ice boxes for the journey home. species and, in a small number of cases, A midday flight from Cairns on the obtained seed as well as cuttings. In Friday was designated for collecting Saturday meant a leisurely early morning addition, again for a small number of from AA. While perhaps not as exciting drive across the coastal range past species, we secured material from two as the rainforest proper, the diversity Kuranda and a quick half hour at Cairns provenances. That we were able to do so of this collection and the well-ordered Botanic Gardens to visit their conserva- is almost completely due to the generous stocktake map provided by Matt, tory. We arrived safely back in Canberra assistance provided in particular by Matt meant there was no shortage of plants and, with a quick detour to the nursery as well as the Sankowskys and Darren to admire and cuttings to be taken. We to transfer cuttings to fridges for process- and the JCU crew. made over 30 collections including five ing on Monday morning, returned to priority species before farewelling and the comfort of our own beds. I would like to thank the Friends, whose thanking Matt. A favourite here is the crucial funding enabled the trip to From a search of herbarium records and Fern Leaved Stenocarpus, Stenocarpus proceed, and my companions Caroline relevant literature, there are approxi- davallioides, which is well-known in the and Sally for their hard work and perse- mately 90 woody taxa that grow above nursery trade for its beautiful juvenile verance. I look forward to monitoring 1400 metres in far north Queensland of foliage. Three four metre specimens are progress of the large amount of material which 15 are currently cultivated in our growing in section 159 in the RFG, now safely secured in our nursery and to planting it out and growing it on. I also look forward to future opportunities to take Friends groups around the RFG to observe the anticipated plantings and share a little more intimately the stories of their acquisition. (Join Toby on a walk in the ANBG Rainforest Gully to see and hear about the new plantings from material collected on his field trip in 2014. Details p22)

Zieria alata at the Rhododendron site Toby at lunch at the Sankowsky's All photos: Charoline Chong

Loss of Big Badja Gum leads to new opportunities If you have visited the Gardens recently, home to a group of large Macrozamia David Taylor, Curator, Living Col- you will have noticed the loss of the tall, moorei, and many other plants which lections, tells us that a new landscape old Eucalypt badjensis which towered appreciated the protection from sun and plan is being developed by the Living over the top car park near the bus shelter frost. Sadly, it had to be removed after Collections team for the area which (Section 174). its top fell on the garden and path below, stretches along the main path, up to the A native of south eastern NSW, the crushing many of the other plants. Visitor Centre. The garden will become a showcase featuring some colourful E.badjensis is a threatened species, occur- The positive result of the demise of the and eye catching plants such as multiple ring only in wet forest areas. Although tree, however, has been the decision to flowering Corymbia cultivars, spectacular there is a small number of other speci- re-design the garden to create an even Kangaroo Paws, and other ‘best of’ selec- mens in the Gardens, this one was a rare more special and spectacular entrance tions, with the aim to introduce visitors beauty and was also special in being so to the Gardens as visitors enter from to a sample of the amazing array of accessible. The tree provided an effec- the car park. tive shade canopy for the garden below, native flora to be found as they venture further into the Gardens.

14 April 2018 Fronds 88 What’s new in the ANBG Image Collections?

Over the last year the Australian Plant Image Index (APII) has had a significant boost to its Western Australian coverage with a donation of over 2000 photo- graphs by Kevin Thiele. Originally from Victoria, Kevin has had a long association with the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra since first being employed there in 1985 and later as a Post-doctoral Fellow from 1993- 95. He has also had a long association with APII, first donating photos in 1995. After undertaking a range of botanical projects he was appointed Curator of Baeckea sp. Yuna (M.E.Trudgen 2224) WA Amphipogon turbinatus the Western Australian Herbarium from Herbarium. An example of an unnamed www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/phtml?photo_ 2006 until 2015. species in APII class=dig&photo_no=47494 www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/phtml?photo_ This period in Western Australia is the class=dig&photo_no=47699 source of his latest donation. Kevin’s photos have a distinctive style, taken in a mini-mobile-studio against a black back- ground he uses long exposures and a very small aperture to obtain an impressive depth-of-field. He also hones in on the flower itself to reveal its detailed structure. This donation helps to fill a gap in our collection of plants from Western Aus- tralia’s rich flora. It includes 1587 species, many still to be formally described and named, but all linked to herbarium voucher specimens. Stylidium dichotomum Marianthus tenuis. An example of a species Murray Fagg www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/phtml?photo_ new to APII class=dig&photo_no=46179 www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/phtml?photo_ class=dig&photo_no=45443 Kevin Thiele’s recent donation of WA photos to APII can be viewed here: www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/photo?FORMAT=TABLE&010=dig&BY%23020=1&280=Thiele%25 Collection Chris Manchester, Australian National Insect Australian National Correction & apology:

© This image (on page 6 of Fronds December 2017) of the cockroach found on the Namadgi/Kosciuszko National Parks Bush Blitz was incorrectly named

M Fagg APII M Fagg Heteroptera. It is in fact an Alpine/ Barbara Podger Mountain Cockroach species Polyzosteria Eucayptus badjensis: Other good specimens of E badjensis can be found in Section 18 (next viridissima specimen. to main path leading to lower Eucalypt lawn), Section 300 (next to top Eucalypt lawn) and Section 196, next to the CSIRO Herbarium gate (on the way to the nursery) See article p14.

Fronds 88 April 2018 15 Gardens Shorts

Executive Director’s Report example of our successful collabora- surfaces to harvest water and the care- As usual it is never a dull moment tion. We have extended the Paperbark fully designed and placed plantings has around here at the Gardens as we Garden experience for visitors even been nothing short of dramatic. continue to develop our public more with a winding, interactive 'The goal was to renovate the area programs and the Gardens. educational trail perfect for families and create an engaging garden that is I am pleased to report that the of all ages with funding from the IMB readily accessible, visually appealing various activities in the Gardens over Community Foundation. and well-defined.' Rosella said. 'The the 2017-18 summer months drew There has been a bit of shuffling of design aims to highlight significant record visitor numbers. Attendance staff over the past months within species with potential to develop a for the two weekends of the 2018 Parks Australia and the Gardens. strong narrative about the important Summer Sounds was well above Sally Barnes has left her position as aspects of this plant group.' average compared with previous Director of National Parks. In the One way Rosella is engaging people years. The success of the concerts is interim, I have the privilege to take with this lesser known group of a reflection of the great partnership on the role of Acting Director of Australian flora is displaying plants in between the Friends and the Gardens National Parks while still maintain- a way to inspire people to use them in organising these events, along ing my role as Executive Director of in their gardens. Rosella has taken with the support of ICON Water. the Gardens. Our General Manager, this to a new level with a multi- Snakes Alive! also reached record Peter Byron, is acting as Branch Head species hedge-screen planting now numbers thanks to great weather of the Corporate Services Branch of running down the entire eastern and publicity. We were happy to Parks Australia. Lastly, Stephen Speer edge of the garden that she will guide welcome Sunset Cinema back to the has retired as Manager of the Visitor gracefully to maturity with careful Gardens for another season of films Experience team. pruning. Many of the rare species have on the Eucalypt Lawn. been located in prominent locations Rethinking Pomaderris The Paperbark Treehouse is proving next to paths to highlight their signifi- to be another huge success in the With a great sense of anticipation cance and provide the Guides and Gardens. Since its opening, kids and the first plants in the new Pomaderris Friends good access for story-telling. families have been flocking to explore Garden have been planted under The next stage will include additional the treehouse and landscaping the watchful and discerning eye species and an interpretive element funded by the tremendous efforts of of Gardens’ horticulturalist and focussing on the conservation part- the Friends. This achievement would custodian Rosella Hampshire. nerships the Gardens is involved in not have been possible without the The transition from a wild, largely for threatened Pomaderris species Friends’ support, and is another inaccessible Pomaderris planting to a and what is special about this group transformed space with new access of plants. paths running through it, sculptured M Fagg , APII © Bill Hall At the opening of Paperbark Treehouse Pomaderris intermedia & mixed planting of P. lanigera & P. intermedia, Coombs Building, ANU

16 April 2018 Fronds 88 From thicket to Paperbark wonderland paperbarks into a significant habitat reminiscent of many wild areas found Kids are coming to explore the Paper- across Australia where there is water bark Treehouse and surrounding land- and Melaleuca. The main Paperbark scaping funded by the Friends of the species is M. ericifolia originating from Gardens and opened late last year. Tasmania — the Henty River catch- Now, thanks to a generous donation ment, 19.2 km from Strahan. of $20,000 from the IMB Community New and planned plantings using Foundation, the Gardens have Tasmanian species will strengthen extended the Paperbark Garden the Tasmanian connection. Species experience for kids, with a winding, on the list include ferns such as interactive Who Did That? educational Blechnum penna-marina and Dicksonia trail perfect for families of all ages. antarctica. Muehlenbeckia gunnii, will The trail, nestled in the forest canopy be planted to climb its way up and of the Paperback Garden, is a fun way through the treehouse. for kids to learn all about the exciting plants and of Australia’s The intention of the design is to Melaleuca forests. enhance the link between the plants and the natural landscape. Careful Together, the Paperbark Treehouse placement of rocks and creek align- and Who Did That? children’s trail ment connects the sections above the have transformed the previously treehouse down through the lawn impenetrable stand of Melaleuca trees below. The lawn is made up of Zoysia into a wonderland. spp, the first use of Australian turf in The plantings themselves have evolved the Gardens. over time from a single stand of Jim Gould At the opening of Paperbark Treehouse

Always welcomes Friends! with a 10% discount on purchases over $10, including the purchase of gift vouchers, on production of the customer's membership card for the person whose name is on this card. No discount on redemption of gift vouchers.

photo supplied by the Department of the Environment supplied by the Department photo www.botanicalbookshop.com.au Assistant Minister for the Environment, the Hon Melissa Price MP, opened the Who Did That? Children’s Trail and explores the trail with children

Fronds 88 April 2018 17 Gardens Shorts

New librarian promotes below the Grassy Woodland Garden the ACT and NSW – and included a botanical resources and the crossing are being replaced representative from the Gardens. to allow better access for prams, At the end of last year, Jane Black Trainees participated in training wheelchairs and pedestrians. commenced as our new Librarian sessions and workshops, attended and Archivist in the Library at the botany lectures and ventured into Gardens. Since her arrival, Jane has the field with staff from the ANH. been out and about meeting with They achieved a huge amount of the various Friends groups including work ranging from the basic but vital the Botanic Art Group, Photographic tasks of putting specimens away in Group and the Guides to ensure the collection and checking lists of that all are aware of the wonderful incoming and outgoing material in array of library resources which are Loans and Exchange to checking and available for their use. All Friends correcting errors for the specimen are reminded that they are welcome imaging project, assisting with a to join the Library which is open slide donation to the Australian Plant

Barbara Podger Image Index and updating specimen Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm. Grassy Woodland walkway upgrade For further details or to search the names in line with recently published Botanical interns 2018 Library catalogue please visit www. taxonomic revisions. They also found anbg.gov.au/gardens/research/library/ For seven weeks the annual Volunteer and extracted hundreds of voucher index.html Botanical Training Program welcomed specimens for the seeds recently 10 participants to the Australian imaged by the Gardens’ National Seed National Herbarium (ANH) and Bank. These have been imaged and ANBG at the beginning of the will eventually be available alongside year. Trainees this year came from the seed images to the general public. across the country – WA, SA, Vic, Photo supplied by Jane Black Photo Jane Black, ANBG Librarian What’s happening in the Grassy Woodland Garden? The Grassy Woodland Garden is getting some loving attention to provide better access and refresh the timber boardwalk. The boardwalk is being replaced and upgraded with fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) decking to match existing Bronwyn Collins installations throughout the Gardens Rosella Hampshire with the 2018 Botanical Interns group and so the section can remain open The Friends have supported the Volunteer Botanical Training Program for many during frosty periods. A central metal years. The support from the Friends includes, among other benefits, a year’s rail will strengthen the boardwalk to complimentary membership of the Friends, a copy of the latest Fronds and a $100 the specification for the FRP decking. gift voucher to be spent at the Botanical Bookshop. These gifts were presented to In addition, the concrete gutter each trainee at their graduation ceremony on the 16 February 2018 on behalf of the Friends, by the treasurer, Helen Elliot. 18 April 2018 Fronds 88 Friends Briefs

Gardens of the high country at Nimmitabel In October a bus load of Guides granite soils are heavily leached and conference delegates headed down infertile, with occasional more fertile the Monaro Highway to Nimmitabel. patches of ancient basaltic bedrock. Nimmitabel is more than a stop on the Against this harsh background our hosts way to the coast with some interesting had developed truly beautiful gardens. buildings such as the historic The Monaro is a haven for many Geldmacher Mill and the 1863 Police hardy exotic and native shrubs, trees, Lock-up. However our goal was to visit and perennials. However oaks, elms, three ‘secret’ farm gardens, courtesy lindens, conifers, snow gums, viminalis, of the Nimmitabel and District Garden osmanthus, spiraea, roses, peonies, Club (NDGC). aquilegias and viburnums thrive in the The sparsely populated Monaro plains challenging conditions, as do hardy sit 1000 metres above sea level with grey-leaved ground covers. a low rainfall and cold winters. The Alison Turner For your own Monaro Plains garden experience, the NDGC will run their fundraising 'Autumn on Monaro' open gardens and plant fair on April 21 and 22 at 10am- 4pm. Enquires to Pat Nichols on 6454 6351. email [email protected]

Bookings preferred. Trish Munro

Summer Sounds Success The four-concert series of Summer Sounds enjoyed balmy weather and good crowds on the last weekend of January and the first weekend of February. Concerts featured excellent jazz music, fun dance lessons, dramatic drumming, a taste of Shakespeare, as well as delicious food, drinks and icecream. The Friends were major contributors to the cost of presenting the concerts. Steve Rogers Our thanks to our wonderful volunteers Helen Dawes who assisted with the collection of entry fees, welcoming visitors, directing parking, and driving the assistance vehicles, as well as staffing the Information Tent. We also thank ICON Water for again sponsoring the concerts this year. Chris Rogers Brian Moir

Fronds 88 April 2018 19 Rocky Outcrops in Australia – Ecology, Conservation and Management 2018, Damian Michael and David Lindenmayer, Soft cover, 176 pages, Practical Latin for Gardeners Colour photographs, $49.95 2017, James Armitage, Soft cover, 160 Rocky Outcrops! Apart from being pages, Colour illustrations, $25.00 great fun to explore whilst out bushwalking, this book brings to life Aculeatus, capillipes, trigonophyllus, the amazing biodiversity values in umbellatus, tasmanicus, muralis, and around these natural features: glaucus, distortus…. 'Pardon?' you they support specialised plants may say… Well, these potential and animals, and a wide variety of tongue twisters are just a few of endemic species. To Indigenous the 1500 Latin names contained in Australians, they are sacred places this gorgeous book that will guide and provide valuable resources. gardeners through the sometimes Despite their ecological and cultural confusing world of plant names. importance, many rocky outcrops Practical Latin for Gardeners is a and associated biota are threatened beautifully presented book, packed by agricultural and recreational with colour illustrations and a useful activities, forestry and mining introductory guide to naming plants. operations, invasive weeds, altered This book includes both definitions fire regimes and climate change. and pronunciations for each word, Authors Damian Michael and as well as a 15 page index, so that it David Lindenmayer look at the can still be used as a conventional importance of rocky outcrops and dictionary of Latin names. The book why this habitat is important to has been divided up into chapters that improve biodiversity conservation in relate the Latin words to different agricultural landscapes, state forests categories including colours, flowers, and protected areas. Illustrated with shape, size, animals, places, and people. stunning colour photographs, this Oh, by the way the definitions are… book will provide a great reference ‘prickly, with slender feet, with triangular for landholders, natural resource leaves, with umbels, connected with managers, Landcare groups and Tasmania, growing on walls, with a naturalists interested in Australian bloom on the leaves and misshapen’. wildlife and these fascinating Did you guess any correctly? landscape features.

Paintings of Australian flora in worldwide synchronised exhibition The first worldwide synchronised exhibition held by the botanical art societies of the world will be held on 18 May 2018 with events held for 24 hours, following the sun from venue to venue. The Botanical Art Society of Australia is organising the Australian exhibition, to be held in Canberra. An exhibition of 140 botanical paintings of Australian plant species, including art works from members of the ANBG Botanic Art Groups, will open at the Ainslie Arts Centre (30 Elouera Street, Braddon) on 18 May. It runs from 10.00am to 4.00pm daily until 27 May. Further information: www.botanicalartsocietyaustralia.com www.botanicalartworldwide.info

Sue Stuart - Richea dracophylla 20 April 2018 Fronds 88 What’s on at the Gardens April — August 2018

Details of events are correct at the time of printing. For changes and updates please check the Friends’ website at www.friendsanbg.org.au or the Gardens’ site at: www.anbg.gov.au The Friends of the ANBG thank the many speakers who volunteer their time and talents to further the knowledge of all who attend the events in the Gardens. The Friends use the ‘gold’ coin donations received at each activity to support Gardens’ programs and development. The Friends thank all those who have donated. Please note: unless otherwise indicated, talks are in the ANBG Theatrette. Some summaries or PowerPoint presentations of Thursday talks are available to Friends from the ANBG library. A donation to the Friends for the use of this material will be gratefully accepted.

Bush Magic Story Time for Pre- Growing Friends, Autumn Plant Indigenous Plant Use Walk – schoolers Sale Canberra and Region Heritage First Friday of month, 10 — 11 am; $5 per Saturday 7th April 8.30 — 11 am Festival event child; follow the signs from the Café Small carpark adjacent to the Crosbie Wednesday 18 April 10.00 am — 11.00 am, bridge Morrison Building. Saturday 21 April 10.00 am — 11.00 am Come along and enjoy the Gardens with A wide range of plants is available (over and 11.30 am — 12.30 pm. Free. specially themed stories and crafts. 90 different species), with compact Join a Ranger and enjoy an easy walk types, ground covers, small shrubs, along our Aboriginal Plant Use Trail. Free Guided Walks large shrubs and trees. Details of the Bookings essential: ANBG website Daily at 11.00 am and 2.00 pm sale including a list of the available plants will be on the Friends website The Earth Festival Meet a volunteer guide at the Visitor one week prior to the sale. We have Saturday 21 April and Sunday 22 April Centre for a free one-hour tour of the access to propagation material from 10.00 am — 4.00 pm Gardens. the ANBG. You will be able to buy good A Canberra Vegan Festival; an quality plants, many of which you don’t educational event based on Flora Explorer tours see in nurseries, at fantastic prices. Even environmental sustainability to raise better, the money raised from the sale Weekends & public holidays, 10.30 am awareness about everyday choices and goes to support the ANBG. & 1.30 pm. Purchase tickets from the how they impact the environment. bookshop. Tours cost $8 for adults Food, workshops and speakers. Cost and $5 for children and concessions. Jan Vincent Watercolour applies. www.theearthfestival.org Children under 3 travel free. Workshop Forty-five minutes of discovery around Saturday 7 April 9.30 am — 3.00 pm Canberra Tree Week Symposium the Gardens Crosbie Morrison Building Saturday 5 May and Sunday 6 May Cost $120 per person Canberra Tree Week 2018 – ACT Tree Weeding Black Mountain Join renowned artist Jan Vincent to Climbing Competition. (see ANBG Removing Woody Weeds from Black discover how to capture the Gardens’ website for details) Mountain and ANBG Annexes beautiful flora and fauna through Introductory Photography Check Friends website for meeting place watercolour. of each weeding work party. Jan has exhibited watercolours for Workshop Saturday 19 May 9.00 am — 4.00 pm; Please email your name and phone more than 40 years. An experienced number to friendsofblackmountain@ and inspirational teacher, she will share $150; Crosbie Morrison building gmail.com or phone Linda (0437 298 her love and respect for nature and A new all-day Photographic Workshop 711) or Libby (02 6296 1936) so there is its intrinsic beauty from tall trees to to be held for all Friends of the ANBG. enough delicious morning tea. flowers to tiny ferns. If you want to understand your digital Saturday 7 April: 9:00 am — 12:00 noon The class is for people over 16 years of camera settings and improve your age and caters for beginners as well as photography techniques then this Saturday 5 May: 9:00 am — 12:00 noon people with watercolour experience. may well be for you. The workshop Saturday 2 June: 9:00 am — 12:00 noon For more information or to enrol, please will be run by the Friends of the ANBG Saturday 7 July: 9:00 am — 12:00 noon contact Jan directly: Photographic Group. Phone: 02 6278 5921 The full day course will be conducted in two sessions both theory and practical. Email: [email protected] Places strictly limited. Contact photo@ Website: www.janvincent.net friendsanbg.org.au Book via Friends ANBG website.

Fronds 88 April 2018 21 What's on (contd.)

Rainforest Drawing Workshops Exhibitions Saturday 12 May and Sunday 13 May Visitor Centre Gallery, Open Daily 9.30 am – 4.30 pm, FREE Banks Building Cost $220 per person | $187 Friends/ concession/group.Join contemporary Botanic Art Exhibition – Threatened and Endangered artist Genevieve Swifte under the Species. Until 15 April rainforest canopy in this immersive landscape course. An exhibition of botanical art representing Australian flora by the Friends of the Gardens Botanic Art Groups. Features representations of threatened Contact: [email protected] and endangered species. BGANZ Botanic Gardens Day Awakening to Beauty 19 April to 18 May. Sunday 27 May. A collection of photos by Tina Hollis to awaken people to the beauty of Times to be confirmed: see ANBG Australian flora, birds and scenery. website Botanical Inspirations 24 May to 16 June Walk in the Rainforest with Paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolour inspired by the plants in the Toby Golson Gardens and showing the light and colour from the perspective of professional artist and teacher from the local region, Margaret Hadfield. 7 June or 21 June at 10 am Join Toby on a walk in the Rainforest to Uniquely Australian 19 Jun-2 July see and hear about the new plantings Enjoy the beauty and diversity of Australian native flora as portrayed by from material collected on his field trip in 2014. This trip and one in November porcelain artists from the ACT Porcelain Artists Association. 2017 were supported by the Friends NAIDOC exhibition 5 July – 29 July and Toby is keen to share the results. Numbers are limited, and bookings can An exhibition to the theme ‘Because of her we can’ be made via the Friends website under Calendar. Resonance 1 August– 8 September An exhibition of watercolour paintings and drawings by the Painting with Parkinsons group, an Art Therapy Program working with those who have Parkinsons disease and their carers.

Jindii Eco Spa’s Sunday Sessions Jindii’s community wellness and education initiative allows people to come and connect with one another and learn new things. Monies raised support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Information and tickets on 'Events’ at www.jindii.com.au

Living Mindfully Series Join us at Jindii Eco Spa with Mindfulness teacher, Jacqui Shannon, who will guide you through different mindfulness practices and their application to different life challenges. More information & tickets on ‘Events’ at www.jindii.com.au P Rooney 'Alarm calls and eavesdropping in wild bird populations’ Thursday Talks, 31 May

22 April 2018 Fronds 88 Thursday Talks: April — August 2018 Lunchtime talks are held at 12.30 pm every Thursday from February to November in the Gardens’ Theatrette. Talks last for 1 hour. Admission is by gold coin donation. There is no need to book but please note, that for safety reasons the ANBG Theatrette seating is strictly limited to 90 people. So, do come early for a seat at a Thursday Talk. Please direct queries about Thursday Talks to Doug Laing, email [email protected] April Thursday 5 April 12.30 pm Thursday 10 May 12.30 pm Thursday 31 May 12.30 pm Lynne Bean ‘What is to be found in the Dr Brian Cooke ‘Effects of pastoralism Professor Robert Magrath ‘Alarm Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed?’ and rabbits on the economy and calls and eavesdropping in wild bird Lynne will talk on the fossil fish and plants culture of the Diyari People in north- populations’ from the Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed, NSW, east South Australia’ Robert, from the ANU, will discuss how which date from the Upper Jurassic, she Brian, a retired CSIRO scientist, considers many birds give alarm calls to warn will also briefly mention insects. how European rabbits damaged not only members of their own species about Thursday 12 April 12.30 pm agriculture and the environment but danger, but other species often listen in might have also destroyed the economy on these calls. The talk will provide an Dr Rosemary Purdie 'Immersed in the and culture of Aboriginal people so overview of work focusing on common Larapinta' (repeat) closely associated with the plants and birds living in the Botanic Gardens. Rosemary will talk about her Larapinta Trail animals that sustained them. Information walk – end to end - in July 2017, and the from explorers’ journals and Lutheran June plants and stunning landscape en route. missionaries in north-eastern South Thursday 19 April 12.30 pm Australia provide new insights. Thursday 7 June 12.30 pm Dr Leo Joseph ‘News from the Front: Dr Ann Moyal ‘Robert Brown in An update on bird research at the Australia’ Australian National Wildlife Collection Ann is a historian of Australian (ANWC) and around the world’ science and will talk on Robert Brown This talk will be about thorny taxonomic who spent nearly four years in ‘New problems in our birds, such as the Holland’ from 1801-04. He gathered an Chestnut Quail-thrush, White-eared immense collection of plants that laid Honeyeater, and natural selection starring the foundation of Australian botanical the Eastern Yellow Robin. knowledge, and revitalised botanical science internationally. Thursday 17 May 12.30 pm Thursday 26 April 12.30 pm Dr Lizzie Wandrag ‘The impact of bird Thursday 14 June 12.30 pm Dr John Bradshaw ‘Rocks, climate loss on tropical forests: a case study Max Bourke ‘Kipos or paradeisos?’ change and trees’ from Guam’ Max, an agricultural scientist and John will assemble an eclectic mix of his Lizzie, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the inveterate volunteer, will illustrate how recent adventures, including working University of Canberra, will illustrate dry gardens of Greek Islands have given us on technical climate change solutions in how the introduction of the brown tree a legacy of valuable foods but also some his profession as a geologist, mixed with snake has wiped out the entire avifauna invasive species. This talk is based on a his passion for the natural environment, of the Pacific island of Guam. The talk two week visit to well and lesser known native plants and trees. will explore what this means for forests islands. on the island, and will compare what is Thursday 21 June 12.30 pm May happening on Guam with adjacent islands. Thursday 3 May 12.30 pm Dr Ceridwen (Crid) Fraser ‘Dispersal Thursday 24 May 12.30 pm and disturbance shape global patterns Associate Professor Mark Lintermans Jason Mundy ‘Australian Marine Parks: of biodiversity’ ‘Stairway to heaven or highway to hell: The world’s largest representative the road for threatened freshwater fish Crid, a biologist/phylogeographer at network’ the ANU will give an overview of how recovery in Australia’ Jason, Assistant Secretary of the Marine dispersal and disturbance interact to The focus will be on the Murrumbidgee Protected Areas Branch of Parks Australia, structure spatial patterns of biodiversity & Cotter catchments and the suite of will focus on recent developments in the and will focus on research on diverse threatened fish species that live there creation of new management plans for 44 Southern Hemisphere systems including including Macquarie perch, trout cod, two marine parks around Australia and steps shallow water marine communities in the spined blackfish and Murray River crayfish. to implement them. sub-Antarctic.

Fronds 88 April 2018 23 Thursday 28 June 12.30 pm August Honorary Professor Penny Olsen Thursday 2 August 12.30 pm Friends Benefits ‘Indigenous Australians early Nerilie Abram ‘Australia’s changing contributions to zoology’ As a Friend you are entitled to: climate from the perspective of the It is well known that indigenous Three issues of Fronds a year past millennium’ Australians often acted as guides to Three hour free parking pass European expeditions. But they also Nerilie, a Future Fellow at the ANU, will Discount at: discuss ways in which evidence can be played a vital role in the scientific Botanical Bookshop (most items) unlocked from natural archives, such as discovery and description of the Pollen corals and ice cores, to understand how continent’s unusual flora and fauna and Jindii Eco Spa different climate factors that impact understanding of its biology and ecology. Cool Country Natives in Pialligo Australian rainfall have evolved and Australian Choice, Canb. Centre interacted over the past millennium. July You also get: Thursday 5 July 12.30 pm Thursday 9 August 12.30 pm Advance details of lectures Advance bookings for some events Brett McNamara ‘The art of Dr Don Fletcher ‘Goannas in the ACT’ Discounts on some events community engagement in our parks’ Since retiring from various roles as a land ANBG library membership – manager with the ACT Government, Don Brett, Manager of Namadgi National borrow books, serials, videos, has investigated the ACT’s two goanna Park, looks at more than ten years of DVDs plus use of computers and species. This talk will reveal what a artist and craft practitioners immersing interactive CD ROMs themselves in the heart of the Park research team funded and run by local Function facilities – special rates and drawing inspiration from their volunteers, with in-kind support from the for functions at ANBG surroundings. ACT Government, has been attempting to learn about the goannas of Namadgi And opportunities to: Thursday 12 July 12.30 pm National Park. Join Botanical Art Groups Dr Linda Broome ‘Relationships Growing Friends Thursday 16 August 12.30 pm between the endangered Mountain Photographic Group Pygmy-possum, snow, moths and Professor Emeritus Patrick de Deckker Plant Science Group changing climate’ ‘Implications for your health, that of Assist with Gardens' research Linda has been monitoring populations the environment and climate change’ projects and undertaking research on the Mountain Patrick from the ANU will talk about Become a Guide Pygmy-possum for over 30 years. ubiquitous airborne dust. Where does Relax in the Friends Lounge it come from and where does it go, in the Ellis Rowan Building, and have dust concentrations changed open to members 9.30am to through time? He will try to answer 4.30pm. Relax with tea/coffee these questions by taking you on a and lots of interesting reading. fascinating dust collecting trip to many parts of Australia.

Thursday 23 August 12.30 pm Thursday 19 July 12.30 pm Doug Laing ‘The Apothecary’s garden – Peter Byron ‘Canberra going tropical?’ a gem in London’s heart’ Peter, General Manager of the ANBG, will Doug, chair of the Thursday Talks talk about the new conservatory which Committee, will trace the history of the will establish the Gardens as the leading Chelsea Physic Garden in London – a tiny conservator of Australian native tropical garden that has left an indelible mark on flora from areas such as Christmas Island, modern pharmacology and medicine. Kadadu and northern Queensland. Thursday 26 July 12.30 pm Thursday 30 August 12.30 pm Scott Saddler ‘From the ashes’ Julie Ryder ‘Nature as muse: the Scott is the Executive Manager of the interaction between art and botany’ National Arboretum. Following the 2003 Julie, Canberra textile designer and artist, bushfire the government decided to will talk on the influences botany has had replace the pine plantations with a new on her work. She uses natural dyeing, National Arboretum which today provides mordant printing, screen-printing and a rich tapestry of patterns formed by the embroidery as language on cloth to tell forest plantings in this world class facility. narratives about place and people.

24 April 2018 Fronds 88