TRILEPIDEA Newsletter of the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network NO. 190 September 2019 Deadline for next issue: Friday 18 October 2019 SUBMIT AN ARTICLE TO THE NEWSLETTER 24–28 November 2019, Wellington, New Zealand Contributions are welcome to the newsletter at any time. The closing date for Conference updates articles for each issue is approximately the 15th of Are you getting excited about this year’s ASBS-NZPCN Joint Conference in Wellington later each month. this year? It’s certainly going to be a big one, with conference numbers now up to 180 (and Articles may be edited and counting!) representing both the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN) and used in the newsletter and/ the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS). Here are some updates from the past or on the website news page. month of conference planning: The Network will publish • We have received about 80 abstracts to present talks or posters at the conference. almost any article about The scientifi c committee is now assessing all the abstracts and hopes to get back to plants and plant conservation with a particular focus on the everyone who submitted abstracts very soon about their acceptance. Useful hints plant life of New Zealand and and tips for preparing your talk or poster can be found on our website: Guidelines for Oceania. Presenters. Please send news items • Conference extras including workshops, fi eld trips and dinner are all going ahead or event information to as they have reached their minimum numbers. You can still register for conference [email protected] extras. Postal address: • There are quite a few other events happening just before, during and after the c/- 160 Wilton Road Wilton conference, some science/botany related, some not (check them out!). Make sure you Wellington 6012 consider these events when planning your travel dates. NEW ZEALAND • This includes now four public events associated with the conference that we have helped co-plan for that week. See the links for details and to register/purchase tickets. 1. Sunday 24 November, 9 am – 5 pm: Wikipedia workshop on threatened plants. Free, but you need to register. 2. Monday 25 November, 6:30 pm: Friends of Te Papa Public lecture: “Solander, Sparrman, and the Anthropocene - Saving “the Environment” on a Planet made Unstable by Humans. Speaker: Prof Sverker Sörlin. Registration and payment required; conference attendees get discounted tickets. 3. Thursday 28 November, 6:30 pm: Panel discussion on the The politics of collecting plants, from Banks and Solander to today. Registration and payment required; conference attendees get discounted tickets. 4. Saturday–Sunday 30 November–1 December: Botany for Botanical Illustrators workshop. Registration and payment required; spaces are limited. • Our silent auction will be run during the rst two days of the conference. It will certainly be interesting, potentially a lot of fun, and will hopefully generate a good amount of $$ for our research funds. We still need donations too! Contact Matt Ward if you’d like to donate something. [email protected] • And don’t forget our three fantastic keynote speakers: 1 ◆ Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister for Conservation, Minister for Land Information New Zealand and Associate Minister for the Environment ◆ Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, Kaihautū Chief Māori Advisor to the Ministry for the Environment, the Director Māori of NZ’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and CEO of Te Tira Whakamātaki ◆ Kevin Thiele, founding Director of Taxonomy Australia, an organisation established to advocate and implement in Australia the recommendations of Discovering biodiversity: A decadal plan for taxonomy and biosystematics in Australia and New Zealand 2018–2027. ◆ Feeling a fear of missing out? Haven’t registered yet? Don’t worry, it’s not too late to register. Standard registration fees now apply: – Society members* (NZPCN or ASBS): $420 – Non-members: $525 – Students, unwaged or retired: $260 – Single day: $260 *New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) staff can register using the member’s rate, as DOC is a corporate member of NZPCN Book your travel and accommodation now Wellington is a very popular destination for tourists and conferences alike, particularly at the time of year the conference will be held. Hotels are notorious for fi lling up fast, particularly in the CBD around Te Papa! If you are coming to the conference, we suggest you book your travel and accommodation now, if you haven’t already done so. We have some suggestions on our website that may be useful to you. Student support is available ASBS and NZPCN are able to off er some fi nancial support Sponsorship to their student–members to attend the conference. A massive thank you to our sponsors: • ASBS student–members who are presenting at this year’s meeting can get details from the ASBS website [http://www.asbs.org.au/asbs/student. html], download the application form [http://www. asbs.org.au/asbs/forms-fi les/student-assistance- web-form.doc] and submit it to the Secretary at [email protected] at least four weeks prior to the conference. • Applications for student support for NZPCN student–members who are presenting a talk or poster at the conference have now closed. How to contact us If you have any questions or think we can be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us on plants2019nz@ gmail.com Rewi Elliot and Heidi Meudt on behalf of the 2019 Conference Organising Committee https://systematics.ourplants.org/ organising-committee/ Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Please see our Sponsorship [https://systematics.ourplants.org/ supporters/] page or contact the organisers for more details. 2 The ongoing slide to extinction of the enigmatic Chatham Island linen flax (Linum monogynum var. chathamicum) Peter J. de Lange ([email protected]), School of Environmental & Animal Sciences, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland Linum (Linaceae) is a genus of about 200 species found mostly in the northern hemisphere though it extends into the subtropics and has representatives on most of the major landmasses of the world. Universally known by the vernacular ‘flax’ some species, notably ‘linen flax’Linum usitatissimum produce fibres that are used for the production of cordage and linen fabric; while the seeds are the source of linseed oil (Mabberly 2017). New Zealand has five species, of which only Linum monogynum, known to Maori as ‘rauhuia’ is indigenous and endemic. There are two varieties of rauhuia,L . monogynum var. monogynum (Fig. 1) which is widespread in the North, South and Stewart Islands (Webb et al. 1988), and var. chathamicum (Fig. 2, 3), which is endemic to the Chatham Islands (Cockayne 1902; de Lange et al. 2011). Figure 1 (left). Rauhuia (Linum monogynum var. monogynum) as seen on the Otago coast. This is the white-flowered race found throughout the North, South and Stewart Islands. Photo: John Barkla, January 2015. Figure 2 (centre). Chatham Island linen flax (Linum monogynum var. chathamicum), Te Whanga shoreline, Rekohu (Chatham Island) showing growth habit (December 2008). Figure 3 (right). Chatham Island linen flax Linum( monogynum var. chathamicum), Te Whanga shoreline, Rekohu (Chatham Island) close up of flowers—which are ‘just’ faintly blue-tinged (December 2008). Chatham Island linen flax (Linum monogynum var. chathamicum) is a small, sparingly branched shrubby plant, rarely exceeding 80 cm tall. The upper one-third to two- thirds of the whip-like, erect or floppy stems are covered in grey, spreading, entire, lanceolate leaves. At the apices of these stems, in spring through summer are borne clusters of 10–15 mm long tubular flowers, which when fully expanded are white with a bluish cast (Fig. 2, 3), though the buds just prior to flowering are distinctly coloured sky-blue. It was on account of the blue-tinged, or as Leonard Cockayne (Fig. 4) put it ‘broadly- striped or flaked with pale blue’ flowers that Cockayne (1902) described the Chatham Islands plant as a distinct endemic variety. The New Zealand plant, var.monogynum Cockayne noted has white flowers. When preparing a checklist of the Chatham Island plants (de Lange et al. 2011) it was discovered that Linum monogynum Fig. 4. Leonard Cockayne (1855–1934) var. chathamicum didn’t seem to have a common name. In the first scientist to describe the vegetation associations of the Chatham Islands, and the absence of one the name ‘Chatham Island linen flax’ was the author of the Chatham Islands linen flax conjured up, and as an afterthought the Maori name ‘rauhuia’ (Linum monogynum var. chathamicum). 3 added as an alternative, though I have never heard that name used on the Chatham Islands only in New Zealand, and even then, infrequently. The addition of ‘linen’ to ‘flax’ seemed necessary though as by itself ‘flax’ is potentially confusing especially as Linum have no semblance to, nor are they remotely related to the widespread flax (Phormium tenax) found throughout New Zealand, the Chathams and Norfolk Island. That plant, a member of the monocotyledonous Asphodelaceae, and known to Maori as harakeke and Moriori as harapepe, was in turn bestowed the name ‘flax’ by early European voyagers because when they saw the way Maori used it’s fibres for cordage, clothing and other items, they were reminded of the way the northern hemisphere linen flax (Linum usitatissimum) was used for the same purpose. So ‘Chatham Island linen flax’ seemed a ‘quick fix’ way out of this confusion, though I have since found in my discussion with islanders that this is not the case, confusion remains. So, from a Chatham Islands perspective, short of people learning the scientific name for the plant, I feel that someone on the islands needs to get creative and think up a more sensible common name for the plant. Possibly though the lack of a vernacular name for Linum monogynum var.