Australia’s mangrove species: botanical watercolour illustrations of a plant community facing an uncertain future

Deirdre Anne Bean BA (Fine Art and Visual Culture) (Curtin University)

PhD Natural History Illustration June 2016

1 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As with any major project, illustrating the mangroves of Australa was undertaken with the aid and assistance of many people. From first enquiries to the final editing I have had consistent support and encouragement from those who believed in my work.

From the outset I relied on the knowledge and experience of others. Working in the field in Far North Queensland is not for the faint hearted. I had expert guidance from Peter Cooper who banned me from even considering using common names for mangrove species. He gave me my first copy of Dr Duke’s Australia’s mangroves that became my primary reference text. How strange that in the course of my research I have argued with Dr Duke about the information contained within it, and even contributed to the coming second edition.

The Daintree Cruise Centre, particularly Mick Casey and Lee Lafferty, now sadly passed, gave me access to river excursions in the course of collecting plant material. Professor Darren Crayn and the staff at the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, Cairns, gave me assistance when needed. I thank them. Thank you to Anne Llewellyn for her encouragement and support.

My family has been tremendously supportive, and without them this project would have been impossible. Thank you and much love Steph, Wim, mum, Leanne, Vicki and Andrew. Hugs to my long suffering friends, Grae, Caz and Paul, who have had trouble understanding my passion for mangroves.

There are those who stood steadfast beside me in my journey throughout the course of my project. One is Dr Norm Duke, a world leader in mangrove science who is passionate about mangroves and their survival. Without his support my project would appear very thin indeed. I owe deep gratitude to Dr Trevor Weekes my principal supervisor. No question has been too unworthy for his devoted and considered response. I sincerely thank him for his belief in my project and me.

DEDICATION

I dedicate my project to my dear, loving dad who has long since lived among us but stays with me in my heart. I know he would have been proud.

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 Historical context: illustrations of Australia’s mangroves 1.1 Botanical illustration accepted as a scientific pursuit 1.2 Georg Rumphius: a pioneer of scientific illustration 1.3 Expeditionary illustrations and power 1.4 Illustrating Australian mangrove species: Sydney Parkinson 1.5 Nicolas Baudin’s voyage 1800-1804 1.6 Ferdinand Bauer, Robert Brown and Matthew Flinders

CHAPTER 2 About mangroves 2.1 Definition of a mangrove 2.2 Mangrove distribution 2.3 Recent discoveries in Australia 2 4 Mangroves as flora 2.5 Ability to live in salty water 2.6 Sonneratia, salinity and filling the gap 2.7 Vivipary and dispersal of reproductive material 2.8 Mangrove ecology 2.9 Mangroves and people 2.10 Mangroves under threat 2.11 Mangroves and cyclones 2.12 Restoring depleted mangrove ecosystems

CHAPTER 3 Methodological framework 3.1 Preliminary research 3.1.1 Locating mangrove species 3.1.2 Botanical descriptions 3.1.3 Identification by the scientist 3.2 Field research 3.2.1 Tides 3.2.2 Weather 3.2.3 Equipment for collecting 3.2.4 Insect repellant 3.2.5 Clothing 4 3.2.6 Water 3.2.7 Food 3.2.8 Camera 3.2.9 Mobile phone 3.2.10 GPS equipment 3.2.11 Field diary and drawing kit 3.3. Studio research 3.3.1 Materials 3.3.2 Caring for specimens 3.3.3 Photographs 3.3.4 Drawing 3.3.5 Painting 3.3.6 Colours and pigments 3.3.7 Signing illustrations 3.3.8 Stretching watercolour paper 3.3.9 Digitally recording illustrations 3.3.10 Framing

CHAPTER 4 The illustrations 4.1 Acanthus ilicifolius 4.2 Avicennia integra 4.3 Avicennia marina var. eucalyptifolia 4.4 Cynometra iripa 4.5 Lumnitzera littorea 4.6 Lumnitzera racemosa 4.7 Lumnitzera rosea 4.8 Excoecaria agallocha var. agallocha 4.9 Barringtonia racemosa 4.10 Xylocarpus granatum 4.11 Xylocarpus moluccensis 4.12 Aegiceras corniculatum 4.13 Osbornia octodonta 4.14 Nypa fruticans 4.15 Aegialitis annulata 4.16 Acrostichum speciosum 4.17 Acrostichum aureum 4.18 Bruguiera exaristata

5 4.19 Bruguiera gymnorhiza 4.20 Bruguiera parviflora 4.21 Bruguiera sexangula 4.22 Ceriops australis 4.23 Ceriops pseudodecandra 4.24 Ceriops tagal 4.25 Rhizophora apiculata 4.26 Rhizophora lamarckii 4.27 Rhizophora mucronata 4.28 Rhizophora stylosa 4.29 Scyphiphora hydrophylacea 4.30 Sonneratia alba 4.31 Sonneratia caseolaris 4.32 Sonneratia gulngai 4.33 Sonneratia lanceolata 4.34 Heritiera littoralis

CHAPTER 5 Collaboration 5.1 Expeditions 5.2 Collaboration and studio research 5.3 Collaboration and herbarium research

CHAPTER 6 Findings 6.1 Findings from field and studio research 6.2 The illustrations 6.3 Exhibiting the illustrations 6.4 Publications

CONCLUSION

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY OF TERMS APPENDICES Appendix 1 Literature review

6 Appendix 2 The silhouette drawings Appendix 3 The Cook collection: Museum of Natural History, London Appendix 4 South Alligator River diary: a day in the field with Dr Duke Appendix 5 Field diaries and notebooks Appendix 6 Solander box of limited edition prints Appendix 7 Australia’s mangroves: living on the edge exhibition

7 ABSTRACT

Since childhood I have held a fascination for mangroves, their environment and inhabitants. Growing up, I chased soldier crabs hiding in their shadows and collected whelks and oysters that clung to their sturdy trunks. My awareness of the ecological importance of mangroves did not come till much later after I discovered them growing as a dense forest along the banks of the Daintree River in Far North Queensland. Further investigation revealed mangroves to be an intertidal community of plants clinging to the fringes of tropical and subtropical estuaries and coastlines, making them vulnerable to human interaction and, more seriously, to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

With this information in mind, I felt compelled to launch my own research into Australia’s mangroves. As a natural history illustrator I was determined to locate and illustrate as many species as possible. The main focus of my research was in Far North Queensland while two other expeditions were undertaken to the Northern Territory. Collaborative relationships were formed with scientists engaged in the field of mangrove research, enriching both my inquiry and investigation.

This project has provided the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the first natural history illustrators who visited Australia with Captain Cook on the Endeavour. I have employed the exacting skills of botanical illustration to depict the often-unseen but important features of the mangroves. In the course of the project I have aided science and promoted awareness to a new audience. The need to communicate my findings with others is a motivating factor that I share with those early illustrators. I present this collection of illustrations as a new, unique and scientifically accurate body of work on which to base further research.

8 INTRODUCTION

One of my earliest childhood memories is learning to swim in the river at the end of my street where mangroves grew abundantly. They were the first plants I could name besides Eucalypts. Mangroves and gum trees were the dominant flora of Hawks Nest, New South Wales (Australia) as I saw through my child’s eye. On reflection, I believe this PhD project was born back in those days when I peeled Avicennia marina seedpods found floating in the river while waiting for the punt to carry me across to school. I had no idea that there were two species of mangroves growing there. What I did know was that they buffered the wave action created by passing boats, sheltered the many species of crab and fish hiding in their shadows and that they had sharply pointed roots that hurt if you trod on them with bare feet.

Some 40 years later, when coming to the end of my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, I was searching for a project. It was during a holiday to Port Douglas as a tourist on the Daintree River that I discovered Queensland’s mangroves. I was amazed to learn that there are over forty species of mangroves in Australia, and the majority of them grew on the Daintree. The river trip on the 10th April 2009 was my ‘light bulb’ moment and the beginning of my research on Australia’s mangroves. In the studio I began reading the published literature on mangroves and it alarmed me to find that this group of specialized plants was under serious threat from human behavior and the effects of climate change. I was determined to document this group of plants but needed to make some enquiries first to establish the value of the project and the logistics to execute it.

I met with botanist Professor Darren Crayn, Director of the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, Cairns, Far North Queensland, to determine whether anyone had done, or was undertaking, this type of research. I was pleased to hear that, to the best of his knowledge, there had not been a survey of this kind undertaken. I asked Dr Norm Duke the same question. As Senior Research Scientist at James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland Dr Duke is a world expert in mangroves and is also an admirer of mangrove art. He confirmed what Professor Crayn told me, inspiring me to illustrate Australia’s mangroves.

As a natural history illustrator my task was to observe and document my subjects with exact scientific precision. To achieve this, each species was examined in its field location which meant managing mud, rain, the tides and covering up to prevent attack by mosquitos, sandflies and ants. The effects of humidity are not to be underestimated. 9 A bigger problem is estuarine crocodiles that inhabit the tropical waters of my research area. They are dangerous animals for which I have enormous respect and give wide berth.

Despite the challenges, I find mangrove forests compelling and dynamic environments. They have a reputation as malodorous, mosquito-ridden, unwelcoming muddy places that is not unfounded, although, to me, the beauty of these unique plants overrides any discomfort experienced in the field. Some mangroves are the most beautiful plants I have seen.

To make my project manageable I established parameters. Geographically, I decided to concentrate my research in Far North Queensland, specifically the coastal area between the Daintree River and Cairns where most of Australia’s mangrove species grow. This area was chosen for 3 reasons: 1. It is a rich source of primary material. 2. Accessibility to pressed herbarium specimens and scientific expertise from the botanists employed at the Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, Cairns. 3. Most mangrove species are found growing within an hour’s drive from my studio in Port Douglas located midway between Cairns and the Daintree River.

This is an area of unique biodiversity where two UNESCO World Heritage listed sites, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and The Great Barrier Reef, come together. The tropical rainforests meet the sea, and it is here the mangroves form an important interface between terrestrial flora and the marine ecosystem.

My project was originally entitled ‘Queensland’s mangroves: a plant community facing an uncertain future’. The mangrove species that grow in the Northern Territory were considered outside the scope of my research. However, in August 2014, I had an opportunity to accompany Dr Norm Duke on an expedition to the South Alligator River that allowed me to expand the geographical boundaries I had set. With his guidance, I was able to locate and illustrate Sonneratia lanceolata and Avicennia integra, two of the most elusive and rare mangroves species in Australia. It was necessary to retitle my project ‘Australia’s mangroves: a plant community facing an uncertain future’.

10 One restriction I had set myself was to illustrate only the plant features I could see with the naked eye. However, during the course of my research it became apparent that the features of some mangrove species demanded closer inspection. To see the fringed petals of flowers from the Ceriops and small-flowered Bruguieras required magnifying tools. The minute features of the petals are defining characteristics of these species and needed to be included in my illustration. This meant reevaluating the original parameters I set myself.

In this exegesis, Chapter 1 provides an account of illustrations of Australia’s mangroves in an historical context. I discuss the role of expedition illustrators of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and in particular those employed on the major seagoing voyages of discovery to Australia. I narrow my focus to those illustrators who depicted mangrove species.

Chapter 2 discusses mangroves in a contemporary context as a unique community of plants. Definitions and information on the distribution and taxonomy of Australia’s mangroves are provided. I discuss the specialized features of the plants that enable them to survive in saline conditions. This chapter includes a brief overview of mangrove ecology and the various uses people have found for mangroves. I briefly discuss the threats and pressures affecting the survival of mangroves that make them one of the world’s most vulnerable plant communities. The purpose of this chapter is to put mangrove plant species into perspective and give context to my project. It is not within the scope of this project for more comprehensive research into these topics.

Chapter 3 describes my methodological framework. Research was divided into three parts: preliminary, field and studio research. Each component was dependent upon the other and there was considerable overlap. My methodology was not unlike that of other natural history illustrators working in the field. However, it was tailored to research the unique features of mangroves and their environment. My fieldwork took me to plant communities in remote locations and challenging conditions.

Chapter 4 is a detailed description of each mangrove species I have researched and illustrated. I include some taxonomic information, a distribution map and a description of the plant’s features. I describe the methods I employed to locate, collect and illustrate the mangrove to achieve the research outcome. The working drawings give insight into the painting process and the sequence of steps taken in the course of producing the finished illustration. An image of each painting is included.

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Chapter 5 emphasises the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration with botanists to achieve my research outcomes. Of particular importance is my professional relationship with Dr Norm Duke. His publications and personal guidance have reinforced the scientific validity of my research. Consequently, he is referred to often throughout this document. There are others with whom I have had important collaborative relationships who are referred to in this chapter.

Chapter 6 states the findings of my practice-based research and the contribution to new knowledge. This is followed by the Conclusion.

The Appendices include: 1. Literature review 2. The silhouette drawings 3. The Cook collection: Museum of Natural History London 4. South Alligator River diary: a day in the field with Dr Duke 5. Field diaries and notebooks 6. Solander box of limited edition prints 7. Australia’s mangroves: living on the edge exhibition

At the core of my research is an obligation to accurately and scientifically document the mangroves from primary research. The natural beauty of mangroves and their vulnerability have been important motivating factors. Collaboration has been a vital element of my project where I have drawn on the expertise of others including river and field guides, amateur mangrove experts and botanists. The research was self-funded indicating the dedication and belief I have in this project.

My detailed illustrations are the outcome of rigorous research and are presented as beautiful and complex transporters of knowledge accessible to a range of audiences from scientists to flora enthusiasts and devotees of botanical art. My project is a unique educational and visually appealing resource for future generations.

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