February 2021 Sutherland Group Newsletter About Sutherland Group Coming up.. We meet at 8 pm every third Wednesday from February to Wed, 17 Feb Sutherland Group meeting – Wildflower November at Gymea Community Wonderland. See details in the diary on page 2. Centre, 39 Gymea Bay Rd, Gymea. Visitors welcome. Thurs, 4 Mar JB Reserve working bees are back on. Sun, 7 Mar Rules for Covid-19 are in place, more here We support awareness and conservation of Australian native Wed, 17 Mar The Science of Plant Chemicals with speaker plants. Rhonda Daniels. See our website & Facebook Look out for.. Eucalyptus erythrocorys (illyarrie) http://austplants.com.au/Sutherland www.facebook.com/APS.Sutherland President Leonie Hogue 75A Wattle St Jannali 2226 [email protected] Ph 0416 286 083 Secretary Rhonda Daniels [email protected] Ph: 0491 629 760 Treasurer Anne Webb 9 Connels Rd Cronulla 2230 E. erythrocorys (illyarrie, red capped gum) Ph 9523 6067 (Ph: Menai Wildflower Group facebook) This small tree is from Western Australia, north of Perth, but can be Publicity Officer & grown in Sydney. It is noted to have a preference for alkaline soils. Speaker Convenor There are not that many to be seen in Sydney, but this photo is from Ralph Cartwright the Menai group’s garden at the Illawarra Fire Station. So look out [email protected] for it as you drive past. Flowering is from later summer to autumn Ph 9548 1074 and as can be seen it has red caps followed by bright yellow 0416 030 872 flowers. Newsletter Editor Inside this issue Peter Shelton For your diary ................................................................... 2 [email protected] At the November, 2020 Meeting ...................................... 2 Ph 0411 286 969 Activity Report – Week at Charlotte Pass ...................... 5 Welcome Back ................................................................. 7 Newsletter Deadline: News and more ................................................................ 8 First Wednesday of the month For your diary Contact John Arney ph 9525 0449, [email protected] Our diary is not very full at the moment as we wait on developments with Covid19 restrictions. Wed, 17 Feb Sutherland Group meeting Our plans are in From 7.45 pm place to cope with Covid restrictions, to re-start for 8:00 pm start our face-to-face meetings in our usual location at the Gymea Community Centre on February 17th. Complying with all current directives is a priority. We will show a 40min video produced for the Ravensthorpe Wildflower Society by well known local filmmaker, Jennene Riggs – Wildflower Wonderland. The video will highlight some of the iconic wildflowers of the Ravensthorpe shire in WA and the extraordinary features that produce them and that make the area around Albany a world- renowned biodiversity hotspot. The video will be followed by our plant table hosted by Phil Keane. Physical specimens can be showcased as well as any video submissions which can be included and sent to Dan prior to the meeting. For those that attended the September 2019 ANSPA conference, they may have some favourite plant shots to show off via video to Dan as mentioned above. He will need some ID help along with your submissions. Thurs, 4 Mar Joseph Banks Reserve working bees Sun, 7 Mar Covid 19 restrictions will be observed, but there is plenty of space to work in. Sat, 13 Mar Sutherland Council Nursery Open day. 345 The Boulevarde, Gymea. 9 am – 3 pm A fantastic range of Indigenous tubestock from $2.70 plus plenty more. Wed, 17 Mar Sutherland Group meeting: The Science of Plant Chemicals. From 7.45 pm for 8:00 pm start, at Gymea Community Hall. Covid19 regulations permitting. Sat, 20 Mar APS NSW Quarterly Meeting. This will be a zoom meeting with guest speaker will be Peter Olde on new Grevillea hybrids. Meeting details next month Wed, 7 Apr Sydney Royal Easter show preparation Drop flowers off at Leonie’s - 75a Wattle Rd Jannali 1,2,8,9 May (10 – 4) Illawarra Grevillea Garden open days. These are the first two weekends in May. 11 – 16 Sep, 2022 ANPSA Biennial Conference delayed until 2022 due to Covid-19 considerations. At the November Meeting At the AGM in November 2020 We had our AGM by Zoom at our meeting on Wednesday 18 November 2020. The agenda and previous minutes were emailed to members on the day of the meeting. The minutes of the previous AGM were accepted. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our group in 2020, whether an official bearer or not. Member Gwen Harden thanked everyone for keeping the group going in difficult times. The following people were elected for 2021, with no change from 2020: President Leonie Hogue, Secretary Rhonda Daniels, Treasurer Anne Webb, Speakers and Publicity Ralph Cartwright, Newsletter Editor Peter Shelton, Website Simon Bastin, Activities John Arney, Plant Stewards Phil Keane and Dan Clarke, Library Clare McColl, Conservation Dan Clarke, APS NSW delegate John Aitken. As well as the group highlights reported in our annual report for 2020 below (with a 300 word limit), former Sutherland Group president and life member Peter Olde was honoured as OAM in January 2020 and we made a $500 donation to support the Australian Flora Foundation. Rhonda Daniels APS Sutherland – February 2021 2 Bladderworts with guest speaker Richard Jobson At the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Dr. Jobson is a Research Botanist, specialising in the study of the evolution within the Lentibulariaceae family. [Dan’s note: for this talk, Richard has provided his own summary. I have interspersed comments in for the benefit of the reader and to add some further information. I hope you enjoy it. [The Lentibulariaceae family is referred to as the Bladderworts and contain three genera of carnivorous plants, namely Genlisea, Pinguicula and Utricularia. Genlisea are referred to as Corkscrew Plants or Lobsterpots! Pinguicula are referred to as Butterworts. Utricularia retain the name of Bladderworts They are a family of plants with a worldwide distribution but with not that may species comparatively with only about 350 known species in the entire family. They typically grow in wet soils such as swamps, creeks and springs. As they grow in permanently wet soil, they have evolved to obtain nitrates and other nutrients by digesting insects, rather than taking it up in the soil water. Richard’s work has helped untangle relationships between the Butterworts, Lobsterpots and Bladderworts (Utricularia), with particular focus on the 250 species of Utricularia from across the world. Lately, his studies have involved the 60 Australian species, with 20 of these recently described by Dr. Jobson and a few more in the works. As an example of one of the several Australian complexes currently under study, the phylogeny of the Australian species Utricularia dichotoma (Fairy Aprons) uncovered five new species and seven new subspecies. One of these species is only known from two remote Artesian mound springs in far western Queensland highlighting the link between understanding biodiversity and conservation. The same study also provided the evidence for resurrection of two synonymised species [two species lumped under the same name] first realised by Robert Brown in 1804 from his collections in the Sydney basin. Richard Collecting aquatic plants Endangered U. singeriana Top End in CapeYork, Queensland (Photos: from Richards’s article at ANBG website) [Richard found one such species in a tropical swamp, and upon his return there, found that the swamp had been drained by human activity and the plant was no longer there!] While fieldwork provides some of the material required for these studies and has taken Richard to many remote regions of Australia and the world, preserved herbarium material is an essential element for the research providing data on morphological characters and DNA markers for phylogenetic studies of evolutionary relationships. [Richard’s talk focused mainly on the phylogenetic issues in the genus Utricularia. Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships among biological entities or taxa. It is the opinion of many taxonomists (including botanists) that a classified group such as a genus or plant family contain all known extant and extinct species from the same common ancestor and only those species or genera. Problems arise when the previous classifications of taxa, undertaken by those such as Linnaeus, Robert Brown, Daniel Solander, George Bentham and many many others, do not reflect the true nature of the evolutionary relationships. The emergence of DNA has allowed scientists to verify, or APS Sutherland – February 2021 3 not, which species are most closely related to which. This has resulted in groups of species at the genus level, as well as groups of genera at the family level, being reclassified. Sometimes, what we observe in a plant in terms of its morphology (physical features), does not necessarily reflect that two species are closely related. The best place to start thinking about this, at a very broad level, is to think of how similar a shark and a dolphin appear superficially. But we know they are not closely related at all. Such conundrums can take place at much finer scales in biology. Plants, as well as animals, fungi and bacteria, continue to be reclassified based on the best available DNA evidence. Yet, debate can take place over how such data are interpreted. It pays to consider with this process, for example, that if we know a plant with outstanding medicinal properties, we would likely want to know what its closest living relatives are, in order to determine if that or those species possess similar useful qualities. This is just one reason why phylogenetics is considered important. Further reading and photos: https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Stories/2019/Carnivorous-bladderworts-reveal-secrets-of-genome Dan Clarke (and Richard Jobson) On the plant table see a replay on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Eu1Q4XQnRg The plant table is a great way to see what grows Elaeocarpus reticulatus (Blueberry Ash) well in Sutherland Shire and what flowers when.