Newsletter No. 154 March 2013 Price: $5.00 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 154 (March 2013) AUSTRALASIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY SOCIETY INCORPORATED Council President Vice President Bill Barker Mike Bayly State Herbarium of South Australia School of Botany PO Box 2732, Kent Town, SA 5071 University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010 Australia Australia Tel: (+61)/(0)427 427 538 Tel: (+61)/(0)3 8344 5055 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary Treasurer John Clarkson Frank Zich Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Australian Tropical Herbarium PO Box 156 E2 Building, J.C.U. Cairns Campus Mareeba, Qld 4880 PO Box 6811 Australia Cairns, Qld 4870 Tel: (+61)/(0)7 4048 4745 Australia Mobile: (+61)/(0)437 732 487 Tel: (+61)/(0)7 4059 5014 Fax: (+61)/(0)7 4092 2366 Fax: (+61)/(0)7 4091 8888 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Councillor (Assistant Secretary - Communications) Councillor (Assistant Treasurer) Ilse Breitwieser Pina Milne Allan Herbarium National Herbarium of Victoria Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd Private Bag 2000 PO Box 69040 Birdwood Ave Lincoln 7640 South Yarra, Vic. 3141 New Zealand Australia Tel: (+64)/(0)3 321 9621 Tel: (+61)/(0)3 9252 2309 Fax: (+64)/(0)3 321 9998 Fax: (+61)/(0)3 9252 2423 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Other Constitutional Bodies Public Officer Hansjörg Eichler Research Committee Annette Wilson Philip Garnock-Jones Australian Biological Resources Study David Glenny GPO Box 787 Betsy Jackes Canberra, ACT 2601 Greg Leach Australia Nathalie Nagalingum Email: [email protected] Christopher Quinn Chair: Mike Bayly, Vice President Affiliate Society Grant application closing dates: Papua New Guinea Botanical Society Hansjörg Eichler Research Fund: on March 14th and September 14th each year. Australian Conservation Taxonomy Award: on March 14th 2013 ASBS Website www.anbg.gov.au/asbs Cover image: Ternstroemia monostigma W.R.Barker Murray Fagg (Pentaphylacaceae), a New Guinea endemic. Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Male and female flowers and parts (minus petals), Research fruit, seed in section. Artist Taikika Iwagu. Australian National Herbarium With permission of the National Herbarium of Email: [email protected] Papua New Guinea. Publication dates of previous issue Australas. Syst. Bot. Soc. Newslett. 152 (September2012): Printed version: 12th March 2013 Australas. Syst. Bot. Soc. Newslett. 153 (December 2012): ASBS Web site: 12th February 2013; Printed version: 12th March 2013 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 154 (March 2013) From the President The year is moving apace and there is much to tried this medium – indeed, some may have be done. Council has advanced several areas no wish to try. To be relevant to a changing since the last issue of the Newsletter, produced membership it is critical for any society that it only a few weeks ago. keeps pace with the way its new members in particular communicate. However, as pointed Embracing our New Zealand membership out in the last issue, the Newsletter is seen at In the ASBS business section we see evidence this point as the main vehicle for projecting and of Council’s overtures to support an integration archiving announcements and articles, a view of our Australian and New Zealand activities. held by Council and, we believe, a significant David Glenny from the Allan Herbarium, portion of the membership. We are paralleling Christchurch has been newly appointed to the science generally. While projection of peer- Research Committee. Welcome David! reviewed papers is gradually extending to the We also have the great news that our 2014 web, their standard format has not changed Annual Conference will be held in Palmerston Science has developed a mix of both modern North on New Zealand’s North Island. Thank and traditional means of communication, with you Jen Tate and team for taking this on with tools and infrastructure, opinion pieces and preparations already commenced. discussion groups leading the way to use of the web. Nevertheless, our web presence, may Thanks to Mike Bayly and Ilse Breitwieser for be further improved, e.g. in indexing of the their respective roles in these actions. Newsletter articles. ASBS’s new Facebook presence Updating the ASBS Web pages Council agreed to a proposal by Todd McLay John Clarkson and Murray Fagg, with the help and Mike Bayly to launch a Facebook presence of Helen Thompson and Anna Monro, have for the Society, as reported by Mike below. been progressively working through the web The Web facility was quickly established and pages to bring our site up to date. Some of this almost as soon as it was announced we had work is also reflected inside the Newsletter a large number of participants on board and covers in the standard information pages on several grants and conferences announced. conveners, institutional and council office- While one day the Society may communicate, bearer contacts, and book and past Newsletter in a paperless electronic cloud, it is clear that sales. we would lose significantly if we did that now. Progress with Newsletter We have a spread across our membership from those very much at home in this medium (not This issue sees what I hope is the start of a only the younger) to others who have never series on what’s happening in plant systematics Australasian Systematic Botany Society Inc. 2013 Membership Fees These were due on January 1st. You should have been emailed an invoice for current and any back fees. Subscription rates: Ordinary/Institutional members $45 (AUS) Full-time students / retired / unemployed $25 (AUS) This is also an opportunity to donate to the Research Fund Prospective Members need to download a membership form from the membership section of the ASBS web site Please direct enquiries to Pina Milne our Membership Officer 1 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 154 (March 2013) research and documentation and supporting and Brigitte Kuchlmayr for their special efforts infrastructure in our universities and herbaria. to resolve the problem. The Canberra group Thanks Jeremy and team at the University of printed the required numbers in their own New England for kicking off the series with a personal time, saving the Society a significant very informative contribution. expense. We have gone a long way to redressing the We have engaged a new printer in Adelaide shortfall in distributing a number of issues of for the Newsletter. Finances dictated that we the Newsletter in recent years to individuals not produce pre-printed covers and the “on- and libraries. Thanks go to Juliet Wege in Perth, demand” process meant a choice of a new Pina Milne our Membership Officer, and, in cover with a glossy finish. Canberra, Helen Thompson, Annette Wilson Bill Barker ASBS Inc. business Research grants and Research Committee Applications for the latest round of Eichler excellent contribution to the committee since grants, as well as those of the second round joining it in 2009 and I would like to thank him of the Australian Conservation Taxonomy for his efforts. Award, closed on March 14th. The Research Committee is currently assessing applications. One of the conditions of receiving a Hansjörg Applicants will be informed of the outcome in Eichler grant is that recipients provide ASBS the coming weeks and results will be published with a short report on their research, at in the next issue of the ASBS Newsletter. completion of the grant period, for inclusion in the Newsletter. We have been a bit lax I am very pleased to record that David Glenny in enforcing this requirement and students, from the Allan Herbarium (CHR) has agreed especially in the last few years, have not been to join the Research Committee and will start terribly proactive in producing reports. We are with the next grant round. For those who trying to remedy this situation and have started don’t know David, some brief information chasing students for outstanding reports. So far is available through the Landcare Research the response has been positive and we hope to website (www.landcareresearch.co.nz/about/ have some reports in hand for the next issue of people/staff-details?id=Z2xlbm55ZA==). David the newsletter. For those students that I haven’t will strengthen the trans-Tasman nature of the contacted yet (you know who you are!) you can committee, being the second New Zealand expect an email in the near future. member, along with Phil Garnock-Jones. He Applications for the next round of Hansjörg will replace Bill Barker who, on becoming Eichler grants close on 14th September 2013. ASBS President, stepped down after the September 2012 grant round. Bill made an Mike Bayly ASBS Facebook group ASBS has recently established a Facebook a couple of weeks and has already seen group. The aim of the group is to facilitate a reasonable amount of traffic, including communication between members, as conference information, details of funding a supplement to our usual avenues of opportunities, a PhD studentship, new outputs communication, such as the Newsletter or email from the ALA, details of a public lecture by notifications. It also provides another means of Tim Entwisle, discussions of fern taxonomy, promoting the activities of ASBS, potentially links to interesting blogs etc. Sadly, posts also to a wider audience. included a link to an obituary for American The group has been up and running for botanist Tim Motley, who had a strong interest 2 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 154 (March 2013) in Pacific botany, and passed away recently at will also moderate content as appropriate. We the age of 47 (see www.odu.edu/news/2013/3/ are admitting any current ASBS members to timothy_j_motley_). the group, and are also accepting requests from So far the Facebook group has 83 members and others with a genuine interest in the activities of a few people actively posting content – thanks ASBS.