Newsletter No. 166 March 2016 Price: $5.00 AUSTRALASIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY SOCIETY INCORPORATED Council President Vice President Darren Crayn Daniel Murphy Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS) Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria James Cook University, Cairns Campus Birdwood Avenue PO Box 6811, Cairns Qld 4870 Melbourne, Vic. 3004 Australia Australia Tel: (+61)/(0)7 4232 1859 Tel: (+61)/(0) 3 9252 2377 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary Treasurer Leon Perrie John Clarkson Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service PO Box 467, Wellington 6011 PO Box 975, Atherton Qld 4883 New Zealand Australia Tel: (+64)/(0) 4 381 7261 Tel: (+61)/(0) 7 4091 8170 Email: [email protected] Mobile: (+61)/(0) 437 732 487 Councillor Email: [email protected] Jennifer Tate Councillor Institute of Fundamental Sciences Mike Bayly Massey University School of Botany Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442 University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010 New Zealand Australia Tel: (+64)/(0) 6 356- 099 ext. 84718 Tel: (+61)/(0) 3 8344 5055 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Other constitutional bodies Hansjörg Eichler Research Committee Affiliate Society David Glenny Papua New Guinea Botanical Society Greg Leach Sarah Matthews Advisory Standing Committees [Vacancies to be filled by Council shortly] Financial Chair: Mike Bayly, Vice President Patrick Brownsey Grant application closing dates David Cantrill Hansjörg Eichler Research Fund: Bob Hill on March 14th and September 14th each year. Ad hoc adviser to Committee: Bruce Evans Australian Conservation Taxonomy Award: Chair: John Clarkson, Treasurer on 22nd May 2015, 2016 Grants Policy Public Officer Darren Crayn Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn Anna Monro Jen Tate Australian National Botanic Gardens Peter Weston GPO Box 1777 Peter Wilson Canberra, ACT 2601 Chair: Mike Bayly, Vice-President Tel: +61 (0)2 6250 9530 Email: [email protected] Web presence ASBS Website: www.asbs.org.au ASBS Facebook Group Webmasters Viewable currently to any member of Facebook; Anna Monro permission to post by application to administrators. Australian National Botanic Gardens Administrators Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia Todd McLay, email: [email protected] Tel: (+61)/(0) 2 6250 9530 Mike Bayly, email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Murray Fagg Cover image: Elaeocarpus sedentarius Maynard & Crayn. Australian National Botanic Gardens Leafy twig with clockwise from top: open flower, petal, Tel: (+61)/(0) 2 6250 9561 sepal, proximal end of fruit, longitudinally sectioned fruit. Email: [email protected] Artist: Catherine Wardrop (NSW). With permission of CSIRO Publishing. Publication dates of previous issue Australas. Syst. Bot. Soc. Newslett. 165 (December 2015) ASBS Web site: 3rd Feb 2016. Printed version: 9th Feb 2016. Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 166 (March 2016) From the President The year is moving along, and Council has been meeting in Brisbane, Council realised that busy. Following is a brief update on some of the should we not meet with SASB next year then major activities and developments involving there would be no further opportunity before the Society. 2021. The SASB meets once every two years National Taxonomy Workshop and had already locked in Adelaide as their In keeping with the Society’s mission to support venue for 2017. Our Brisbane colleagues have botanical systematics, Council this year offered kindly offered to host ASBS 2018 instead. The financial support in the form of registration following meeting, 2019, should be across the fee waivers (up to AU$400 value) to ASBS ditch in New Zealand. student members attending the National Hansjörg Eichler grants Systematics Workshop to be held in Adelaide On the advice of the Financial Grants in July. This workshop represents an unrivalled Standing Committee, Council has raised the training opportunity for students in the first maximum award under the Eichler scheme to three years of their candidature. Workshop AU$5000 effective from the current round. topics include phylogenetic methods, imaging Five applications have been received and the techniques, DNA barcoding, systematics theory, Research Committee is assessing these. Their nomenclature and the taxonomic process, work will be challenging if the high quality of collection management, databases, publishing applications submitted in recent past rounds results, finding a job, and much more. is maintained. I am a little surprised that the The course is now fully subscribed for this year significant increase in award value (from but the Society will keep members informed of $2000 to $5000) didn’t generate a surge of developments regarding future workshops. applications, but perhaps this will occur in future rounds as the changes bed down. As ASBS 2016 Conference always, the Research Committee members are Preparations for the Alice Springs meeting thanked for their efforts, as are the Financial have been going well. I understand venues have Grants Committee members for strategic been booked, catering is nearly organised, and advice. the session themes are close to being finalised. The conference website is up and running (Web Decadal Plan ref.). Please check it out, and in particular The Society continues to play a key role I encourage you to register your interest in in building the business case for increased attending (or not) via the website. Registration investment in systematics in Australia – this will also enable you to receive updates as they business case we are calling (for now) the are posted. A full report from the organising Decadal Plan. The Plan team comprises committee appears on p. 3 of this issue. representatives of key organisations (ASBS, SASB, CHAH, CHAFC, etc.) and other Web ref. http://asbs2016.ourplants.org interested individuals. The early development Future ASBS conferences of the Plan was a botanically focused exercise Council is keen to keep an eye on the horizon but the intention was always to broaden to and is already in discussions regarding the 2017 include the whole biological systematics conference. At this stage a joint meeting with enterprise in Australia and New Zealand. That the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists broadening has now been achieved with the non (SASB) in Adelaide is the preferred option. The botanical systematics communities on board last time the SASB and ASBS met together was through the SASB and the Council of Heads the very successful Sydney 2013 conference. of Australasian Faunal Collections (CHAFC). Delegates strongly endorsed the joint meeting Further to this, the team is considering how the model, and financially the Society did well too. Plan might enable deeper, more effective and While colleagues at the Queensland Herbarium more sustainable engagement with our regional and Queensland University of Technology neighbours in the South Pacific, New Guinea had made an attractive offer to host the 2017 and southeast Asia. As has been highlighted 1 Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 166 (March 2016) ad nauseum, developing nations harbour most significance for the Society in that the research of the world’s biodiversity but relatively little was supported with $1000 awarded to David of its taxonomic capacity. This disarticulation from the Society’s Hansjorg Eichler Scientific of taxonomic demand and supply is a critical Research Fund. The results were reported in issue for conservation and development that ASBS Newsletter 126: 17 (March 2006) and in we in the first world have a responsibility to the following two papers: help address. Maynard, D, Crayn, D, Rossetto, M, Kooyman, R, The Decadal Plan team is currently engaging Coode, M (2008) Elaeocarpus sedentarius sp. nov. with the Australian Academy of Science and (Elaeocarpaceae) - morphometric analysis of a new, rare species from eastern Australia. Australian the Royal Society of New Zealand to ensure our Systematic Botany 21, 192-200. efforts are well targeted politically, and actively Crayn, DM, Rossetto, M, Maynard, DJ (2006) seeking significant funding to undertake further Molecular phylogeny and dating reveals an development of this roadmap for our future. Oligo-Miocene radiation of dry-adapted shrubs Newsletter cover art (Tremandraceae) from rainforest tree progenitors (Elaeocarpaceae) in Australia. American Journal of One of the perks of the office of President Botany 93, 1328-1342. (perhaps the only one) is the right to choose the cover art of the ASBS Newsletter. The And finally ... Elaeocarpaceae, and in particular Elaeocarpus, As always, as your President my door (and has for some time been a principal research phone and email inbox) is always open. I interest of mine. For my term I have chosen encourage you to let me know of any issues or an illustration of Elaeocarpus sedentarius concerns you may have with the Society and its Maynard & Crayn rendered by one of the two processes ideally accompanied by suggestions wonderful staff illustrators at NSW, Catherine for improvement, or even (heaven forbid) Wardrop. The systematics of this species was kind words of encouragement when we get the subject of an Honours study by David something right! Regards Maynard who was co-supervised by Dr Darren Crayn Maurizio Rossetto and me. It has additional ASBS Inc. business A request from the Treasurer get in touch with me, I’d be happy to check. If I would like to try to achieve something that for some reason or other you no longer wish to I think most Treasurer’s dream about, but to continue with your membership of the Society, do so I need your help. I’d like to have all I’d still like to know, so that I can note this in subscriptions for 2016 paid by the end of the the membership database. financial year. If you still have to pay this John Clarkson year’s subscription I’d love to hear from you. [email protected] If you are unsure if you have paid or not, please Australasian Systematic Botany Society Inc.