PLANT COLLECTIONS

Dried samples are stored in a special archive called a herbarium. It is similar to a library, but the information is stored in biological form rather than in book form. The first herbarium was established in Kassel, Germany in 1569. Today there are herbaria in most major cities around the world.

Herbarium collections form a valuable time capsule of information about plants, including where they are found, when they flower and what’s stored in their DNA. The collections are continually being added to and researched. They form an important source of both historical and contemporary data for those studying the impacts of climate change.

The National Herbarium of Victoria at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is internationally significant and one of Australia’s scientific and historical treasures. Among the Australian plants in the collection are those collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander at Botany Bay in 1770. Other historical riches include over 2,000 specimens collected by Robert Brown during Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia (1801–1805), and several hundred specimens collected on Burke and Wills' expedition. Important twentieth-century acquisitions include the herbaria of Raleigh Black, Cliff Beauglehole and Ilma Stone, and a collection of wood-rot fungi from CSIRO.

Curation notes by: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria with Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

A herbarium specimen has two parts: the physical specimen and the associated collecting data.

Specimens provide verifiable documentation of the past and present distribution of the species. They can reveal valuable information about plant biology including flowering time, habitat preference and associated species.

Herbarium specimens are also a source of DNA for molecular studies that reveal the evolutionary relationships between plants.

The National Herbarium of Victoria collection consists mainly of pressed and dried plant specimens mounted on archival paper, but it also contains photographs, microscope slides and collections preserved in alcohol. The collection is maintained by a staff of specialist curators.

Curation notes by: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria with Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

The most important specimens within a herbarium are the types.

A type specimen is the defining biological example of a plant – that is, it is the formal specimen to which a plant’s scientific name is attached. Scientists continually need to refer to types to know how to identify plants and to understand whether they have discovered a new species. Herbaria around the world store type specimens for reference and study.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria has the largest collection of Australian type specimens in the country, storing over 20,000 Australian types amongst its collection of approximately 1.5 million dried plant, algae and fungi specimens from around the world, all housed at the National Herbarium of Victoria in rows of metal cabinets and arranged systematically. It also holds a significant number of foreign-collected type specimens.

Pictured here is a specimen of Banksia serrata collected by the naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander when the HMS Endeavour first made landfall in Australia off the coast of Botany Bay in Gweagal and Bidjigal Country in 1770, as part of the voyage of discovery led by Captain James Cook.

Joseph Banks, after which the Banksia species is named, became celebrated in England as a botanist after collecting many species unknown to Europe during the voyage. The specimen here was originally housed at the British Museum before becoming part of the National Herbarium of Victoria collection. The sample is an iso lectotype, meaning it is one of several duplicate samples collected by Banks and Solander which have been chosen to serve as the definitive type sample for the species.

Curation notes by: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

The Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria, which includes the National Herbarium of Victoria, was founded by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1853 when he was appointed the first Victorian Government Botanist.

Mueller was an outstanding botanist and a prolific collector. He named and scientifically described more than 2,000 species, and acquired over half of the existing collection.

Pictured here is a specimen of Pimelea octophylla, the woolly riceflower or downy riceflower, collected by the botanist Robert Brown who accompanied Matthew Flinders on the ship Investigator on the first circumnavigation of Australia. Collected during an onshore expedition into Arthurs Seat in Bunurong Country while in Port Phillip Bay in 1804, this specimen is a syntype, meaning it is one of several which Brown collected at the time and which scientifically define the species. Brown published a famous survey of Australian flora (which included Pimelea and many other species unknown to European botanists) in a book called Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van-Diemen in 1810.

The specimen bears a label with von Mueller’s stamp.

Curation notes by: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

Victoria’s Herbarium has a significant collection of overseas collected plants, fungi and algae.

The majority of the foreign plants in the collection come from the herbarium of German botanist Otto Sonder. It spans all major plant groups and contains specimens from every reach of the globe. The oldest specimens in the collection date to the 1600s.

Pictured here is some old handwriting on a specimen Fontinalis squamosa, an aquatic moss. Each handwritten line notes a name for the moss, and each line is written by a different person in a different year, possibly decades apart. We can tell that from the first names written on the sheet, this specimen is pre-Linnean. To call a specimen pre-Linnean means it existed before the scientific system of naming invented by the botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the 18 century.

It is believed that the words on the third (lower) line, Fontinalis Squamosa. L., which is the Linnean name for this moss, were written by Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Carl Linnaeus’s son, in the mid to late 1700s. The middle words, Fontinalis minor lucens, use a pre-Linnean name given to the moss by the Swiss botanist Johann Kaspar Bauhin in a book published in 1651. The upper handwriting appears to be an earlier name again, suggesting it could have been written in the mid 1600s or earlier.

Curation notes by: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions.

COOL OLD PLANTS, WARM NEW WORLD

This image is of a herbarium sheet of Ranunculus victoriensis, the Victorian Buttercup, a rare plant endemic to parts of the Victorian high country.

These plants were collected by T. B. Muir on Tuesday 7 November 1961 at Wilkinson Lodge on the Bogong High Plains, at 5400ft (approximately 1650m) above sea-level. Collection occurred approximately four to six weeks after snow-melt following a season of average snow depth.

During my data collection visit at the National Herbarium of Victoria, I recall seeing this sheet and being particularly happy with how beautifully the flowers had pressed, and the detailed information provided on the label.

Around the world, climate change is a key factor explaining why many plants are reproducing earlier, or for longer periods. As the earth warms, alpine regions are changing. The snowline isn’t reaching as far down the mountains and the winter cold doesn’t last as long as it once did so the snow melts earlier. What does this mean for plants in alpine areas? In my research I am looking at herbarium collections to see whether flowering times have changed since collecting began.

For this project, I am counting flower buds, open flowers and fruits for ninety cold-adapted plant species from thousands and thousands of herbarium sheets. The reproduction phase data that I collect, along with snow depth and climate records, will allow me to determine whether or not Australia’s alpine flora is responding to climate change.

Curation notes by: Casey Gibson, PhD Candidate, Centre for Ecosystem Science and the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales.

A herbarium sheet of Ranunculus victoriensis, the Victorian Buttercup, a rare plant endemic to parts of the Victorian high country.

Here, all seven of the pressed plants on the sheet are exhibiting a reproductive phase, with open flowers being the dominant phase and flower buds as the subdominant phase.

Curation notes by: Casey Gibson, PhD Candidate, Centre for Ecosystem Science and the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales.

RARE MOUNTAIN DAISIES

Can a rare daisy that is only found growing on Victoria's cool mountain plains successfully grow somewhere warmer?

A recent experiment by the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens and Melbourne University into the growth habits of a group of alpine daisies from the genus Brachyscome tried to answer this question. Researchers tested growing different species of the daisies in environments outside their alpine habitat.

The researchers also wanted to know if there was a difference in growth habits between daisies which were quite common and those which were rare. They wanted to test if a rare species would show a strong association with their habitat type (i.e. a habitat specialist) compared to species that occur over a wider range of habitats (i.e. a common species). This is important because almost all native plants growing in Australia’s mountain regions are endemic, meaning they aren’t found elsewhere. Many live in highly specialised habitats such as sphagnum bogs, tussock grassland, shrub lands, and rocky outcrops.

Brachyscome foliosa (the collection item shown) is a small, rare alpine daisy confined to a few localities within the Australian Alps. It is listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 as a threatened species, and vulnerable in Victoria. In the Victorian Alps B. foliosa can be found growing in isolated populations above the tree line, and this particular collection grows precariously close to ski lifts in a windy alpine heathland in the Bogong Highlands.

Curation notes by: Dr Megan Hirst, Seedbank Officer, The Victorian Conservation Seedbank, The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Understanding why a species lives where it does has fascinated botanists and ecologists for centuries.

Areas within the Australian Alps have been identified as critically under threat due to climate change. Snow cover will lessen, areas of sphagnum bogs will decrease, tree lines will rise and there will be an upward migration of lowland species putting pressure on specialised high elevation plants. How will the rare species survive?

Results from the experiment found common species outperformed rare species when planted outside their natural habitats, but not in every case.

What does this tell us? Common and rare daisies exhibited some of the expected trade-offs in specialisation versus performance in a wider range of environments, but there were clear exceptions (e.g., a fast growth rate in the rare species, Brachyscome tadgellii), limiting the ability of this study to make strong predictions about how species will generally fare under rapid environmental change.

Nevertheless, the rare species maintained a high level of seed viability, which may allow them to persist as variability in alpine climates increases.

Curation notes by: Dr Megan Hirst, Seedbank Officer, The Victorian Conservation Seedbank, The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

THE GRAMPIANS PINCUSHION LILY

Borya mirabilis (Grampians Pincushion Lily) is a plant known only to exist in a single population of plants found on a rocky outcrop in the Gariwerd-Grampians region in Western Victoria.

The fragile lily only occurs in a small area of 60m x 20m. It grows in interconnected clumps known as ‘colonies’. Only seven colonies of plants (about 70 clumps in total) have ever been known to exist in the wild.

The lily grows brown, branched stems up to 15cm tall with tufts of spiky leaves. During springtime it produces attractive round heads of star-shaped white flowers. It is known as a ‘resurrection plant’ which means that though it appears to die off completely in dry periods over summer it is actually dormant and the apparently dead, brown leaves will re-green with autumn rain.

Because it has only been found in one place, researchers don’t know if the lily was recently more common and has declined because of post-colonial human impacts, or if this is a remnant population that has been rare since ancient times.

Curation notes by: Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions and Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

One of the reasons we know Borya miribilis is rare is because of the scientific plant collections kept by herbaria.

Plant collections help identify species. Information gathered regularly over time such as where a plant was found helps researchers understand which plants are common and which are rare. Plant collections and their associated datasets also help researchers map changes in habitats and distribution, while helping them research what threats might be to the extinction of species in our changing environment, and thus aiding conservation efforts.

The Grampians pincushion lily was first discovered in 1924 and eagerly sought after by naturalists, but no other formal scientific specimens were found anywhere else. A second specimen was collected in 1952 (the collection item pictured here) after which it was thought to be extinct - or a hoax - until it was rediscovered in 1981 in the same location.

Curation notes by: Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions and Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

The Grampians pincushion lily is so close to extinction it is even threatened by unknowing bushwalkers trampling on it during an off-track hike.

Parks Victoria managers at the Grampians National Park keep the precise location of the plants secret to prevent rogue collectors souveniring for illicit collections. Any damage or erosion to the soil is a danger, including disturbance by feral rabbits and goats, or echidnas and wallabies. The plant disease Cinnamon fungus, which is active in the area, could potentially wipe the lily out.

Grampians National Park (Gariwerd) is a series of sandstone mountain ranges and forests that is now listed on Australia’s National Heritage List for its Aboriginal cultural heritage, landscapes, diversity of flora and fauna and protection of threatened species. A popular bushwalking, camping and rock climbing destination, it is particularly significant to the Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali, the Traditional Owners of the area.

Curation notes by: Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions and Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

One of the most worrying things about the lily is that it lacks genetic diversity and appears not to be very fertile.

Though it flowers it has never been known to set seed and instead appears to reproduce through stem sections resprouting, meaning it is cloning itself rather than mixing its genes reproductively with other plants to create new plants. The Royal Botanical Gardens of Victoria has undertaken studies into the plant’s fertility and their research suggests it is the pollen rather than the ovules that are infertile. From plants cultivated at the Gardens, a new population of plants was established in a different part of the Grampians as a survival insurance measure. All populations continue to be closely monitored and researched.

Curation notes by: Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions and Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

The plant is adapted to cycles of drought and fire but is still vulnerable to both.

After fire caused by a lightning strike swept through the Grampians in January 2006 the original population of Grampians pincushion lilies was severely burned. Within a few months half of the plants had re-sprouted but recovery of the rest stalled, perhaps because of lack of shading plants or very dry soil due to loss of leaf litter burnt by the fire. Of the original seven colonies on the site of the fire, only four resprouted and survived. Fortunately the newly translocated population was untouched by the fire.

The reduction of rainfall, long-term drying predicted in its native habitat, and more frequent and hotter bushfires due to climate change are major threats to the lily’s survival.

Curation notes by: Lucinda Horrocks, Wind & Sky Productions and Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.