Editorial insights Rebecca Harcourt, Managing Editor
Welcome to issue 55 of THE BOTANIC GARDENer, and my first issue as Managing Editor. I must say that I am very impressed with the quality and content of the articles I have had the pleasure
Rebecca Harcourt.
to read. First, a little about me. I love nature, and especially plants. As a teenager, I wanted to be the female equivalent of my hero, David Attenborough. Rather than a general science degree, I was persuaded to study a more practical version, agricultural science, which surprisingly, for a city-bred girl, I really enjoyed. I went on to do a PhD at the University of Cambridge, England in wheat breeding and genetics and worked for many years in labs in the UK and Australia. I worked not just with wheat but with other cereals, and even eucalypts at CSIRO in Canberra. I visited the ANBG many times on a professional level to sample their Eucalyptus globulus leaves, as well as on a personal level for pure enjoyment. Over the years, I discovered that I preferred communicating about the research more than practicing it, and had a bit of a knack with words. Fast-forward to now, where I get to immerse myself in the glorious world of botanic gardens and their stories. In this edition, I chat to fellow David Attenborough fan Eric Ralls, founder and CEO of PlantSnap, with whom we have very recently partnered. In the Feature Interview, Eric describes how in PlantSnap, a plant identification app for mobile devices, he has merged technology with a love for nature and our planet. Our Feature Articles perfectly address this issue’s theme, ‘Botanic gardens: stories of recovery and regeneration’. Greg Bourke gives a harrowing first-hand account of protecting the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah throughout last summer’s bushfires, while Ian Allan describes how this remarkable garden is recovering from such a destructive event. Michael Anlezark provides us with some handy hints on what to do when your botanic garden burns down in a fascinating and very human account of the fires that impacted the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden on New Year’s Eve. Last, but not least, Wolfgang Bopp and Bede Nottingham tell us how Christchurch Botanic Gardens has survived within the last decade, not just a devastating earthquake but the disruption and uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 55 SUMMER 2020/21
