4 minute read
President’s view
Chris Russell, BGANZ President
Plant science: research in botanic gardens
We all know that botanic gardens come in different shapes and Chris Russell sizes. Diversity is one of the lovely things about our organisation, with garden membership ranging from the larger capital city gardens to leaner affairs flourishing through the efforts of volunteers, sometimes without any paid employees whatsoever. My view is that we are all involved in plant science in some way, even if it is just through the display of scientific names on plant labels or understanding and documenting the curatorial treatment that brings the best (and worst!) out of our living collections. This issue of Botanic Gardener showcases the fundamental importance of science (in all its shades) in underpinning our critical efforts in plant conservation. In the more ‘hard core’ plant research category, our congratulations go to Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Sydney with the recent launch of the Australian Institute of Botanical Science, bringing together the living collections, scientific collections and plant research and education elements under the one banner for increased impact on global biodiversity conservation. It is a very exciting development. For the less academic, I hope you enjoyed, or even participated in, the sharing of the ‘power of plants’ stories throughout May by joining the #plantchallenge. More details on this and Botanic Gardens Day activities in the next edition, including our live panel discussion hosted by the ever-generous Costa Georgiadis. Great progress has been made on the procurement of a plant record management system for BGANZ members with the tender process now completed and an anticipated launch (drum roll!) in July. If you are new to this story, we conducted a survey of our members in 2019 which showed a high level of dissatisfaction with current plant records systems, and strong support for BGANZ to take a lead role in facilitating the roll out of an affordable, user-friendly system that would meet the needs of gardens large and small and allow better sharing of information about our collections. We have selected a new product called Hortis developed by the experienced team at Botanical Software. This cloud-based system is fully compatible with mobile devices and tablets so that it can be used in the field as well as back in the office, and a recent demonstration to the BGANZ Council showed a layered and intuitive setup that I think will be attractive to users. BGANZ has negotiated for any Member Garden in the network to receive the program under special terms. Any garden joining in the first year gets the second year absolutely free. This project was established by Tex Moon and the BGANZ Victoria team. Victorian gardens are being supported by a grant under the State government’s Growing Victoria’s Botanic Gardens program. Victorian gardens get two years free subscription. A huge shout out to the team led by Tex Moon for all the work in developing system specifications followed by an exhaustive tender evaluation process to get a system that I am confident will be transformative for many of our gardens.
Earlier this year we partnered with the plant identification app PlantSnap, along with Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and the American Public Gardens Association (APGA), on a global citizen science initiative aimed at creating the world’s largest open-source database of geolocated plants. Downloading the app and photographing plants in your garden or in the wild will contribute to providing information on plant distribution, track flowering times over the years in a changing climate while providing a financial contribution to BGANZ for the funding of plant conservation projects. If your garden joins the initiative, you can access data on where visitors spend time and which plants are most popular. You will also receive demographic information collected through the app as well as access to plant photos taken in your garden. It’s a great new initiative and I really encourage you to get involved. For more information see our website https://www.bganz.org.au/bganz-plantsnap-initiative/
On a more sombre note I close with words of praise, admiration and farewell (but not goodbye!) for a couple of wonderful contributors to BGANZ — Julia Watson and Bec Stanley. Both are departing Auckland Botanic Gardens but, thankfully for the planet, are staying in the worlds of plants and people in new roles with Auckland Council. Bec was BGANZ NZ Chair and contributed to many BGANZ initiatives over the years, and Julia led BGEN through a period of growth and was a wonderful support on the BGANZ Council. We wish them both the very best for the future.
Stay well in nature.
Alive with celebration Fifty years and growing
Be captivated by Australian plants, flowers and landscapes from the Rainforest to the Red Centre. Visit the new Banksia Garden to discover the diversity of iconic Australian Banksia.
