Editorial Insights Rebecca Harcourt, Managing Editor
My role as an editor, like the theme of this issue, involves collection, curation and collaboration. Collecting and curating the articles, while consulting and collaborating with the authors,
Rebecca Harcourt
other editors and the team at BGANZ, has reinforced my view that botanic gardens, and the people associated with them, are very special. These people include John Arnott, a well known botanic force of nature and the subject of this issue’s feature interview. John’s passion for and ongoing commitment to public botanic gardens and plant conservation is contagious. His many collaborations are a testament to this. One such collaboration is described by Owen Janusauskas in a feature article about the establishment of a living metacollection of at-risk Far North Queensland (FNQ) high mountain peak plant species. These plants, quite literally, have their heads in the clouds. This project, TroMPS (Tropical Mountain Plant Science Project), involves collaboration between seed banks and botanic gardens all along the east coast of Australia, including the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Cranbourne. Owen and others at Cranbourne are creating a ‘Cloud Forest’ garden with this unique plant collection, 2,800 kilometres outside its natural range. Another testament to collaboration is described by Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson in another feature article on the updated versions of three guidelines, known as the Germplasm, Florabank and Translocation Guidelines. These guidelines have input from more than a hundred contributors and reviewers and address genetic diversity, collection strategies, storage, propagation and plant return to the natural environment. While researching the article by Peter Gould and Marie Matthews of the Friends of Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens (LRBG), I came across the cartoon below. It highlights the lack of genetic diversity in the rare and critically endangered Hairy Quandong Elaeocarpus williamsianus. The trees, which exist only in a few isolated stands in north-eastern NSW, are too closely related for effective cross pollination. The LRBG aims to plant a grove of genetically different trees, which will hopefully result in the production of viable seed. This article is also a reminder of the valuable contribution of the many Friends groups who volunteer their time in gardens across Australia. 4
Cartoon reprinted with the permission of Cathy Wilcox, www.cathywilcox.com.au/.
THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 57 SUMMER 2021
