THE BOTANIC GARDENer: Summer 2022 - Issue 59

REBECCA HARCOURT Managing Editor

DALE ARVIDSSON

Curator, Brisbane Botanic Gardens and High Profile Parks

ALAN MATCHETT

Botanic Garden Manager, Dunedin Botanic Garden

TOM McCARTER

Head of NHM Gardens, The Natural History Museum, London

JANET O’HEHIR

Secretary, Camperdown Botanic Gardens and Arboretum Trust Inc.

EAMONN FLANAGAN

Chief Executive Officer, BGANZ

SIOBHAN DUFFY Graphic Designer

DISCLAIMER: Please note the views expressed in articles are not necessarily the views of BGANZ Council. We aim to encourage a broad range of articles.

Feedback and comments on the newsletter and articles are welcome. Please email: secretariat@bganz.org.au

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

OF COUNTRY: BGANZ acknowledges the traditional owners of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders past, present and emerging.

COVER: 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress field trip participants visiting one of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria’s Orchid Conservation Program glasshouses at RBGV Cranbourne Gardens.

Credit: Rebecca Harcourt

Pollinating Great

Professional Networks

37 News from BCARM

Sheree Parker, Supervisor, Geelong Botanic Gardens, Chair of BCARM 38 News from BGEN

Paul Swift, Education and Partnership Specialist, Auckland Botanic Gardens, New Zealand, Convenor of BGEN

40 Reflections on the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress Germplasm Conservation Symposium – Germplasm Conservation in Australia – a network of expertise for a biodiverse flora

Damian Wrigley, Australian Seed Bank Partnership, The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens; David Merritt, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; The University of Western Australia; Karen Sommerville, The Australian PlantBank, Australian Institute of Botanical Science, Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan; James Wood, Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens; Jenny Guerin, South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium; Tom North, National Seed Bank, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Amelia J. Martyn Yenson, Australian Network for Plant Conservation; The Australian PlantBank, Australian Institute of Botanical Science, Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan. 48 Hortis down under: join the growing community

Havard Ostgaard and Waheed Arshad, Botanical Software Ltd

What’s New? 50 Botanic news: from home and abroad Eamonn Flanagan, CEO, BGANZ Ltd 52 Influence and action: gardens as part of a healthy environment

Sue Edwards, Assistant Marketing Manager, Home Garden, Seasol International Pty Ltd 54

7th Botanic Gardens Day 2023 – Inspirational Plants and People

Rebecca Harcourt, Admin and Comms Officer, BGANZ Ltd 56 BGANZ Ltd – Meet the Board 60 BGANZ partnerships

The theme of the next edition of The BOTANIC GARDENer is Community engagement in botanic gardens. The deadline for contributions is 10 April 2023. Please contact the Secretariat (secretariat@bganz.org.au) if you are intending to submit an article or have a contribution to other sections.

Chair’s report

It is with pleasure I write my first piece for The BOTANIC GARDENer as the incoming Chair of BGANZ Ltd. I am honoured to accept this appointment, following the incredible work of former Chairs, Lucy Sutherland and Chris Russell. I thank them for their support of members and stakeholders through the transition to the new company structure.

I endeavour to continue this culture of support. There is much strategic potential to grow BGANZ, through how the Board enacts governance, develops strategy, supports members and member services, and builds our resources to deliver on these priorities. Through my meetings with individual Board members over the last month, I know they match my enthusiasm and desire to support BGANZ taking the next steps in its evolution.

I bring strong governance aptitude and interest to the role of Chair. I currently fulfil the role of Manager of Governance and Capital Projects at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, I am a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and I chair another organisation, This Life International, which delivers on development programs in Cambodia. I have worked in government and the not-for-profit sector for many years with a particular focus on the cultural sector and creating positive social impact.

I have grown my knowledge of botanic gardens in my time with RBGV and I’m grateful for this opportunity to learn more about the sector. Botanic gardens play a vital role as keepers and teachers of plant knowledge. We demonstrate best practice; creating beautiful green spaces while assisting our communities to learn about our living and specimen collections. Our role is increasingly critical in the face of climate change and other environmental stressors. As we saw during the height of the pandemic, people flocked to our gardens for connection, healing and respite.

I was delighted to attend the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress (7GBGC) in September 2022 in Melbourne. This was a fantastic opportunity to engage with the amazing work happening in botanic gardens within the BGANZ membership and across the globe. The theme for this magazine issue is taken from the Congress and I look forward to reading the articles inspired by attendees.

I am thrilled that the Botanic Gardens Day event is once again on our calendar for 2023. This, and many other BGANZ events, are made possible by the enthusiasm and commitment of our members, Friends and volunteers. Thank you.

The 2023 Botanic Gardens Day ‘Inspirational Plants and People’ will be held on the last Sunday in May, on the 28th. Our partnership with Seasol International includes the Botanic Gardens Seasol Plant Challenge, which engages members to share photos and videos across the whole month,

Hayley Allen, BGANZ Ltd Chair

Hayley Allen

showcasing their outstanding knowledge and story-telling skills. BGANZ Botanic Gardens Day Ambassador, ABC TV Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis, will again host webinars around four themes (yet to be announced – stay tuned!). Thousands of people watched or replayed live webinars this year. We are excited to see that participation again next year and continue to grow new audiences.

BGANZ’s four Regional Groups (New South Wales/ACT, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand) and BGANZ’s two Professional Groups (BCARM and BGEN) are all actively engaged and also planning for 2023.

Our first meeting of the new Board is on 24 November 2022 where we welcome new members including our new Treasurer and Secretary. Three members of the Member Committee, Chris Russell (RBGV), Wolfgang Bopp (Christchurch Botanic Gardens) and Leonie Scriven (Botanic Gardens SA) are also members of the BGANZ Board. This member representation on the Board is guaranteed through the new BGANZ Constitution. These members are there to represent you and welcome your feedback.

As the end of year break approaches, I wish all members a wonderful holiday season. I look forward

Editorial Insights

Rebecca Harcourt, Managing Editor

I’d like to start my editorials from now on by acknowledging that I live and work on the land of the Garigal Clan of the Wannanginni Guringai people, who are the ancestral custodians of Bulbararing, Allagai and Tdjudibaring, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I’ve decided to do this as I feel it’s an appropriate start to this issue whose theme is Influence and action: botanic gardens as agents of change. As a member of the botanic garden community, I think it’s important that I ‘walk the talk’, so to speak, and make changes to my actions that might influence others to do the same.

This mindset was inspired by the recent Congress in Melbourne, which I was lucky enough to attend. It didn’t matter where in the world the attendees worked, or the size of their garden –everyone I spoke to or heard speaking at a session was trying to make a positive difference through their actions. As Dr Paul Smith, Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) said when I asked him about the role of regional gardens in the global agenda, ‘It’s down to individuals. Everyone can do something.’

Several articles in this issue illustrate Paul’s statement. For example, Toby Golson from the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra describes his (Toby’s) efforts (and those of his colleagues) to conserve the threatened species, Macadamia jansenii. In the Hort Section, Sydney horticulturalist Eliza Tyson’s thought-provoking article raises the issue of how we, both as individuals and as a garden community, need to reframe the narrative around plant ‘discovery’ and the interpretation of botanical collections according to, and in collaboration with, First Nations knowledge and people. This issue’s book review, by Virginia McNally from the University of Melbourne, also highlights the influence an individual can exert by their actions. The book is a memoir entitled Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant Punk by Tim Entwisle, Director and Chief Executive of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

Another point that struck me while at the Congress was the combined strength and influence of the various networks of botanic gardens. These include networks such as BGANZ and others like the Australian Seed Bank Partnership (ASBP), the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC), the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG), BGCI and the International Plant Sentinel Network. The strength and influence of these networks is evident in articles from the new convenors of BCARM and BGEN, and in an article that reflects on the Congress’s Germplasm Conservation Symposium by authors from ASBP, ANPC, and CHABG, among others.

Rebecca Harcourt

This issue’s Feature Interview is with Dr Paul Smith from BGCI. Paul, and others at the Congress, helped me understand how individuals and individual botanic gardens, as well as the global botanic garden community, can be influencers and agents of change. I hope the articles in this issue inspire you to be an influencer and agent of change as well.

I’d love to hear from you with any feedback on this issue or suggestions for future themes. Please feel free to email me at managing.editor@bganz.org.au

Fifty years and growing

Photo: Steve Rogers

An influencer, and an agent of change

Rebecca Harcourt interviews Dr Paul Smith, Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International

I was lucky enough to chat to Paul face-to-face while at the Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Melbourne. He told me how a series of serendipitous coincidences led him from Central Africa to Kew, and shared his thoughts on how individuals and individual botanic gardens, as well as the global botanic garden community, can be influencers and agents of change.

From the age of two I grew up in newly independent Zambia, Central Africa. It had a big impact on me. I lived almost entirely outside, barefoot in the bush. My earliest memories of plants are of Poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima and climbing up Pawpaw trees Carica papaya.

After boarding school in Botswana, where at one point I was the only white boy in the boys’ boarding house, I went to university in the UK. That was a big shock. At the end of my degree in microbiology/ biochemistry I realised I didn’t want to spend life in a lab, so I headed back to Zambia to work as a walking safari guide. On the day I arrived in the Luangwa Valley, 25 May 1986, I had a light-bulb moment where I knew I wanted to be a plant ecologist. The valley was full of magnificent trees, such as African Ebony Diospyros mespiliformis and African Winterthorn Faidherbia albida, yet there was very little information about them.

What is your earliest memory of plants and how did your interest in them evolve?

Dr Paul Smith

A young Paul in Zambia, celebrating the fourth anniversary of Independence Day, 1968.

There were lots of field guides on birds and animals but nothing on plants. So, on my walking safaris I wrote a field guide to the trees and shrubs. The Luangwa Valley national parks are among the best national parks in the world – they have an incredible density and diversity of game because of the soils and vegetation.

With no formal botany training but because I’d written the field guide, I was given the opportunity to carry out a vegetation survey of North Luangwa National Park, which had never been surveyed. I was given a Landcruiser, a rifle, an assistant − and 4,500 square kilometres to map. I collected over 1,000 plant species and set up 350 permanent ground plots. Incidentally, I was back there in July this year and found some plots with labels I’d put on 29 years earlier!

That survey work took me to Kew ultimately, because a lot of the specimens couldn’t be identified, even in the regional herbaria. This coincided with the opportunity to work on an ecological survey of Zambia in another amazing coincidence. My mother had met a man at her church in Bristol, whose dad used to work in Zambia, and he got in touch. The dad was 85-year-old Colin Trapnell, who between 1932 and 1943 had walked thousands of miles to carry out the first ecological survey of Northern Rhodesia, as it was then. He had 27 original notebooks, which he said he would pay me to transcribe. Kew Gardens was also very keen to see them published, so I got a three-year stint there. The notebooks were published by Kew in 2002 when Colin was in his mid-90s.

They describe the traditional agricultural methods, such as the rotation schedules and the old crop varieties, before the introduction of hybrid maize. Colin, one of Africa’s first ecologists, understood that the Indigenous people knew their own soils and plants, and was ahead of his time in recording this type of information. When the infamous groundnut scheme was introduced in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) after WWII (to bring soldier settlers in and grow peanuts for oil), he said it would not work because the soils are unsuitable. He lost his job because of this, but he was right. The scheme was described in 1953 as ‘the worst fiasco in recent British colonial history.’

A mopane tree Paul tagged in 1993, still intact in 2022.

Paul as a safari guide with Moto, a pet baby elephant.

Colin Trapnell (right) and Neil Clothier on ulendo (expedition) in 1933.

As the Secretary General of BGCI, tell us about your aspirations for the outcome of this Congress

There are two outcomes I would like to see. The first is using our influence for action. For example, there’s a lot of global inequity. At BGCI’s International Advisory Council meeting during the Congress, we heard from Zac Magombo from the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden in Malawi. They have very basic needs in setting up three botanic gardens there and need a lot of technical and financial support. We’re a conduit for that support.

Paul and Colin Trapnell in 2001. The notebooks were published as two 700-page volumes, and one volume of maps, entitled Ecological Survey of Zambia: The Traverse Records of C. G. Trapnell 1932-43.

They need hands-on help with, for example, landscape design, setting up irrigation systems and collections policies, which requires commitment. It’s relatively easy to raise money for conservation but for basics like that it’s very hard. That’s why we need to work much more effectively as a community.

Secondly, I would like to see us rapidly moving away from telling people there’s a problem and change the narrative to tell them what we’re doing to solve the problem. Otherwise, it’s overwhelming. There’s quite a big movement to do this in conservation, such as the IUCN’s Reverse the Red movement. There are success stories, and we can scale them up. We need to spread this optimism as a movement within our own sector and beyond, to empower people to believe they can do something to help.

Most of Australia’s botanic gardens are small, modestly resourced regional gardens –what role do you see these gardens playing in the global agenda for botanic gardens?

Most gardens are small, even within BGCI. It’s down to individuals. Everyone can do something. We’ve all got the same set of global problems that need to be tackled locally. At this Congress we’ve heard examples from Ballarat, where they’re taking on the conservation of just a few species, but that’s still significant. Noone else can do this, so there’s a responsibility.

Working to save a species is such a great thing to do with your life – anybody can do it – particularly if you have a botanic garden. One advantage of botanic gardens is that they are long-term undertakings so can take on long-lived species, such as trees.

Just take something on − it doesn’t have to be too ambitious − as a starting point.

Is there potential for BGANZ to support a wider regional network, for example, throughout Oceania?

There is potential, in places like Papua New Guinea and Samoa. You could convene a workshop to look at, for example, needs assessments, but it must be handled sensitively. There are always political sensitivities, but any support you can provide in that geographical area would be helpful. It doesn’t need to include everyone at once, it can build up over time.

What is your favourite plant?

The Mopane Tree Colophospermum mopane. It grows in Zambia, often almost like a monoculture. When it grows in the right soils it’s called Cathedral Mopane, as it has trunks that form an almost cathedral-like canopy. It has beautiful autumn foliage and unusual fruits for a legume. They are indehiscent but kidney-shaped and quite resinous. It’s sometimes called the turpentine tree because it produces a resin that is used as a firelighter. It is also the best firewood in Africa. It burns very slowly, like a cigarette, and you can see the outline of the burned trees from the air. It’s also a great browse species − elephants love it − it’s a multipurpose tree.

What is your favourite botanic garden?

I’m not allowed to say! I have one but it’s a secret.

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching that enriches your life?

I’m reading Tim Entwisle’s autobiography, of course!

Mopane trees burned in the dry season. The white shapes are ash. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. Credit: Richard du Toit, www.richarddutoit.com

Paul’s new book, Trees: From Root to Leaf, has just been published by Thames & Hudson. If you would like to review it for our next issue, please email media@bganz.org.au.

Mopane woodland (early dry season).

Mopane woodland (late dry season).

Agents of Change

Maraika van Wessem, Communications, Marketing and Media Lead, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

To the public, botanic gardens are places of solace, learning and socialising. But what about the bigger picture? More than two-thirds of the global population will be living in cities by 2050 –yet the trees that shade and make those cities liveable are under increasing threat. Can botanic gardens benefit the world, make positive change and find solutions?

In September 2022, the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress (7GBGC) was hosted in Melbourne by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV). Delegates attended workshops, panel discussions, symposia and presentations by multiple speakers where they discussed, debated and dissected the central theme of ‘Influence and action: botanic gardens as agents of change’. The Congress aimed to explore how botanic gardens can play a greater role in shaping the future and to provoke us to look at the impact of our work. I sat down with Professor Tim Entwisle, Director and Chief Executive of RBGV, to ask him for his thoughts on how botanic gardens can become agents of change.

The 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress was a thought-provoking and life-changing conference, after the uncertainties of the last few years. What makes RBGV a great host organisation?

We are certainly delighted the Congress was held here, in person, and at a time when botanic gardens are more important than ever.

I do think our gardens are two of the most beautiful and important in the world. Not just their stunning landscapes, but the science, the horticulture, the cultural programs and more. The way we combine nature, science and culture, is what makes RBGV one of the world’s great botanic gardens.

Tim Entwisle. Credit: RBGV.

‘Influence

It’s a very deliberate statement, and one that I believe in very strongly. Together the botanic gardens of the world can have a major influence on behaviours and action, and we are very much agents of change. That includes our leadership in climate action and our support for the greening of cities, through to providing places of solace and healing for people in a post-pandemic world.

Our botanic gardens are where many people first connect with nature and learn about the natural world. They are also the places where we experiment and learn about which trees and other plants will tolerate those changes and encourage visitors to change their behaviours and take action for climate change. Across all our botanic gardens and arboreta worldwide we connect with perhaps a billion visitors each year, in our landscapes and increasingly through our social media and online presence. Here in RBGV, we have over two million visitors each year to our two botanic gardens –Melbourne and Cranbourne.

We must be catalysts for change and advocates for wise decision-making and action. We must take action ourselves to respond to climate change. At our best we combine innovative science, excellence in horticulture, the very best public programming and that sheer beauty and wonder of our finely curated collections of living plants, to change the world. The Congress was our chance to learn from others to do this even better, to influence and to act for the health of this planet and its people and plants.

We must take action ourselves to respond to climate change.

What role do public gardens have in environmental, pandemic and economic recovery?

The pandemic demanded a coordinated response from all of us and we must continue to work together and be adaptive and agile in the face of the next challenge.

Our role includes new ways to think about engagement and education, new tools for managing complex horticultural landscapes, innovation and new ways of adapting as organisations to improve our social value and impact, and much more.

Attendees enjoying a chat in a break between sessions at the 7GBGC. Credit: RBGV.

Why did you choose the Congress theme,

and action: botanic gardens as agents of change’?

Bushfire, flood, drought, and extreme weather have been prominent features of life in the southern hemisphere in recent years. If this continues, will many plant species struggle to survive and what is already being done to help?

The state of Victoria is home to some amazing and important plants and animals. As it is elsewhere, our biodiversity is fragile, with climate change and land clearing major threats to its survival. As a result, RBGV has responded through our Plant Rescue and Care Unit with a wide range of programs focussed on collecting and storing plant material, genomic and conservation genetics research, and management of landscapes in cities and beyond.

A key focus for this Congress was climate resilience and action – changing behaviours, but also adapting landscapes to the already changed environment. How has RBGV undertaken these types of changes?

Our gardens are also ‘on Country’, as we say in Australia, and we must collaborate and learn from traditional custodian knowledge systems and frameworks. At the Global Conversations presentation of the Congress, our team spoke about how this traditional knowledge can be used to help our gardens become more climate resilient.

In our Melbourne and Cranbourne gardens we’ve been working with traditional owners and the Global Indigenous Design Charter to review and redesign our wayfinding and interpretation – to be rolled out over coming months. We are proud of this work and believe it is global best practice.

What can gardens do to mitigate the effects of climate change?

Climate change was a reoccurring theme at the Congress, as it should have been. In 2018 we established the Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens (CCABG) here in Melbourne and Cranbourne, a group that now includes over 500 members.

At the Congress the Landscape Succession Toolkit and the Climate Assessment Tool were launched to help botanic gardens, and soon others, to manage their collections and landscapes in the face of climate change.

What are these tools/toolkits and how will they help garden and landscape managers?

These tools were developed to help garden and landscape managers select plants that will thrive in future climates. While we must continue to halt human-induced global warming, our garden and park landscapes will need to adapt to the already changed climate.

Both tools have evolved from the Landscape Succession Strategy released by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in 2016, the first of its kind for botanic gardens in Australia and a blueprint for other botanic gardens across the world. The strategy guides the selection of trees and plants at RBGV Melbourne Garden, to those more suited to the projected climate of 2090, which is predicted to be more like present day Dubbo.

The Landscape Succession Toolkit provides a framework for botanic gardens to develop their own landscape succession strategies, while allowing botanic gardens the flexibility to discover creative solutions to their own unique challenges and opportunities. This Toolkit is made possible thanks to generous support from BGANZ Victoria.

The Climate Assessment Tool takes this a step further. It compares natural and cultivated records of over 60,000 trees and compares them to climate data projected in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios. This gives botanic gardens guidance on which trees may struggle or thrive in their future climate, and a direction for research and experimentation.

This online assessment tool was developed by the CCABG, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), RBGV and University of Tasmania.

The Landscape Succession Strategy Toolkit is available for free download from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria/CCABG website. The Climate Assessment Tool is freely available to use on the BGCI website.

Why is it important we change our behaviours now?

The world’s botanic gardens hold vast resources of horticultural and scientific knowledge, and this is our opportunity to apply these to one of the greatest challenges to face our planet. Botanic garden landscapes and their plant collections are too important for science, conservation and changing behaviours to not act now.

Recently the news reported that two-thirds of the tree species growing in the world’s cities will be at risk of dying by 2050. Is that true, and what can be done to prevent this?

Yes, in Melbourne and Sydney that number is above 90% In places like Barcelona, New Delhi and Singapore, all trees are at risk.

The Climate Assessment Tool will provide the information land managers need to select from 60,000 tree species to plant for a future climate in their city.

The Landscape Succession Toolkit helps botanic gardens to prepare a plan like we did for Melbourne Gardens in 2016, to adapt your garden to a changed climate.

Let’s strengthen the role of botanic gardens as change agents, in the cities in which we are based, and outside those cities to the lands and waters we need to care for if we want this planet and its people to survive and thrive.

For further information, please visit Landscape Succession Toolkit, Climate Assessment Tool and RBGV.

Group photo of attendees at the 7GBGC. Credit: RBGV.

On the trail of Australia’s rarest Macadamia species

Toby Golson, Senior Horticulturalist, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Since 2000, Toby Golson has been the horticulturalist responsible for the in-ground rainforest collection at the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) in Canberra. One of the species in his care is Macadamia jansenii. In 2019 he received a BGANZ professional development award, enabling him to visit wild populations of M. jansenii and to meet others working hard to conserve this threatened species.

Background

All four species of the endemic Australian genus Macadamia are threatened. They are restricted to lowland subtropical rainforest, from near Lismore in northern New South Wales to Bulburin National Park in south-east Queensland. Approximately 80% of this vegetation type has been cleared since European colonisation. Macadamia integrifolia is Australia’s best known and most commercially important indigenous bush tucker species. It has been growing at the ANBG since the 1970s, with the oldest trees flowering and fruiting regularly. Two of the three other species are also doing well in Canberra’s unfriendly climes: Macadamia ternifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla. M. tetraphylla is also an extensively grown commercial tree crop, as a hybrid with M. integrifolia. In December 2016, the head of the Landcare nursery at Gin Gin near Bundaberg, Ray Johnson, visited the gardens and kindly donated two plants of the fourth species, M. jansenii – the most recently described and rarest Macadamia species.

M. jansenii was first made known to Western botany in 1984, when native plant enthusiasts Ray Jansen and Keith Sarnadsky were walking in Bulburin National Park, inland from Bundaberg in Queensland. They recognised a fallen fruit as similar to, though much smaller than, a commercial macadamia nut. After an initial misdetermination at Queensland Herbarium, the species was formally described as M. jansenii in 1991. At the time it was restricted to one precarious population of fewer than 50 known individuals. Its rarity was immediately recognised, and it was listed as Endangered under both the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Commonwealth) and the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (Queensland). Genetic analysis was undertaken, and an ex situ gene bank collection was propagated and later conserved at Tondoon Botanic Gardens, Gladstone. In 2017, the Commonwealth Threatened Species Commissioner

included M. jansenii among 30 species in need of critical conservation intervention. This provided funding for a range of measures, including the establishment of five genetically representative replicate conservation collections at ex situ sites. The first 21 plants arrived at the ANBG in December 2020 and were planted in a prominent position in the rainforest gully. In 2021 M. jansenii was reassessed under the Nature Conservation Act and its status raised to Critically Endangered.

The Queensland trip

Travel restrictions delayed my Queensland trip until August 2022. My first destination was Tondoon Botanic Gardens where I renewed my friendship with curator Brent Braddick. I first met Brent at a BGANZ congress in Mackay in 2009. This led to an ongoing collaboration and transfer of regionally endemic species to the ANBG. This beautiful garden highlights the surrounding Port Curtis local flora and the extensive planting of M. jansenii adds significantly to its horticultural, scientific and conservation value.

The extensive planting of M. jansenii adds significantly to its [Tondoon Botanic Gardens] horticultural, scientific and conservation value

After a wonderful evening in the warm hospitality of Brent and Rayleen at Miriam Vale, Brent and I travelled south to Bulburin National Park the next morning to meet Ray Johnson, Keith Sarnadsky and local ecologist Peter Moonie. Like most of the Australian east coast, the park experienced a savage, extended drought in the years up to 2019. This was followed by fires that burned right into its heart, but which fortunately spared almost all the known M. jansenii. While also precipitating extensive flooding, consistent rainfall since then has enabled widespread recovery of the rainforest. Sadly, this has been accompanied by ever-increasing infestations of Cat’s Claw Creeper Dolichandra unguis-cati and Caesalpinia spp. We spent a full and satisfying, sunny and cool ‘winter’ day walking into three of the four sub-populations found by Keith and Ray. A thorough survey in 2020, with researchers from Dr Alison Shapcott’s team at University of the Sunshine Coast, recorded 200 plants in total, although nearly half of those were too young to reproduce. All but a couple of individuals exhibited a multi-stemmed coppice-growth form, more shrub than tree-like, which reflects a history of fire and/or physical disturbance.

M. jansenii ripe fruit. Credit: Ian McConachie.

The few tall single-stemmed specimens were no more than 8 metres high; this is also the dominant form in cultivated specimens. Many individual plants were displaying young racemes of creamy pink flowers.

Brent kept up an informative and patient stream of answers to the myriad plant identification queries raised by his travelling companions and as the sun began to set over the western ridgelines, Keith sat us down at the very spot where he and Ray Jansen had recognised the distinctive shrub overhanging the creek 40 years previously. A natural raconteur, Keith told the

story of their initial discovery of that first unusual nut through the long and winding path to formal description and recognition of a new species over a decade later. He and Ray Johnson have spent countless hours looking for further individuals and are still hopeful of locating more on the park’s rugged western side. For me, it was certainly an immeasurably rich experience to be blessed with the company of such an erudite and unaffected crew and the day was punctuated by laughter and good cheer in shared pursuit.

Ray and I farewelled the others and drove into Gin Gin where, after one of those sound night’s sleep contented exhaustion brings, the next morning I visited the local Landcare nursery that Ray has husbanded for the last 10 years. A vast army of volunteers was working on propagation activities, raking paths in the adjunct botanic garden, potting and weeding nursery benches and attending to customers. Concentrating on the endemic flora of the surrounding area, as well as subtropical and tropical fruit plants, the nursery is a thriving community resource, which he marshals with considerable energy and patience.

We then visited a property between Gin Gin and Bundaberg which belongs to Jo and Russell Marsh. They have dedicated themselves to preserving the remnant dry rainforest patches that dominate their block on the edge of the Burnett River flood plain. This has led to them voluntarily supplying seed from the property to Landcare’s nursery and these local, hardy species becoming readily available to the local community, and indeed wider afield. I spent a couple of hours madly

M. jansenii recovering from 2019 fires. Credit: Ian McConachie.

Ian and Jan McConachie at front and Ray Jansen between them in Mac country Bulburin NP 1992. Credit: Ian McConachie.

stuffing cuttings and seeds into bags and marvelling at their hard work and determination to do the right thing by the bush. The ANBG was fortunate to have the avid south-eastern Queensland environmentalist and botanist, Lloyd Bird, donate hundreds of collections of dry rainforest-propagating material to us from the 1970s to the 1990s. We know that most of these species, which are the same as, or very similar to, Jo and Russell’s, grow well, if slowly, in Canberra’s difficult climate, suffering droughts and −10 °C temperatures with remarkable resilience.

Toby inspecting a profusely flowering specimen of Macadamia ternifolia on the road between Gympie and Cedar Pocket. Credit: Ian McConachie.

We then swung by Bundaberg Botanic Gardens to visit some of the oldest cultivated plantings of M. jansenii. Later, at Childers we saw several extremely rare and stunning Isis Tamarinds Alectryon ramiflorus, both in the wild and cultivated, as well as one of the oldest cultivated M. jansenii growing and flowering beautifully, like its wild cousins, in a garden in the town. I then drove down the Bruce Highway to Gympie, where I processed the day’s collections.

The following day I enjoyed a full morning traversing a regenerating ex-soldier settlement block at Cedar Pocket east of Gympie. Since purchasing it in the 1970s, ex-forester Bob Whitworth has transformed an almost bare former dairy farm into a lush patch of subtropical rainforest dominated by towering Hoop Pines Araucaria cunninghamii. He has also been a kind and generous donor of plant material to the ANBG over the last 25 years. This arrangement harks back to John Wrigley’s time as the first curator of the Living Collections at the ANBG from 1967 to 1981. During this time, a whole swag of native plant enthusiasts, like Lloyd Bird, Society for Growing Australian Plants members and study groups from around the country would send seeds and cuttings to Canberra to assist in building up the country’s largest collection of wild-accessioned, cultivated, Indigenous plants.

Left: Bob Whitworth’s Gympie property before his regeneration work began in the mid-1970s. Right: The same property today. Credit: Bob Whitworth.

After lunch on the hoof, I met up with Ian McConachie of the Macadamia Conservation Trust (MCT), an organisation set up to conserve Australia’s wild macadamia trees in their native habitat, whose trustee is the peak body for the macadamia industry, the Australian Macadamia Society. Ian showed me several wild M. integrifolia and M. ternifolia trees in the Mary Valley before we went on to look at the newly opened Walk with Wild Macadamia track in Amamoor State Forest, set up in collaboration with Queensland’s National Parks and Wildlife Service. Ian is a veteran of 60 years in the industry as a grower and more recently as an avid conservationist and author of an upcoming definitive history of the macadamia story. He also played a major role in ensuring the establishment of ex situ conservation collections of M. jansenii, which is what had first brought us together, initially through correspondence in 2015, before meeting in person in Canberra in 2017. We shared a wonderful dinner that night with Ian’s wife, Jan, before I crawled into bed once again blissfully spent from the day’s activities.

Back at the ANBG

While I was away, 17 M. jansenii plants arrived at the ANBG – the second tranche of plants from Tondoon Botanic Gardens. These were kindly delivered by Denise Bond’s husband and daughter on their way through Canberra – couldn’t ask for better service than that! Denise is MCT’s executive officer and has played the pivotal role in seeing the M. jansenii ex situ project through. The plants will go into the ground with the warmer weather, and I have a much clearer picture of their cultivation requirements, form and stature thanks to my trip.

Acknowledgments

There are many people I would like to commend for the opportunity to undertake my visit to Bulburin and beyond. First, I would like to thank BGANZ for awarding me the professional development award. This is but one of the many ways it assists hands-on horticulturalists to further their careers, and I would urge practitioners out there to take up the challenge. It complements the immense networking possibilities provided by the biennial BGANZ congresses as well as the various virtual networks and state groups that sit under its auspices. Secondly, I would like to thank the Australian National Botanic Gardens, who supported me in the endeavour. Thirdly, and equally importantly, I would like to thank the many people who gave generously and wholeheartedly of their time, knowledge and immense good cheer. To Brent, Tondoon Botanic Gardens will indeed miss your drive and enthusiasm when you reluctantly holster your secateurs for the last time, but the garden you have been so instrumental in establishing is indeed a lush oasis. To Keith, may your wanderings around Bulburin find you more M. jansenii. To Ray, Gin Gin’s community is fortunate indeed to have you firing up their passion to grow and preserve their remarkable local flora, as is so evident in your collaboration with Jo and Russell. To Bob, your decision to forsake commercial forestry and dedicate your life to revegetating your block is inspirational. And to Ian, although we Australians often look offshore for validation, the macadamia story and your role in it should serve as a timely reminder of the richness of our indigenous plant heritage – may we treasure and value it as we ought.

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Combating Plant Blindness and Raising

a little Rarity at the 7th Global Botanic Gardens

Congress

Meg Hirst, Postdoctoral Fellow, Seed Science Research, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

After a delayed start, the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress was full steam ahead as 500 delegates from 36 countries met for a week packed with plenaries, oral presentations, symposiums, panel discussions, poster sessions and workshops. I was fortunate to be involved, meeting conference attendees from around the globe. It was both a memorable experience and a great learning opportunity. Here, I share my involvement in the Congress as a member of two teams: Botany Bootcamp and Raising Rarity. Botany Bootcamp with Georgia Warren was held in Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) for the Education and Engagement Workshop Day, and at the conference venue in Melbourne a presentation and poster were shared by the Raising Rarity team.

Education and Engagement Workshop Day Botany Bootcamp: a public program to combat plant blindness

Megan J. Hirst1, Georgia E. Warren2

1Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Victoria, Australia

2The Sustainable Landscape Company, Victoria, Australia

The springtime weather was on our side at RBGV as we began our Botany Bootcamp session with Congress participants. Botany Bootcamp promotes plant awareness at the local level, introducing basic botany and landscape design, while undertaking moderate-intensity exercise. Exercise prepares the brain to learn, and makes retaining information easier, so by undertaking short bursts of exercise followed by a botanical and practical design component we all get to enjoy the benefits of a shared outdoor learning experience.

After we warmed up, the participants (with a map and a hand lens) followed us along the planned route through the gardens (Figure 1c). We physically demonstrated the binomial system (yes, it is possible) at a Ficus macrophylla and entered Fern Gully to talk about plant blindness.

Meg Hirst

Figure 1a. Georgia and Meg with Congress participants in the Sensory Garden, RBGV. b. A Congress participant examining the florets of an everlasting. c. The Botany Bootcamp Congress map designed by Georgia, given to each workshop participant. Credit: Emily Seif.

Going big with the botany, Georgia and I decided to showcase the amazing Australian flora given our international audience. We got up close with iconic wattles, banksias and everlastings. We dissected plants in the Sensory Garden and hugged a tree (of two metres girth no less, requiring six participants for a full embrace) and through Guilfoyle’s lens, Georgia evoked the former garden director’s intention that visitors be able to enjoy sweeping views among his iconic plantings.

Plant and Biodoversity Conservation theme

Raising Rarity: Testing the Horticultural Potential for Plant Conservation

Megan Hirst, Russell Larke, Matthew Henderson, John Arnott Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Victoria, Australia

Defining rarity, and why a species occurs where it does, fascinates botanists and ecologists alike, and has for some time, though now there is an urgency attached to such work. In this presentation I spoke of the great practical importance in identifying the mechanisms that underlie rarity or commonness for the management of endangered and declining species, as well as species whose ranges are expanding. The aim of Raising Rarity is to develop a reliable program that gives back to the very thing we are all concerned about, the conservation of rare and threatened plants and raising awareness of their tenuous positions. Much support is needed for in situ conservation work and the actions required to save species at risk in the wild. Support is also needed to safeguard species through ex situ measures such as germplasm banking, living collections, and seed orcharding.

Engaging the power of the public with the power of plants, as taken from the previous Global Botanic Congress, positions botanic gardens as vital hotspots where plant science and people meet. But to raise awareness we need to be mindful of people’s perceptions and experiences.

We are worried about plant extinction and strategies necessary to combat plants at risk, yet there is another concern: the extinction of experience. If we reduce our interactions with nature, we are not only physically removing ourselves and reducing connectivity, we are less likely to know about plants. The less we know about rare plants and the processes that threaten them, the less likely we are to act for their conservation. Plant blindness and reduction in botanical knowledge are real concerns for plant conservation going forward.

As scientists and horticulturists, we recognise how programs such as Raising Rarity can be the glue connecting disparate moving parts, bringing horticultural knowledge and conservation science together with education and outreach programs to form an integrated approach. Consider conservation horticulture as the driver and change agent, actions of which are strongly aligned to key targets associated with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and Australia’s

Figure 2a. Meg presenting the Raising Rarity integrated approach for plant conservation at the Congress in the Plant and Biodiversity Conservation theme. Credit: Morgan Gostel. b. Building on a key message from the previous Congress, ‘Engage the Power of the Public with the Power of Plants’. Presentation slide, Meg Hirst.

Biodiversity Conservation Strategy (2010−2030). And with an increasing focus on developing and managing ex situ collections as part of integrated species conservation management (as referenced in the new edition of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation Germplasm Guidelines, 2021), now is the time to develop an integrated framework that embraces collaboration across an organisation’s programs and departments. Botanic gardens can be agents of change for plant conservation, and Raising Rarity is attempting to be a vital part of that.

Poster Session

Raising Rarity: The Cranbourne Collection

Matthew Henderson, Russell Larke, John Arnott, Megan Hirst Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Victoria, Australia

Conservation horticulturist, Matthew Henderson (Figure 3) designed a beautiful visual guide and supporting information panels to showcase the Raising Rarity activities undertaken at RBGV Cranbourne. Matthew presented the poster and made time throughout the Congress to connect with colleagues. This very action is an example of the vital role in engagement and science

communication for project support. Matthew’s work is showcased here, working with rare and threatened Victorian flora, and growing and displaying these species in an accessible horticultural setting. It is a complementary strategy to save plants at risk by assessing their horticultural potential and establishing their suitability for introduction into cultivated systems, such as the home garden. The long-term goal for Raising Rarity is to partner with commercial growers who are aligned with our values and vision to raise revenue that contributes to our ongoing RBGV conservation work.

And that’s a wrap

Thank you to the BGCI, BGANZ, the organising committee and everyone else involved in putting together this memorable Congress. It was a botanic feast. And a big thank you to Chris Russell RBGV Cranbourne and the awesome Raising Rarity crew (Figure 4, please note Caitlin Gray, Scott Levy and Mandy Thomson are not pictured).

Figure 3. Matthew Henderson, Conservation Horticulturist, and his Raising Rarity A0-sized creation. Credit: Caitlin Gray.

Figure 4. And that’s a Congress wrap with Costa. From left to right Chris Russell, Kaishan Qu, Russell Larke, Costa Georgiadis, John Arnott, Meg Hirst, Marie Velthoven and Matthew Henderson. Credit: Patricia Malcolm.

Visit Botanic Gardens Conservation International for more information on the Global Congress Proceedings here.

Decolonising botany: unsettling the narrative around the way we interpret botanical collections

Eliza Tyson

Eliza is a Sydney-based horticulturist with degrees in horticulture and environmental science. She is currently an external student at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory of Australia where she is studying towards a Master of Arts through the Faculty of Indigenous Futures.

Acknowledgment of Country

I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation whose unceded land I live and work on and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I recognise that the continent now called Australia was founded on the genocide and dispossession of First Nations people, and I accept that I have a responsibility to the original inhabitants of the place I call home. I extend that recognition to all First Nations and colonised peoples globally and consider myself an ally in their struggle for recognition, representation and empowerment.

Decolonising botany: unsettling the narrative around the way we interpret botanical collections

When we think of, or stroll in, the places within botanic gardens where we live and work, it might not cross our minds to imagine a time when gardening was a means of survival. The very success of the early Australian colony was dependent on the successful growing and harvesting of food resources. Gardening was crucial to colonisation in terms of survival and subsistence. By the same token, this success for the settlers meant the opposite for the First Nations inhabitants, whose means of survival and subsistence were taken away and altered forever with the taking of their land. Laws and policies of the colonisers now meant dispossession and oppression for the First Nations population, who were categorised as primitive, treated with brutality, exploited and forced to assimilate, while at the same time deprived of their culture and traditional way of life.

Fast-forward 234 years and the results of colonisation are all around us. Colonisation is more than a physical process; it is also cultural and psychological in deciding whose knowledge is privileged and who gets to be a ‘knower’. Colonisation has been pointedly called a ‘structure, not just an event’ by historian and anthropologist Patrick Wolfe. The devastating effects of colonisation on First Nations people endure today and are also passed on through generations of trauma in families.

Eliza Tyson

In the summer 2021 issue of this magazine, horticultural editor Bryn Hutchinson wrote of horticultural decolonisation and the idea that we are increasingly facing a reckoning with our colonial past and its impact on the present. More and more people are starting to seek knowledge of First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing, and an understanding of the ways colonisation has affected First Nations people on so many levels. Having worked with Bryn in the horticulture sector, our common interest in bringing this topic to light has driven many discussions and was the impetus for writing this article. I present a working model for a way forward − a place of collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, where First Nations plant knowledge is given the respect it deserves and plant species are viewed through a different lens − one that decentres Western hegemony and centres First Nations knowledges in a new imagining of what plants are, how they are named and who and what they represent.

...a place of collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, where First Nations plant knowledge is given the respect it deserves and plant species are viewed through a different lens...

Colonising/decolonising botanical collections: what does it mean?

The way living plant specimens were gathered (essentially ‘stolen’ from the colonised lands by the colonisers in the name of science), classified, named and systematised was the result of Australia’s imperial history and a legacy of colonialism. Of course, this was not the case in Australia alone. Plants were expropriated worldwide during colonial global conquests during the 16th to 19th centuries by nations such as Britain, France and Germany. The incentives for these plant ‘discovery expeditions’ included a striving for knowledge, power, food, medicine, agriculture and national pride.

The binomial nomenclature (genus and species designation) system that horticulturists and botanists are familiar with today was first outlined in Systema Naturae, devised by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (‘the father of modern taxonomy’) and published in 1735. This was a system that compartmentalised plants according to morphological differences in their reproductive organs and resulted in many odd groupings, which were not always useful or accurate. Plants have been viewed, described, classified and named through this Western lens since then.

First Nations forms of knowledge, cultural protocols, systems of classification and deep connection to plants were not considered in the naming of endemic species. This was despite First Nations people often being used by the early settlers as guides to show the location and uses of the different plants. When botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander went ashore at Botany Bay in April 1770 to collect plants for naming and classification, Banks reported that he saw ‘nothing like people’ even though he knew that the lands on which they were collecting were inhabited (and had been, as we now know, for over 60,000 years). This narrative fitted the legal doctrine of

terra nullius, Latin for ‘land of nobody’, which meant the collection and taking of plants (as with the taking of land) was deemed legal as it ‘belonged to nobody.’ The plants were then named and classified according to Banks’ and Solander’s own systems and standards of ‘scientific’ knowledge. The plants collected and sent back to Britain in the late 18th century were for the ‘betterment of the Empire’ and were seen as a way to transform the ‘waste’ of nature into economic prosperity and productivity for the benefit of the new colony. Botany was thus integral to the development of Britain’s wealth and power.

Having control of the narrative that describes and names plants that hold deep cultural significance (long before they were classified and named according to the Linnaean classification system) is an important step in the decolonisation process for First Nations people. Working towards dismantling thought systems that place Eurocentric, Western descriptors of plants above all else, through oral histories, creation stories, songlines, respecting cultural knowledge and unsettling the narrative that certain plant species were ‘discovered’ by the colonists, is a way of giving ownership back to First Nations people in an evolving ethic of care.

How did we get here?

The Black Lives Matter movement and others, such as Decolonise this Place (New York) and Rhodes Must Fall, an increase in articles published in the literature and a general push for First Nations recognition and voice globally, has gathered momentum in recent years. This has brought decolonisation to the fore and opened the conversation. Recently, the head of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Alexandre Antonelli, published an article that discussed the legacy of colonialism and the prevalence of imperialist views that exists today. It included how scientists continue to report that new species are ‘discovered’ every year, even though these species are often known and have been used by people for thousands of years in the regions in which they are ‘discovered’. The time is upon us to start to think how we might address these issues moving forward.

Decolonising is not the same as diversity

When we regard decolonising museum collections, it is not simply a matter of returning or relocating statues or objects taken from their rightful owners. Similarly, decolonising living plant collections is not just solved by adding Indigenous names to interpretation signage or creating roles for Indigenous staff. We need to be careful that decolonisation efforts do not replicate colonial behaviours and attitudes. Decolonisation is not just about representing diversity or placing First Nations names on signage. These endeavours might be viewed as tokenistic attempts at decolonisation to allay settler guilt or viewed as a form of ‘black cladding’. This is when a non-Indigenous business entity has marketed or ‘cladded’ that they are Indigenous to appear inclusive and representative of First Nations people but in reality, are not. Using Indigenous terminology and marketing in a bid to win government contracts is an example of black cladding.

Decolonisation is not just about representing diversity or placing First Nations names on signage.

We need to think about decentring the colonial narrative around so-called plant ‘discovery’ and collection, and reframe the interpretation of collections according to First Nations knowledge. If there is dispute over naming of certain species by different clans in the area where the species is found, First Nations elders would be consulted to establish the naming of plant species according to the language group in that area. It would then be stated − before the binomial name is given − that, for example, ‘this is the naming convention we are using to describe and name this plant according to Gadigal/Wangal elder’s name xxxx’. There needs to be a true acknowledgment of the over 300 language groups in Australia and the 29 clan groups in what is now the Sydney area (known collectively as the Eora Nation). Similarly, we should acknowledge and interpret significant sites of first contact such as botanic gardens for their deep cultural significance to First Nations people. Why are there no statues of Pemulwuy who fought bravely for his people in attempting to resist the colonisers but plenty of statues of the colonists, including many who were responsible for the ordering of massacres and other atrocities upon First Nations people? When will we embrace First Nations people as the oldest living continuing culture of humans on earth to be truly representative of inclusion and diversity?

Reimagining interpretation and education

A reimagining of interpretation would aim to educate and relay information of where significant plants were known to have originally stood before clearing by settlers. What were the significant sites across Sydney, for instance, where the cadi1 (or gadi) (Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea spp.) stood in abundance, or the daranggara2 (Cabbage-Tree Palms Livistona australis) used by the Dharawal and Gadigal people for their many resources? Who were the people who lived and thrived around these areas for many thousands of years, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation? Interpretation is key to educating people of the cultural significance of plants and country to First Nations people. Appropriate interpretation of significant sites across first contact areas and the adoption of a model of interpretation that aims to describe, name and classify plants as they relate to the local inhabitants of the area is imperative − a collaborative model where both Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing and non-Indigenous ways could complement and work together towards decentring universal concepts of what plants mean.

This model of interpretation and education would operate as a conscious and mindful acknowledgment and as an action towards creating meaningful representation and belonging.

1 https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/learn/living-learning/primary-school-resources/roots-shootsflowers-and-fruits/grass-trees-grass-or-trees

2 https://dictionaryofsydney.org/natural_feature/livistona_australis_cabbage_tree_palm

It would help in some way to begin to heal the trauma colonisation has inflicted upon Indigenous peoples worldwide. We must try to understand the assumptions and prejudices in our own culture and likewise garner an understanding of those in other cultures to interrogate the dominant Western system of knowledge creation. We must challenge this notion of superiority in a re-envisioned collaborative alliance that respects and celebrates First Nations peoples and culture.

A way forward

One group believing that their knowledge, understanding and value of plants is dominant over another’s is no longer an appropriate model of understanding. It can be hard to find a way forward when the narrative has been one-sided for so long. What we can do as individuals − our personal power that we all possess − is to change our own thinking. This will help us begin to understand and examine where we are positioned in our own culture and engage our relational and reflective skills to enable us to do the work of decolonising minds and words.

What we can do as individuals is to change our own thinking.

As custodians of the land for thousands of years prior to colonisation, Indigenous peoples globally hold deep knowledge of the science of sustainability, of caretaking for country and of reciprocity. Only taking what was necessary for sustenance and survival allowed for renewal and replacement of resources, not depletion and disruption to diversity and ecosystems. Indigenous people are experts of sustainability from whom we can all learn to gain a deeper engagement with nature and the interconnectedness of all things.

Further reading

Antonelli, A. (2020). Director of science at Kew: it’s time to decolonise botanical collections. https:// theconversation.com/director-of-science-at-kew-its-time-to-decolonise-botanical-collections-141070

Atlas of Living Australia. (2019). Indigenous language names in the ALA. https://www.ala.org.au/ blogs-news/indigenous-language-names-in-the-ala/ Buchan, B. (2020). Botany and the colonisation of Australia in 1770. https://theconversation.com/ botany-and-the-colonisation-of-australia-in-1770-128469

Fairbanks, E. (2015). The birth of Rhodes Must Fall. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/ nov/18/why-south-african-students-have-turned-on-their-parents-generation

Hutchinson, B. (2021). Horticulturally decolonising botanic gardens. THE BOTANIC GARDENer, 57: 55−58. https://issuu.com/bganz/docs/tbg_iss57_dec2021_final_211129

O’Dowd, F. & Heckenberg, R. (2020). What is decolonisation? https://theconversation.com/ explainer-what-is-decolonisation-131455

Summerell, B. (2022). Slave traders’ names are still stamped on native plants. It’s time to ‘decolonise’ Australia’s public gardens. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/01/ slave-traders-names-are-still-stamped-on-native-plants-its-time-to-decolonise-australias-publicgardens

Troy, J. (2019). Trees are at the heart of our country – we should learn their Indigenous names. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/01/trees-are-at-the-heart-of-our-countrywe-should-learn-their-indigenous-names

Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4):387-409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240

Wright, S. D. & Gillman, L. N. (2022). Replacing current nomenclature with pre-existing Indigenous names in algae, fungi and plants. TAXON, 71(1):6−10. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12599

An integrated approach

Matthew Nicholson, volunteer editor, Notes from the Nursery

I am a member of the nursery team in a botanic garden and also work as a bush restorer. Please get in touch if you would like to contribute to this section in the future by emailing me at nicholson20@hotmail.com.au

The roles of botanic gardens as agents of change and influence are manifold, from instituting environmental education programs for schools all the way to the brass tacks of controlling where seed is sourced and leading the way in experimental horticulture and environmental management. Botanic gardens have in recent decades undergone a necessary reinvention as institutions of environmental governance. In this capacity, they contribute worldwide to the preservation of species that have been declared extinct in the wild due to conditions such as urbanisation, pollution and global warming due to climate change. Rather than dwell at length upon our sins with respect to this, I will concentrate on the positives that various institutions, governmental policies, and individuals have had on climate change research, with examples from various academic sources.

Regardless of one’s views on climate change, the very fact that it is being discussed at governmental and non-governmental levels is indicative of the amount of concern the notion has engendered since the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer 40 years ago. This discovery led to the Montreal Protocol (1987), which sought to combat the ozone depletion caused by humanity’s use of CFCs, and was ‘the only UN treaty ever ratified by all 197 UN Member states’ (Reuters Fact Check, 2022).

During the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) rapid urbanisation occurred in many parts of the world, and changes to farming due to population shift became evident in terms of the number of people that swelled the cities. A direct result of this population shift was the number of horses providing transport on the streets of London and in other major cities around the globe. The horses produced an astronomical amount of manure, contributing to diseases like typhoid fever and cholera running rife in urbanised areas. In 1894 The Times reported that ‘in 50 years every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure’. Thus, environmental measures were put into place, such as the sewage system and, ironically, the internal combustion engine. In terms of global government legislation, the aftermath of the Great Smog of 1952 in the United Kingdom precipitated the Clean Air Act 1956, which restricted the burning of coal in domestic fires as well as in industrial furnaces.

Matthew Nicholson

Initially, a combination of electric vehicles and internal combustion engines was seen on the streets of New York and London, but thanks to the capitalism that flourished during and after the Industrial Revolution, wealthy industrialists like Henry Ford saw more benefit in championing the internal combustion engine, which powered the motor car, or ‘the horseless carriage’. These measures were arguably reasonable in the short term – they rectified the problems caused by horses, but no-one was even dimly aware of the long-term repercussions for the greater environment that carbon monoxide would create – a problem in a similar vein to the Great London Smog caused by coal fires in people’s homes and from furnaces.

Botanic gardens host several resources to aid with the task of addressing climate change. Some of these include herbaria, which provide collection waypoints and may help to chart any changes to the geographic range of a specific genus or species, provided the records extend back far enough; ‘research at botanical gardens has advanced our understanding of climate change impacts’ (Primack et al., 2021). Primack et al. (2021) cite several examples of how researchers have used resources at botanic gardens to examine changes to plants’ anatomy and phylogeny as they adapt to climate change, thereby easing the process of prioritisation for conservation. Many plants are unable to adapt quickly enough and simply die out. The tragedy is that a great many species have already gone extinct before they are even discovered by Western science and conserved in ex situ collections. Various plants, however, demonstrate the ability to adapt or to acclimate their morphology and physiology to changing environments (phenotypic plasticity). Species with greater phenotypic plasticity will have an advantage over those more narrowly adapted; for example, Holm Oak Quercus ilex seedlings close their stomata when exposed to drought (Gimeno et al., 2009).

Various plants demonstrate the ability to adapt or to acclimate their morphology and physiology to changing environments.

Other research at botanic gardens includes whether gene flow facilitates responses to climate change in terms of an ‘adaptive response’ (Anderson and Song, 2020) and evaluating whether climate change exerts unique selection, and in this exertion is disruptive of local adaptation, changing species interaction (Aguirre-Ligouri et al., 2019).

From an ethical perspective, to restore plant ecosystems globally the number of wild seeds needed is into the ‘hundreds of thousands’ (Neville et al., 2018) but overharvesting by seed collectors risks depleting seed banks unless the seeds can be ethically sourced. There is an industry standard when undertaking seed collection operations; best practice is to collect no more than 10% of an individual or population’s seed production in one season. There are several good reasons for this. First, to refresh the natural seed bank to allow for regeneration and genetic diversity – this diversity is further supplemented by the efforts of local regeneration (both Bushcare and Landcare) groups and contractors in cooperation with residents and city councils. Other reasons include ensuring that seed collectors collect sustainably – the guidelines are in place to guarantee that collectors aren’t

removing more seed from individual plants than is required for the collectors’ purposes.

Several years ago, I went on a guided tour of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) with the Australian Institute of Horticulture. We were taken to their research facility for a ‘walk and talk’, which included a tour of the Whole Tree Chambers containing specialised instruments measuring water use and rate of photosynthesis. The species they were researching was Parramatta Red Gum Eucalyptus parramattensis and its response to climate change – hence the need for atmospheric chambers. The temperature in the chambers was raised 3 °C above the average temperature in the Sydney region. The trees grew to more than 6 m in 12 months. Researchers then increased the temperature inside the chambers to 43 °C for four days; the second stage in the process demonstrating the remarkable resilience of this species to contend with severe prolonged temperate changes. The results were truly remarkable and are explained in more detail here.

Whole tree chamber at UWS. Credit: Matthew Nicholson.

In addition to the Whole Tree Chambers, plots of eucalyptus woodland were selected on which were installed a series of pipes. CO2 was funnelled through these pipes for a series of experiments on CO2 enrichment. This Eucalyptus Free-Air CO2 Enrichment facility (EucFACE) at UWS is the first in the world to study the effects of higher concentrations of CO2 in native forests. The research suggests that under elevated CO2, extra photosynthate is produced, transported below ground and respired, and, perhaps surprisingly, not used for extra growth (Drake et al., 2016; Jiang et al., 2020).

In recent decades, botanic gardens have broadened their scope to include discussion of, and research on, the effects of climate change on native plant populations. They have sought to reinvent themselves as transmitters of this knowledge in education and programs for schools; for example, interpretive signage, public engagement (such as workshops) and using significant occasions such as BGANZ’s Botanic Gardens Day to highlight the role botanic gardens play in climate change education. Due to the expansive global network of botanic gardens, the resulting impact of this public engagement has been exponential.

Some gardens possess extensive herbaria, which enable long-term tracking of ecological change over periods of global change. These valuable, and scarce, long-term datasets are used by climate-change scientists to provide ‘windows into the past’ (Lang et al., 2019) and help plan

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the management and mitigation of climate change into the future. So, using several layers of information – herbaria, government legislation, and collation of industry best practice – botanic gardens can (and are):

• disseminating information to assist with the collation of climate change and habitat dislocation caused by climate change

• providing the public with information concerning the challenges posed by climate change caused by pollution, habitat reduction/destruction, and by increased urbanisation – increased urbanisation means more concrete and open spaces, which in their turn increases heat signatures contributing to the warming of our cities and urban centres.

Urban heat islands can cause ‘thermal discomfort, higher energy consumption, and aggravated pollution effects’ (de Almeida et al., 2021), and botanic gardens have risen to the challenge of showcasing how the effects of these urban heat islands may be mitigated. Singapore has some prime examples of these mitigation measures in its showcasing of green walls and roof gardens. This is an exemplar of how this design style may be utilised to its greatest effect in an urban environment. Singaporeans did this in response to the problem of urban skyscrapers blocking sunlight to such an extent that no garden could grow. So, they used higher criticism to form a solution.

I believe one of the outstanding buildings in Singapore that includes a roof garden is the Kampung Admiralty, completed in 2017. In Australia, one of the standouts is the Sky Park and Gardens in Melbourne (designed by Nicholas Rivett for the Far East Corporation); the largest of its type in Australia. It won the inaugural Australian Institute of Horticulture’s Urban Green Space Award in 2017.

Botanic gardens (and the nursery industry in general) have an integral role to play in promoting ways in which we as communities can reduce urban heat islands and green our cities. There have been steps put in place by some local authorities to begin educating people on the vital importance of returning green spaces and vegetation to our urban and suburban landscapes. Botanic gardens can aid and assist research into climate change by sharing resources with scientists and sharing data with climatologists to be collated and rationalised. They can play a role in deciding which species are planted where in our landscape design schemes by working alongside town planners and landscape architects, providing horticultural input into species placement. By working together with these individuals, professional organisations, and government bodies, botanic gardens can be effective agents of change, and have an influence on both urban and suburban landscapes. We can utilise our broad horticultural knowledge base as an effective teaching tool to help effect that change in thinking.

Botanic gardens have an integral role to play in promoting ways in which we as communities can reduce urban heat islands and green our cities.

References

Anderson, J, & Song, B-H. (2020). Plant adaptation to climate change – where are we? Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 58(5):533−545.

Aguirre-Liguori, J, Ramírez-Barahona, S, Tiffin, P, et al. (2019). Climate change is predicted to disrupt patterns of local adaptation in wild and cultivated maize Proc. R. Soc. B. 286:20190486.

de Almeida, C, Teodoro, A, & Gonçalves, A. (2021). Study of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) using remote sensing data/techniques: a systematic review. Environments, 8(10):105.

Drake J, Macdonald C, Tjoelker M, et al. (2016). Short-term carbon cycling responses of a mature eucalypt woodland to gradual stepwise enrichment of atmospheric CO2 concentration. Glob Chang Biol. 22(1):380−90.

Gimeno, T, Pias, B, et al. (2008). Plasticity and stress tolerance override local adaptation in the responses of Mediterranean holm oak seedlings to drought and cold Tree Physiology, 29(1):87−98.

Jiang, M, Medlyn, B, Drake, J et al. (2020). The fate of carbon in a mature forest under carbon dioxide enrichment. Nature 580, 227–231.

Lang P, Willems F, Scheepens J, et al. (2019). Using herbaria to study global environmental change New Phytol. 221(1):110−122.

Neville, P, Cross, A, & Dixon, K. (2018). Ethical seed sourcing is a key issue in meeting global restoration targets. Current Biology, 28(24):R1378−79.

Primack, R, Ellwood, R, Gallinat, A, et al. (2021). The growing and vital role of botanical gardens in climate change research. New Phytologist, 231(3):917−932.

Reuters Fact Check. (2022, August 3). Fact Check-The ‘hole’ in the ozone layer was a real threat, but has been healing due to international action

Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant Punk

by Tim Entwisle

Reviewed

by Virginia McNally, Arborist/System Garden Curator, The University of Melbourne

Evergreen is a memoir that clearly demonstrates that Tim Entwisle is an influencer and an agent of change. Having top positions at some of the world’s major botanic institutions, he has been able to shape the discourse around some of the burning issues of our time, climate change and plant conservation, all while wrangling teams of top plant scientists, horticulturalists, educators, arborists and plumbers to create and manage picturesque landscapes, botanical collections and plant institutions.

To get to the point where he is clearly at the top of the tree, he takes us through his early life and his break into the botanic garden world via a summer holiday position where he attached plant specimens to paper. He then had a multitude of positions before finally becoming the head honcho.

From Tim’s Twitter feed (@TimEntwisle) with the caption, ‘Inside and outside The Bookshop at Queenscliff‘Tim Entwisle and Proclamation’ (as you’ll discover in the book)’.

Finding and naming algae became a big part of Tim’s life story. Acknowledgment of his status as a world expert in freshwater algae came when a red alga was named after him, Entwisleia bella.

Finding and naming algae became a big part of Tim’s life story.

While he didn’t give up his day job, he has had many and varied positions in the media, starting in community radio, with music and science shows and writing articles for newspapers, through to local and national broadcasts. This apprenticeship in media, along with his background in pure science, and a genial personality, has led him to become one of Australia’s most compelling science communicators.

He ponders the role of a botanic garden in modern day culture. A botanic garden is a much-loved and respected cultural institution that must be more than a selection of old trees with Latin names attached, and cannot rely on its longevity for credibility.

He gives a masterclass in how to deal with the competing interests of conducting groundbreaking plant science research, conservation, seed collecting, education, finding alternative income streams, staging crowd-pleasing cultural events and including contemporary landscape design, all within a nationally listed heritage garden while dealing with budget cuts. It takes an ambitious person with a grand vision. Tim is both, in spades.

Botanic gardens play a big role in inspiring the public to appreciate the vital contribution of plants to life on earth. He says this can be done through innovative educational programs and by encouraging the public to come to the garden. One of the standout ways of getting people through the front gate is staging blockbuster events such as the hugely popular Fire Gardens and Lightscape that lit up Melbourne in winter, at night – a difficult time slot.

This book is also part travelogue, where trips start off with a visit to the local botanic garden. He has been to over 100 botanic gardens around the world, looking for plants that attract visitors and interpretation that catches the attention.

This book is also part travelogue, where trips start off with a visit to the local botanic garden.

The soundtrack3 to this book begins with 80s indie/punk, with some major fanboying of Nick Cave. He invited Nick to plant a tree in the gardens because he wanted to be more adventurous with commemorative tree planting recipients, moving away from conventional royalty to rock royalty.

Tim is no stranger to controversy and in some instances has courted it to push public discourse out of its comfort zone. He has weathered storms such as the ‘Moreton Bay massacre’ in 2004, amidst calls for his sacking by the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

He ends by imploring botanic gardens to step up and save plants, and our planet, from arguably our biggest threat – climate change. He delights in the exponential growth of the Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens where botanic gardens around the world are researching, planning and planting plants that can adapt to the increased temperatures and decreased rainfall of the future.

Evergreen: the Botanical Life of a Plant Punk is an enjoyable, easy read because it is well written, not because it is superficial. It is liberally sprinkled with pearls of wisdom for those who work in and enjoy botanic gardens.

Evergreen: the Botanical Life of a Plant Punk is published by Thames & Hudson Australia.

3 To listen to Tim’s soundtrack to reading Evergreen: the Botanical Life of a Plant Punk, visit https://t.co/Mi6Bb5CIwy.

News from BCARM

Sheree Parker, Supervisor, Geelong Botanic Gardens, Chair of BCARM

The formation of the BGANZ Collection and Records Management group (BCARM) in 2019 has led to some great initiatives supported and driven by the BCARM Committee, and supported by the BCARM community. These include:

• The Hortis database. Now rolled out to over 20 gardens, it will establish a record system that enhances the data collected, allowing easier collection of data for regional gardens.

• The wonderfully successful monthly plant forums. Each month we have many members join, showcasing the unique niche that is a botanic garden. They help to inspire us with the world of plant collections, and how we manage and enhance collections into the future.

I work as part of a great small team at a regional botanic garden in Geelong. We don’t have a dedicated staff member to look after our plant records and we juggle many jobs between horticulture, general maintenance, with record keeping squished somewhere in between, left for those rainy or stifling hot days! Most of my horticultural work has been spent in Far North Queensland in wholesale/retail nurseries and private gardens and while we documented our work, we did not document it to the extent that best practice would suggest for a botanic garden.

I have been with Geelong Botanic Gardens for five years now and love it. As with most regional gardens, we face challenges in relation to collections management. The most apparent challenges are how we access expertise in managing plant collections, training our staff, and ensuring successful and useful accurate data is kept. That’s when I joined BCARM and started the journey of records and collections. While I feel out of my comfort zone as Chair, I know it’s a wonderful opportunity to dive into the collections and records management space, to increase my knowledge and expertise. The value of this will be reflected in Geelong’s records and eventually (fingers crossed!) help guide others.

As with most regional gardens, we face challenges in relation to collections management.

In 2023 BCARM is set to review the Living Collections Toolkit. This will tie in with one of our aims, of ‘fostering collaboration and advocating for best practices in collections and associated records management (collections management) across the BGANZ membership’

Sheree Parker

We can achieve this by:

• Holding bi-monthly forums. This will allow us to discuss ideas, best practices, initiatives, new technologies, labelling, record management systems, evolution of records, research, and development. Also, to see what we have all been up to in this space!

• Looking into common themes across the recent Congress and BGANZ. Topics could include horticulture conservation, engaging more people to train in the profession and professional development for those of us already within the industry.

• By developing networks across the community of botanic gardens. This will allow us to access a range of information and inspiration that will benefit the whole BGANZ community, from volunteer and regional to urban or city-based gardens. This will create a future for collections and record management, which underlies what we do every day at work.

To find out more about BCARM, to be added to the mailing list for forums, or if you have a related story, passion or idea to share/explore, please contact me at sparker2@geelongcity.vic.gov.au

News from BGEN

Paul Swift, Education and Partnership Specialist, Auckland Botanic Gardens, New Zealand, Convenor of BGEN

As the new Convener for the Botanic Gardens Engagement Network (BGEN) it is my privilege to help shape BGEN’s plans for 2023 and beyond alongside the rest of the Committee.

I have transitioned from working purely with visiting school groups, then exhibition development and adult learning, to a role at Auckland Botanic Gardens that encompasses interpretation, partnerships, public engagement and volunteer co-ordination.

I think that this breadth of work aligns extremely well with how BGEN can continue to develop.

Our members are often required to be adaptive, creative and flexible in the tasks that they undertake. The value of BGEN going forward will be to build upon the excellent work of our predecessors so that we can share expertise, offer support and provide relevant professional development across these broad areas of work encapsulated in the term ‘engagement’.

Paul Swift

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS

BGEN will be a hub for sharing innovative practices, research, evaluation, as well as facilitating collaboration between botanic gardens and other cultural organisations within the wider GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector. We often share the same visitors with these institutions and interestingly we often share the same staff too; so it makes perfect sense to work smartly and make sure that we keep connected with other similar professional bodies.

Many of our members are viewed as the ‘teachers’ or the people that work with the visiting school groups, however, our range of engagement is often much wider than this particular (and of course vastly important) section of our visitors.

Providing opportunities for engagement with plants and the natural environment for informal learners who are just taking their daily stroll or dog walking route through the gardens is a challenge that I am personally keen to explore. We know that many of our visitors are not actually here to find out specific details about a particular tree or flower – they are here because it is also a beautiful place to visit with family and friends or just to have some quiet time away from their busy lives. Our challenge is to engage with these visitors too – to encourage them to stop, to take notice, to cherish and hopefully begin to understand the world around them and to begin to value connections with nature that result in positive actions at both a personal and societal level.

If you are interested in becoming a BGEN member or perhaps even joining the BGEN Committee, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Paul.Swift@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

Engagement specialists connecting at RBGV Melbourne Gardens during the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress. Credit: Emily Seif.

Reflections on the 7th Global Botanic Gardens

Congress Germplasm Conservation Symposium –

Germplasm

Conservation in Australia – a network of expertise for a biodiverse flora

Damian Wrigley, Australian Seed Bank Partnership, The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens; David Merritt, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; The University of Western Australia; Karen Sommerville, The Australian PlantBank, Australian Institute of Botanical Science, Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan; James Wood, Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens; Jenny Guerin, South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium; Tom North, National Seed Bank, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Amelia J. Martyn Yenson, Australian Network for Plant Conservation; The Australian PlantBank, Australian Institute of Botanical Science, Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan. Australia is globally recognised as being one of 17 mega-diverse countries, boasting a substantial number of endemic flora and fauna. Australia’s known flowering plants exceed 23,000 species and, as identified by Dr Rachel Gallagher at the 13th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference (2022), ‘with great flora comes great responsibility’ (Gallagher, 2022); a sentiment not lost on Australia’s botanic gardens and seed banking community.

With great flora comes great responsibility.

The recent State of the Environment Report 2021 (Murphy & van Leeuwen, 2021) highlights the threats and impacts affecting the health and resilience of the Australian landscape, underscoring the challenges we face in maintaining healthy, functioning ecosystems for the future. The report’s authors were damning in their assessment of the nation’s efforts to ameliorate threats and sustainably manage the Australian environment. It is clear that better and more targeted efforts and investments are required to underpin successful conservation management interventions from researchers, practitioners and other experts across a range of disciplines if we are to reverse the current trends of degradation and decline.

By the time this article is published, the global community will be negotiating the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity at the 15th Conference of the Parties in Montreal, Canada. This important global meeting will include a concerted effort by

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS

the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation to secure support from governments for an updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, a key international strategy that helps secure support for plant conservation in Australia.

There has never been a better time to highlight the expertise and opportunities available to achieve these ambitious global goals through botanic gardens and seed banks as demonstrated at the recent 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress.

The Germplasm Conservation Symposium, held on day three of the Congress, brought together conservation experts from across the Australian Seed Bank Partnership (ASBP). Co-hosted with the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) and sponsored by the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG), the symposium demonstrated the contribution seed banks make to local, national and global efforts to conserve native plants.

The symposium covered aspects of orthodox and non-orthodox seed banking, including exceptional species, special collections, and collaborative efforts to conserve Australian orchids. The symposium wrapped up with a summary of how the implementation of Australia’s national program of seed conservation and research contributed to production of the 3rd Edition of Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia, a highly regarded manual for ex situ conservation.

In this article we summarise the proceedings of the Germplasm Conservation Symposium, and provide information on where to access the full suite of resources related to the 3rd Edition of Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia

Germplasm Symposium presenters (left-right: Amelia Martyn-Yensen, David Merritt, Jenny Guerin, James Wood, Tom North, Damian Wrigley, Karen Sommerville)

Orthodox seeds

Dr David Merritt kicked off the symposium speaking on methods for predicting the lifespan of orthodox seeds in storage. David’s talk discussed how seed banking is a primary strategy for the conservation of plant species and their genetic diversity. The vast numbers of seed banks, which have been securing seed collections globally over many many decades, are a valuable resource for preventing the extinction of wild plant species. Collecting programs in seed banks also provide propagules for a range of conservation activities, including threatened species translocations, ecological restoration, research, and public education and display in botanic gardens.

David illustrated how we are all grappling with the increase in size, diversity and age of seed collections and how this presents challenges for long-term maintenance and management. With the primary goal of seed banking being to maintain the quality and viability of the stored seeds until they are required for use – potentially years or decades into the future – it is fundamental that we collectively continue to improve our understanding of the longevity of these diverse collections to guide storage procedures and viability monitoring schedules. However, one of the challenges highlighted in the talk is that we still do not possess the means to predict, at the time of banking, how long individual collections of seeds will survive.

David delved into studies of the longevity of orthodox seeds of Australian species, including findings from the modelling of seed ageing data for hundreds of diverse species examining seed, plant, and environmental traits associated with seed longevity, and the identification of species that produce desiccation-tolerant, but short-lived, seeds. David gave a presentation on his collaborative research, targeting viability testing of older seed collections to further test the hypotheses regarding species that may produce short-lived seeds, and the application of respirometry to predict the early onset of seed viability decline in storage.

Rainforest species

Dr Karen Sommerville provided an insight into new tools to aid the conservation of rainforest seeds. These tools are critical as seed banking is an efficient method for conserving plant species ex situ but the banking of rainforest seeds has been hindered by lack of knowledge as to which species are tolerant of the necessary drying and freezing.

As part of the Rainforest Seed Conservation Project, Karen and her colleagues assessed 156 Australian rainforest species for seed banking suitability by comparing the germination of fresh seeds to that of seeds dried at 15% RH and stored at −20 °C. They found 64% of species were

David Merritt

tolerant of the drying required for standard seed banking and a further 10% were at least partially tolerant. Easily measured characteristics such as seed moisture content and dry weight were found to be useful in predicting the response to drying, leading to the development of a simple decision key that may be utilised to quickly assess the response of previously untested species.

Of 107 species tested for response to freezing after drying, 24% were found to be short-lived in storage at −20 °C. Thermal analysis showed that most species had seed components that were not stably frozen at −20 °C. These species can still be conserved by seed banking but require alternative storage temperatures that may be identified using differential scanning calorimetry.

Seed processing and germination

Mr James Wood presented on how efficient germination from seed is a critical point for many programs, and the most effective approach to supporting genetically diverse restoration or revegetation outcomes. James touched on how, for seed banks, germination is the most meaningful measure of viability, and the path required to achieving their fundamental purpose. With up to 70% of species worldwide estimated to possess some type of seed dormancy, James’ key message was that seed dormancy is not a bug but a feature of seeds, reflecting the diversity of habitats and niches these species inhabit. These traits are often an important part of a plant’s lifecycle, ensuring that seedlings emerge at optimal opportunities for establishment, or for achieving persistence in soil seed banks.

James also provided a brief review of the current scientific understanding of germination and seed dormancy, and why seed can fail to germinate. This included an explanation of practical approaches to germination testing by outlining the work of the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre, including case studies of native species and the resources available to support their conservation and use. Seed researchers still have much to learn, and require more time to do so. Successfully unlocking seed dormancy is typically achieved through a stepwise process of testing. James indicated that we must acknowledge that successful germination is only the beginning of the process for achieving successful establishment of species. There is still much work to do once dormancy is unlocked, but overcoming it is essential to addressing these further challenges.

Karen Sommerville

James Wood

Native orchids

Dr Jenny Guerin presented on how threatened orchid populations have become increasingly fragmented throughout the Mount Lofty Ranges, primarily due to loss of habitat. Ex situ conservation of orchid seeds and associated mycorrhizal fungi is crucial to preserving the remaining biodiversity still present within these isolated populations.

The South Australian Seed Conservation Centre (SASCC) has been collecting and banking threatened flora since 2003. To date over 80% of the state’s threatened plant species are conserved in long-term storage. Conservation of orchid species has become a focus in recent years, starting with a trial project in 2016 funded through NGOs.

Orchid conservation techniques such as seed collection, fungal isolation, seed germination and long-term germplasm storage have been successfully trialled within the facilities. The SASCC currently has dedicated projects to conserve several orchid species in the region in partnership with the Hills and Fleurieu Landscapes Board, councils and private landowners. The program now includes surveys to confirm population status and trends, plant propagation and translocation, as well as ex situ conservation. Case studies will be used to highlight different approaches for conserving individual orchid species.

Special collections

Mr Tom North provided delegates with an explanation on what ‘special’ collections are, such as germplasm material from ferns, mosses and liverworts, or others that have ‘special’ life history stages or growing requirements, such as carnivorous and parasitic plants. Collectively these groups are under-represented in conservation collections but through an understanding of the physiology of the tissues selected for preservation, or of the special requirements of the plants, ex situ collections of these species are achievable. Tom illustrated how working with these types of collections can mean a wider range of species are made available for use in rehabilitation, reintroduction and ecological restoration, as well as in horticulture and living collections.

Tom introduced techniques for the collection, curation, storage and propagation of plants with ‘special’ types of germplasm. This includes treatment of germplasm from non-seed-bearing land plants, spores, gametophytes, shoot tips gemmae and pollen. Tom highlighted some aspects of

Jenny Guerin

Tom North

the basic physiology of the germplasm covered and how this and the final use of the germplasm determine which storage conditions may be required.

When considering taxa with ‘special’ life histories, such as parasitic, carnivorous, and other under-represented taxa, their conservation is often driven by developing a better understanding of their role in the landscape. Due to the abundance of relatively large, oily seeds (e.g., Santalaceae, Loranthaceae) or very small seeds (e.g., Droseraceae) in this group of plants, some are known to have seeds that present storage difficulties. Since these plants are often threatened by the same processes as many seed-bearing plants, a greater effort to understand their collection, storage and growth requirements will ensure we have a better chance of securing them into the future.

3rd Edition of the Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia Guidelines

Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson wrapped up the symposium with an explanation of the recent review and development of the 3rd Edition of the Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia – strategies and guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections

The guidelines, which align with the content of the symposium, bring together decades of research and experience in conserving Australian plants in seed banks, botanic gardens and conservation nurseries. These practical, technical, evidence-based guidelines were compiled as a joint project of the ANPC and the ASBP, with funding from The Ian Potter Foundation. She gratefully acknowledged the input of 78 contributors from across the restoration and agriculture sectors, botanic gardens, CSIRO and universities.

Amelia Martyn-Yensen

The Germplasm Guidelines provide a benchmark for best practice and include 50 case studies that provide a snapshot of ex situ conservation actions from planning to collection, curation, and utilisation of germplasm across Australia and New Zealand. The Guidelines take readers through the genetics and practice of acquiring collections and the processes of seed banking, tissue culture and cryopreservation. A new chapter on the role of the nursery is added to a revised chapter on living collections. New chapters on identifying and conserving exceptional species, care of special collections such as orchids, ferns and under-represented species, risk management, and collection maintenance and utilisation have also been added.

The Germplasm Guidelines complement the third edition of the Guidelines for the Translocation of Threatened Plants in Australia and the publication of the new Florabank Guidelines for native seed collection and use for Australian restoration practitioners. The trio of publications addresses the need to protect, manage and restore the biodiverse flora of Australia in the face of threats including fragmentation, disease, changed fire regimes, and climate change.

Conclusion

The Congress theme ‘Botanic gardens as agents of change’ empowered delegates to reflect on the role that botanic gardens must play as the world grapples with the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. The long-term conservation of Australia’s native flora will depend on both in situ management and ex situ collections across our network of gardens, nurseries and seed banks. To be successful the botanic gardens community must continue to utilise the collections we hold to ensure the functional diversity of the Australian flora is maintained. We believe resources like the 3rd Edition of Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia can play a central role in these efforts by providing practical knowledge and techniques that can be replicated across seed banks, nurseries and botanic gardens. By sharing knowledge, expertise and collections, botanic gardens can be the agents of change throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The Germplasm Guidelines are available for free download and are supported by a suite of professional videos as a playlist, Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia, on the ANPC YouTube channel here. Hard copies of the guidelines can also be ordered from the ANPC website at https://www.anpc.asn.au/germplasm-guidelines-review/

References

Gallagher, RV. (2022). Mega-challenges for Australian plant diversity: fires, threats and restoring diversity at scale. 13th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference: Seeds to Recovery, Albury, 3−7 April.

Martyn Yenson, AJ, Offord, CA, Meagher, PF, et al. (eds). (2021). Plant germplasm conservation in Australia: strategies and guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections, 3rd edn, Australian Network for Plant Conservation, Canberra.

Murphy, HT, & van Leeuwen, S. (2021). Biodiversity: flora and fauna. In: Australia State of the Environment 2021. Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Canberra. https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/biodiversity/environment/flora-and-fauna

Editor’s note: We would also like to congratulate Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson for being internationally recognised by the Marsh Charitable Trust and Botanic Gardens Conservation International as the winner of the 2022 Marsh Award for International Plant Conservation due to her leadership in reviewing and updating the Germplasm Guidelines. Amelia received her award during the closing ceremony of the 7th GBGC – congratulations Amelia!

Hortis down under: join the growing community

Havard Ostgaard and Waheed Arshad, Botanical Software Ltd

In September, Havard (right) and Waheed (left) from the Hortis team joined the 7th Global Botanic Gardens Congress with an exhibit and the opportunity to meet with BGANZ member gardens. For us, it is always a pleasure and extremely valuable to our work to talk to existing users and members of the plant records community. We would like to thank everyone who came to our exhibit.

What did we learn?

Technology should be reliable, feel effortless and provide new opportunities; above all, technology should make it easier for botanical collection holders to reach their goals. The concerns and needs of the community are the driving force and inspiration for all the work we do.

Throughout the week, we had the opportunity to demonstrate how we have been rethinking plant records with Hortis, and how an affordable and user-friendly system can benefit the way you manage your collection. In addition to learning more about the specific needs of gardens, our three most important takeaways were:

• the increasing importance of data quality and collaboration

• how COVID-19 has emphasised the benefits of the cloud

• that time is the most common constraint botanic gardens struggle with.

Taking your feedback forward

Many gardens struggle with a range of challenges, including financial constraints, staffing issues, etc., but having sufficient time seems to be a constraint that is shared by everyone. If a tool is too cumbersome, it will remain unused. Through software design, we want to make sure that all users, regardless of their background, can pick up Hortis and get their work done as smoothly and efficiently as possible; a tool that requires extensive training is not a viable option.

As we are a cloud-based platform, we are also able to listen to your feedback, refine the product, and make updates at an increased pace compared with onsite systems. The most impactful part of this story is that we can deploy a new release of Hortis to every user on the planet in about 10 minutes!

With Hortis having been selected as the records management system of choice for BGANZ gardens, we are especially keen to hear feedback from current and prospective users from the community. What is working well at your institution? What workflows are you finding challenging? How would you like the tools to help your record-keeping missions?

BGANZ member discount and grant funding

When signing up to Hortis, you decide on the number of full-time and occasional users (such as part-time staff

Some features that have been recently released in Hortis: tags to organise your records, the ability to add plant materials directly from the home page, and the ability to see images in conjunction with the mapped plant materials.

or volunteers). Hortis is offering all BGANZ members double the capacity of full-time users for their first year at no additional cost. There may also be funding available for botanic gardens based in Victoria. If you think this applies to your garden or for more information about this BGANZ grant scheme, contact Tex Moon (terence.moon@parks.vic.gov.au).

Ready to onboard Hortis?

If you believe this is a good time to see how Hortis can help you and your garden, get in touch with the team at info@hortis.com or sign-up for a trial today on www.hortis.com/trial

You can also keep track of our feature updates, all of which can be found in our Release Notes

We look forward to welcoming you aboard a growing community of gardens across the region.

The number of gardens using Hortis for their plant records is growing weekly. This map shows the community in the state of Victoria alone.

Botanic news: from home and abroad

Eamonn Flanagan, CEO, BGANZ Ltd

7th GBGC BGCI/BGANZ Congress

It was great to catch up with many BGANZ members at the recent Congress held in Melbourne. After so many years of planning, and changes of plan due to COVID-19, it was amazing so many people were able to gather in person.

As always, BGCI and BGANZ Congresses bring together so many ideas and so much energy from around the globe and this congress was no different.

A huge thank you to Chris Russell and his team for a great congress. The next BGCI Congress is to be held in Singapore 2024. This may clash with the next BGANZ Congress, so we are looking to find an appropriate date.

BGANZ on the move New Board

BGANZ continues its evolution – details of new Board members can be found elsewhere in this magazine – but its members’ connection and desire to get involved is also changing.

Pandemic unites BGANZ

If the pandemic brought any benefits for botanic gardens, it was the ability of members to meet online. For the first time, members were able to meet in Zoom or Teams rooms. Previously we only could see each other at a congress, held every two years, and that’s if you or your colleagues could afford to go.

And I think we are now seeing the benefits of this innovative engagement over the last three years.

We are delighted to welcome Karen Zeng in her role as volunteer social media communications officer. She is currently a PhD student in the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre at the University of NSW in Sydney. Karen was one of the volunteers who helped us promote member gardens’ social media posts during Botanic Gardens Month this year. Since June, she has continued

Eamonn on his way to the Congress dinner the Melbourne way!

to promote member gardens, and educate members and the broader community about the projects member gardens are involved in, as well as share other posts that might be of interest to our members. Thank you, Karen!

BCARM recently saw Emma Simpkins (née Bodley) step down as her career took her out of botanic gardens, for now at least. Emma was an outstanding BGANZ Council member, BGANZ NZ member and BCARM Chair. In the past some of these leadership roles were difficult to fill, whereas now we have Sheree Parker (Geelong Botanic Gardens) as new BCARM Chair supported by Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson (Australian Network for Plant Conservation), ensuring a great team is in place to take things forward.

Similarly, BGEN Chair Ben Liu recently stepped down, and is replaced by the new BGEN Convenor/ Chair Paul Swift (Auckland Botanic Gardens) supported by Helen McHugh (Australian National Botanic Gardens), ensuring an experienced team will take the group forward.

From Congress came a proposal to start a new BGANZ professional group. This group, yet to be approved and named, will cover arborists in botanic gardens. If you’d like more information or to register your interest, please email Eamonn at secretariat@bganz.org.au. Or if you’d like to nominate the acronym fire away! (Rebecca has already suggested ‘BAG’, BGANZ Arborist Group, and I suggest ‘Barbor’).

We are always aiming to increase member opportunities and encourage members to take the next step in their professional development.

BGANZ recently assisted seven members to attend the 7th GBGC in Melbourne – each grant recipient received a free Congress registration which included the Congress, Congress dinner and several Congress tours, valuing around $1500 per person.

The BGANZ 7th GBGC winners were:

Paul Swift, Auckland Botanic Gardens, NZ

Paula Candiotto, Christchurch Botanic Gardens, NZ

Marcela Moreno, Christchurch Botanic Gardens, NZ

Sandy Wood, Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens, QLD Helena Stockheim, Picton Botanic Gardens, NSW

Ibrahim Muharrem, Picton Botanic Gardens, NSW

Stuart Elder, Rockhampton Botanic Gardens, QLD

Jennifer Duval-Smith, Botanic artist and nature journalist, NZ.

Winners with Eamonn, Sandy Wood on the left and Jennifer Duval-Smith on the right.

BGANZ Awards 2022

BGANZ has three Professional Development Awards each year. The award winners for 2022 BGANZ Professional Development Awards were announced at the Congress. (Please note: no applications were received for BGANZ – American Public Gardens Association Congress Registration in 2022).

Professional Scholarship: Value

$2,000 AUD Thomas Mehlhose, Rockhampton Botanic Gardens.

Young Member Award: Value

$500 AUD Caitin Abela, The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.

BGCI – Marsh Awards

BGCI also announced the Marsh Awards at the Congress in Melbourne. I was delighted to see Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson receiving the Marsh Award for International Plant Conservation.

Amelia receiving her award.

Influence and action: gardens as part of a healthy environment

Sue

Edwards, Assistant Marketing Manager, Home Garden, Seasol International Pty Ltd

Our home gardens, whether small or large, are places to regenerate both physically and mentally, by yourself or with family and friends. A garden is also a place to enjoy healthy home-grown produce, provide a habitat for wildlife, and breath in clean air.

A home garden is a small version of a botanic garden with a diversity of plants, areas of lawn, shady trees and

Caitin Abela

Thomas Mehlhose

places to explore. To keep your home garden in tip top condition, it needs to be nurtured and maintained, just like a botanic garden.

As all gardeners know, good plant maintenance starts below the ground. A healthy fertile soil that’s full of beneficial microbes and worms ensures water and nutrients are available to plants to fuel their above-ground growth.

You may not be a horticulturist or trained gardener, but you have all the tools needed to make your garden flourish. Maintaining healthy soil is achievable by adding homemade compost, organic manure and/or Seasol Super Compost, regularly throughout the seasons.

Above the ground, plants need sun, water and nutrients to keep them looking good, blooming or producing tasty edible produce. They also require regular maintenance, such as pruning, pest and disease control, feeding and watering.

Knowing a few tips and tricks helps to make this maintenance easier. For example, did you know that watering for longer periods, less often, is more beneficial to most gardens than shorter, more frequent watering?

This watering regime encourages root systems to delve down into the soil searching for moisture and nutrients.

Feeding plants with a liquid fertiliser such as PowerFeed All Purpose including Natives or a granular one such as PowerFeed with Troforte All Purpose including Natives provides balanced nutrients and trace elements for strong, healthy plant growth, flowering and fruiting. A seaweed plant tonic such as Seasol also helps to increase a plant’s tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, cold and frost.

Keeping plants healthy, strong and happy also helps to increase their tolerance to natural enemies such as pests and diseases. While many insects are pests, some are beneficial as they help to reduce the infestation of other pests. Ladybirds for example feed on aphids. When a predator pest isn’t available to bring things under control and the pest is harmful to the plant, then a natural pesticide such as EarthCare White Oil Insect spray can help to reduce pest numbers and restore the plant’s health.

Caring for your garden ensures its healthy and strong and, like your local botanic garden, park or bushland, adds to the green space that helps keep our planet a little healthier and a happier place to be.

7th Botanic Gardens Day 2023 – Inspirational Plants and People

Rebecca Harcourt, Admin and Comms Officer, BGANZ Ltd

The Botanic Gardens Day project team is working hard to organise our 2023 events so that member gardens can plan accordingly. To date, our plans include:

• Botanic Gardens Day 2023 will be held on the last Sunday in May, Sunday the 28th, 2023. Put it on the calendar now!

• Next year’s theme is Inspirational Plants and People

• We aim to have four online webinars – hosted by Costa again – every Thursday evening in May.

• The BGANZ Seasol Plant Challenge Video (or image) will be released across the month of May.

• We aim to have a BGEN or BCARM Professional Development event (TBC) during May.

• We will promote member garden botanic gardens events in the lead up to and during May.

Botanic Gardens ‘Month of May’

3rd BGANZ Seasol Plant Challenge

• Seasol International are again partnering with BGANZ to highlight the knowledge and expertise held within the amazing BGANZ membership. The Seasol Plant Challenge is open to anyone, but it has been the employees, friends and volunteers within botanic gardens who continue to steal the show.

• Remember the video can be made at any time of year – so if your favourite or inspiring plant is in flower now, get your Plant Challenge in the can today.

• There will be prizes in several categories. You could win a whole year’s supply of Seasol for your botanic garden!

Please email media@bganz.org.au and advise us of your plans to participate so that we can share your images and videos across May.

Four Webinars every Thursday evening in May

In the lead up to Botanic Gardens Day on 28 May, BGANZ will again hold four online webinars, hosted by Costa Georgiadis, highlighting members and their amazing knowledge.

We welcome ideas around topics and people − members or non-members that you think could make for an entertaining and educational webinar. Get your thinking caps on!

Email media@bganz.org.au with your ideas.

Botanic Gardens Day 2023 – do you want Costa to visit your garden?

Costa was in Wollongong Botanic Garden for the whole day in 2021. In 2022 he livestreamed with Charles Clarke from Cairns Botanic Gardens. Later Costa joined the botanic gardens day conversation on Melbourne Community Radio.

We are expecting to have Costa roaming and livestreaming on botanic gardens day again in 2023 –if you’d like Costa at your garden on botanic gardens day it might just happen…

Email media@bganz.org.au with ‘We want Costa’ in your subject line − the earlier the better as he is a busy fellow. Outline in brief how you could involve Costa on the day – it can be for a shorter or longer period. Last year he was at a conference in Cairns – so he decided to nip down to Cairns Botanic Gardens early morning to livestream!

Member garden events

Let me know at media@bganz.org.au what events your gardens are planning to hold during May 2023 and we’ll promote them in the lead up to and during May.

Let’s celebrate botanic gardens, their staff, our members and volunteers and the marvellous work they do, and the role you and they play in plant conservation.

The three major prize winners of the 2022 BGANZ Seasol Plant Challenge were:

Natsuo Locke, WA. ‘I love kangaroo paws, unique and bright coloured Australian iconic flower which make me happy. I’m very proud to success for growing from seeds.’

Belinda Burns, NSW. ‘Banksia spinulosa, my kids call them dinosaur toothbrushes! They look prehistoric, but oh so majestic! Beautiful native blooms in the backyard.’

Emma Karpin, NSW. ‘Memories of Snugglepot and cuddle pie and the thought that the big bad banksia man is nearby make me smile when I see this flowering!’

BGANZ Ltd – Meet the Board

At the April 2022 BGANZ Special General Meeting members approved the next evolution of BGANZ. BGANZ Ltd commenced 1 July 2022.

BGANZ Ltd can now announce that the membership of its first Board is now complete. Newly appointed BGANZ Board Chair, Hayley Allen, Board Secretary, Marianne Cullen, and Board Treasurer Katherine Zhang join the existing Board members. A full Board Meeting was held for the first time in November.

Meet the Board

Hayley Lee Allen, Board Chair

Hayley Allen is a governance manager with specific experience delivering business initiatives in the cultural sector including strategic planning, board performance, governance framework and policy development, legislative compliance, preparation of business cases for public construction, and capital project management.

Hayley has worked across premier arts and cultural institutions National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Recital Centre, Bendigo Art Gallery and State Library Victoria delivering on corporate and education partnerships, donor engagement and fundraising, and major events and festivals across contemporary and classical music, visual arts, and comedy.

In 2015, Hayley administered strategic partnerships to support award-winning programs and revenue growth for This Life International while living in Siem Reap, connecting with global leaders the International Red Cross to expand juvenile justice programming for youth in prison in Cambodia. Hayley was appointed to the Board of This Life in 2019, and as Chair in 2021. Hayley managed the logistics for the Leader of the Australian Greens throughout the extended 2016 double dissolution federal election and parliamentary sittings, working from the Australian federal parliament in Canberra and the Leader’s Office in Melbourne.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, she currently fulfils the role of Manager, Governance and Projects at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

Marianne Cullen, Board Secretary

Marianne is a naturally curious, collegiate and accomplished senior executive. Collaborating with Ministers, boards and diverse stakeholder groups, she has made a tangible difference to the way Australians life their lives in the 21st century through the programs of work she has designed and delivered.

With a focus on strategy and governance, community and stakeholder engagement, business modernisation and change management, she has led nationally significant policy reform programs and financial transactions, including asset sales, the switch to digital TV, the development of the National Broadband Network, and the development of major water infrastructure projects in NSW. She has represented the Australian government internationally, including contributing to the development of OECD guidelines on the governance of government-owned entities.

Marianne is passionate about delivering public value through the design and implementation of innovative, customer-centric business models, enabled by technology and new ways of working. In 2022, she led the pre-polling and polling day strategy and implementation for the successful campaign to elect David Pocock as the first Independent Senator for the ACT.

In the 2013 Australia Day Honours List she was awarded the Public Service Medal for the development and implementation of the National Broadband Network.

Katherine Zhang, Board Treasurer

Katherine Zhang has over 11 years’ experience in various financial roles. Katherine is currently the Head of Finance at Mobo Group, leading Corporate Services with responsibilities including Finance, Information Communications Technology and Administration. She has previously worked with some of South Australia’s largest not-for-profit organisations including Business SA, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Hostplus and Uniting Communities. With extensive skills in strategic planning, operations improvement, financial risk management and ITC System Transformation, Katherine is passionate about the growth of BGANZ and securing its long-term financial sustainability.

Katherine holds a Master of Accounting and Finance, Bachelor of Finance and is a Chartered Accountant.

Wolfgang Bopp, Director

In 1991 Wolfgang moved from Germany to the UK to study the Botanic Gardens Diploma at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He supported the research work for the World List of Threatened Trees book of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre before becoming Assistant Curator at Ness Botanic Gardens. In 1998 he became the first Curator of the National Botanic Gardens of Wales. In 2004 he moved to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens as Curator, later becoming the Director.

For 10 years Wolfgang was a trustee of Plantnet, the plant collections network of the UK and Ireland. He has been a plant committee member of the Royal Horticultural Society, including a Vice-Chairman of the Woody Plant Committee. In 2018 Wolfgang moved to Christchurch where he is Director of the Botanic Gardens and Garden Parks. He is a trustee of the NZ Gardens Trust and the Horticultural Ambassador for Grow tautahi, Christchurch Garden Festival.

Rohan Butler, Director

Rohan has over 17 years of senior-level experience, which has seen him secure competitive advantages and deliver solid and profitable outcomes across national and international markets. As a General Manager for Seasol International, Rohan significantly expanded Seasol’s brand portfolio and presence within the domestic gardening market, doubling revenue overall and tripling market share within New Zealand. As the National Retail and Business Manager for ED Oates, he led the >30% growth of key accounts with major retailers, including Coles, Bunnings and Woolworths. He has an appetite for challenge and a deep commitment to driving generational sustainability. This commitment led Rohan to apply for a position on the Board of BGANZ. The ability to support such an organisation is a big driver for him personally. He hopes to help drive the strategy for BGANZ as a whole and help the group strengthen and grow into the future, supplying sustainable environments for our future generations to learn and love all aspects of horticulture and gardening.

Peter Byron, Director

Peter has over 30 years’ experience in management of parks and gardens at commonwealth, state and local government levels. Peter has been the General Manager at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra since 2010.He is responsible for the operations of the gardens including strategic planning, management of the living collection, new developments, visitor programs and corporate services.

Kate Russell, Director

Kate Russell has a 30-year history in the not-for-profit sector, working in various fundraising and marketing positions before spending 15 years as a CEO of two of New Zealand’s most respected charities. Awarded the Officer of New Zealand of Merit in 2018 for services to governance and health, Kate has spent the past five years working as the Programmes and Partnerships Manager for the Parks unit of the Christchurch City Council. Chair of the NZ Parks Leaders Forum, Kate is focused on partnerships between territorial authorities and the community for the development of the country’s greenspaces.

Chris Russell, Director

Chris Russell is an experienced botanic garden executive and is currently Executive Director of Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. Chris has experience in the fields of strategic planning, public garden and natural resource management, tourism and education, coupled with tertiary qualifications in science and land management. He is immediate past President of BGANZ Council and serves on a variety of not-for-profit tourism and industry boards and committees. This combination provides Chris with broad insight into the challenges facing contemporary botanic gardens and the importance of effective membership organisations in supporting the growth of our sector.

Dr Leonie Scriven, Director

Leonie is an experienced strategist and leader, with over 25 years’ experience in botanic garden’s management, public realm development and maintenance, community development and visitor experience programming, master planning and infrastructure delivery. She has a doctorate in taxonomy and palaeobotany, as well as business administration and company director qualifications. Leonie has held executive and senior positions in three Australian botanic gardens, in local and state government and in university research administration. As State Manager and Principal Scientist of a highly successful environmental consulting company, she has worked on many important environmental issues in southern Australia. As well as working with and within boards, Leonie has contributed to local and national strategic committees and task forces. An engaging storyteller, she promotes the critical work of botanic gardens at every opportunity. Currently, Leonie is the Deputy Director Collections at the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia.

BGANZ partnerships

Seasol International and Australian National Botanic Gardens continue to partner with BGANZ Ltd as BGANZ enters the next stage of its evolution.

Seasol International have partnered with BGANZ for a fourth year. The support of Alick Osbourne and the Seasol International team has been outstanding, and we’ve seen the partnership extend in different ways in the last year or so. Seasol International have naming rights to the Botanic Gardens

Seasol Plant Challenge Video series, which will be a highlight throughout May 2023 as we lead into Sunday 28 May (last Sunday in May) Botanic Gardens Day 2023. The Seasol Plant Challenge remains a highlight of the BGANZ year. The sharing of knowledge and expertise from our members and member gardens has been a great source of education and entertainment. It’s amazing the knowledge stored in our gardens; in our members. We value the long-term support of Seasol International – enabling in part the resources to ensure the long term viability of BGANZ.

Seasol International has tremendous brand recognition among botanic gardens employees and is used by many gardens. Once again Seasol International will have several prizes on offer to members, garden groups and the general public. Be sure to take part in the Botanic Gardens Seasol Plant Challenge Video or watch any of the Botanic Gardens Day Ambassador Costa Geordiadishosted BGANZ webinars throughout May and you could be in with a chance to win some Seasol products for your botanic garden or your home garden.

Remember most of the Botanic Gardens Seasol Plant Challenge videos and all the Botanic Gardens Day 2022 Webinar Series are available to watch on the BGANZ YouTube channel.

And with spring in the garden – now is a great time to get your Seasol Plant challenge Video recorded for use in May.

Augusta Golf Carts have been a long-term partner of BGANZ and we thank Raymond Georgiou, Graham Janssen and the team at Augusta. Through the COVID-19 period when Augusta had significant challenges with production items in ports overseas, Augusta continued to find a way to support BGANZ. If you are thinking of buying a people mover, maintenance vehicle or other transportation vehicle, be sure to give Augusta an opportunity to quote. Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens are the latest garden to take ownership of an Augusta people mover.

A special guide ride this morning with Kate Heffernan, in preparation of our new Botanic Gardens Glider service. Image and caption from Friends of Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens FaceBook page.

Australian National Botanic Gardens remain a key partner providing ongoing office space and office support for BGANZ. The support of the staff at ANBG has been constant and it remains a great place to work and talk all things botanic gardens. There can’t be many better offices in the world than those at a botanic garden.

www.bganz.org.au