May 5, 2022 | Events Category, News
The latest webinar in our series ‘Plant treasures – in conversation’ was held on Thursday 12 May 2022. This special extended webinar focused on ‘The role of the nursery and living collections in conserving native plant species’ while highlighting current practice and future needs. You can watch the recording on our YouTube channel here.
The webinar was opened by the Germplasm Guidelines project manager, Amelia Martyn Yenson. John Arnott (Curator of horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and BGANZ Council Representative for Victoria) then gave a theme introduction before the following presentations and videos:
- VIDEO: The role of the plant nursery and living collections in ex situ conservation (John Arnott & Warren Worboys)
- Overview of the Germplasm Guidelines (Dr Amelia Martyn Yenson)
- VIDEO: Cutting propagation in the conservation nursery (Mandy Thomson)
- Trials, Tribulations & Triumphs in Managing a Botanic Gardens Seed Orchard (Lorraine Perrins)
- The role of the ANBG nursery and living collections in plant conservation (Dr Zoe Knapp)
- VIDEO: Collection, processing and storage of fern spores (Tom North)
- Biosecurity considerations in living collections (Amanda Shade)
- What we can learn from conservation of crop wild relatives? (Dr Sally Norton)
- VIDEO: Using ex situ collections of Australian native species: Translocation and other end uses (Dr Emma Dalziell, Dr Leonie Monks and Dr Andrew Crawford)
The webinar was concluded with a panel discussion facilitated by Michael Elgey (Curator Manager, The Australian Botanic garden mount Annan and BGANZ Council Representative for NSW).
This series is a collaborative project between the ANPC and BGANZ Collections and Records Management Group and is funded by a grant from The Ian Potter Foundation.
May 5, 2022 | News
The ANPC is excited to announce that we have just received a new Environment Restoration Fund – Threatened Species Strategy Action Plan Grant. Entitled “Enabling future recovery of Rhodomyrtus psidioides by safe custody ex situ” the ANPC will be working with various state government departments and botanic gardens over the next 13 months to undertake a Myrtle rust pilot dispersed-custody model to enable sampling and repropagation of surviving wild germplasm, including genetic management program. R. psidioides faces extinction in the wild due to Myrtle Rust, and survivors do not set fruit. Seeds are unorthodox, and ex situ germplasm must be kept as whole-plant collections (pending tissue culture, feasibility uncertain), and dispersed for safety. A large genebank is essential for screening for rust resistance genes, and for eventual ecologically safe reintroduction.
May 5, 2022 | News
The National Herbarium of NSW is heading to Mount Annan and will be moving their herbarium collections out of boxes and into compactus storage. There will be thousands of these boxes available, which may be useful in all sorts of nursery, garden, seedbank and storage operations, as well as herbaria. The dimensions of the boxes (in mm) are: 500 deep, 340 wide and 80 high. If you would like some please contact Hannah McPherson, Collections Manager (hannah.mcpherson@botanicgardens.nsw.gov.au).
May 5, 2022 | News
The Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience is hosting a free workshop at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney on Tuesday 10 May 2022. The workshop ‘Conservation and restoration genomics for field practitioners’ runs from 9:30am – 4pm, with lunch provided. The workshop focuses on introducing and explaining standardised workflows to guide efficient planning and application of genetic information across disparate projects. Register now at https://events.humanitix.com/introduction-to-conservation-genetics-and-genomics (limited to 50 participants).
Feb 25, 2022 | News
Hard copies of the third edition of Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia are now available to purchase from the ANPC website. This evidence-based best practice guide is the most up to date resource for the management of ex situ (off site) collections of seeds, plant tissues, or plants in nurseries and living collections. Thanks to the generous funding for this project from The Ian Potter Foundation we are able to offer our ANPC members the guidelines at a very reasonable price of AUD$25 (including postage within Australia). The revised edition contains 550 pages of case studies and evidence-based information. Head to the publications page to purchase your copy of this fantastic resource now.
Feb 25, 2022 | News
The second webinar in our series ‘Plant treasures – in conversation’ is coming up on Thursday 10 March at 1pm AEDT. This webinar, hosted in collaboration with BGANZ’s Collections and Records Management Group, will discuss biosecurity in conservation collections. We have lined up some special guests to kick start the conversation, including Dr Brett Summerell from the Australian Institute of Botanical Science, Bob Makinson, Conservation Botanist and former ANPC president and Bec Stanley of Auckland Council and former curator of the Auckland Botanic Gardens. Click here for more information and the meeting link.
