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Australasian Myrtle Rust Conference

Australasian Myrtle Rust Conference

Weds 21 – Fri 23 June 2023 (field trip 24 June)
Holme Building, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW
https://eee.eventsair.com/myrtle-rust-conference/We would like to invite you to the Australasian Myrtle Rust Conference. This event will bring together researchers and experts from across Australia to discuss future Myrtle Rust management options and research priorities. Join us in Sydney from 21-23 June to discuss and learn about the latest research and management approaches. Be part of the conversation as we ask, “where to from here?”This event will include a poster session and optional field trip to view Myrtle Rust where it is heavily impacting Australian native plants.  The program outline with session themes is now available on the website with more details coming soon. Early bird registrations are open until Friday 31 March and abstract submissions will open soon.

Head to the website to find out more.

Webinar: Collective action provides hope for future recovery from Myrtle Rust

Webinar: Collective action provides hope for future recovery from Myrtle Rust

1 – 2:30 pm AEDT Wednesday 29 March 2023

Held on Teams, Click here to join the meeting at 1pm AEDT on Wednesday 29 March 2023

Myrtle Rust is known to infect close to 400 species of the Myrtaceae plant family in Australia, with a range of impact from minor to devastating. In the latter category is the rainforest tree Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides). However, collective action provides hope for future recovery.

An upcoming webinar, jointly hosted by the Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand (BGANZ) Collections and Records Management group (BCARM), with speakers from the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) and the Australian Seed Bank Partnership (ASBP), will report on two recent projects directed at saving this and other species from imminent extinction.

In this webinar, you will hear from Bob Makinson and Amelia Martyn Yenson (ANPC) about the impact of Myrtle Rust on Native Guava and take the first look at our new video on the collaborative action providing hope in the face of rapid decline. This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government.

We’ll also hear from Bradley Desmond (Acting National Coordinator, ASBP) about an inventory of priority Myrtaceae species held in ex situ collections across Australia and New Zealand. The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG) and BGANZ undertook the first country-wide stocktake of Myrtaceae insurance populations, to understand the ex-situ representation of this Myrtle Rust affected family, and inform strategic planning, management and research.

Webinar: Collective action provides hope for future recovery from Myrtle Rust

Webinar: Collective action provides hope for future recovery from Myrtle Rust

Myrtle Rust is known to infect close to 400 species of the Myrtaceae plant family in Australia, with a range of impact from minor to devastating. In the latter category is the rainforest tree Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides). However, collective action provides hope for future recovery. An upcoming webinar, jointly hosted by the Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand (BGANZ) Collections and Records Management group (BCARM), with speakers from the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) and the Australian Seed Bank Partnership (ASBP), will report on two recent projects directed at saving this and other species from imminent extinction.

In this webinar, you will hear from Bob Makinson and Amelia Martyn Yenson (ANPC) about the impact of Myrtle Rust on Native Guava and take the first look at our new video on the collaborative action providing hope in the face of rapid decline. This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government. We’ll also hear from Bradley Desmond (Acting National Coordinator, ASBP) about an inventory of priority Myrtaceae species held in ex situ collections across Australia and New Zealand. The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG) and BGANZ undertook the first country-wide stocktake of Myrtaceae insurance populations, to understand the ex-situ representation of this Myrtle Rust affected family, and inform strategic planning, management and research.

Click here to join the meeting at 1pm on Wednesday 29th March.

Native Guava Project – Propagation

Native Guava Project – Propagation

While seed is the easiest and most efficient form of germplasm to store, species such as Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides) are undergoing such significant decline due to Myrtle Rust that they no longer produce viable seeds for collection. Other species have seeds that are not suited to storage under conventional seedbanking conditions. For these species, cutting propagation is a way of capturing genetic diversity and establishing ex situ collections that provide a measure of insurance against extinction.

Our partners at the Department of Agriculture and Forestry (QLD) and the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan (NSW) are establishing new ex situ collections from wild-collected germplasm. These collections provide a source of future propagation material, an accessible collection for research and a way of distributing germplasm across partner organisations as a further measure to establish the species in safe custody.

This project received grant funding from the Australian Government.

Images below:(top) Cutting propagation of Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides) at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan. Credit: Amelia Martyn Yenson.

Native Guava Video Filming

Native Guava Video Filming

Filming continued for our ‘Safe Custody for Native Guava’ project when our production team visited The Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan recently. Peek behind the scenes as they filmed Veronica Viler preparing cuttings in the nursery, Stephanie Chen in the DNA extraction lab and the living collection of Native Guava at the ABGMA nursery. We look forward to sharing the video in early 2023! This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government. Image by Amelia Martyn Yenson