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DISCOVERING , UNDERSTANDING AND PROTECTING PLANTS Australian Institute of Botanical Science

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Page 1: Australian Institute of Botanical Science DISCOVERING

DISCOVERING, UNDERSTANDING AND PROTECTING

PLANTS

Australian Institute of Botanical Science

Page 2: Australian Institute of Botanical Science DISCOVERING

THE VITAL SCIENCE

AT WORK

Centre for Education and Engagement 22

Collaborating with scientists from Australia and all over the world 24

Our science in numbers 26

Our services 28

• Flora of NSW online • Botanical Information service • Plant Disease Diagnostic Unit

Advisory Council and further info 30

Contents

C O V E R I M A G E : Boronia ledifolia I M A G E : Lenwebbia prominens

Our vision for science 4

Foreword 6

What is the Australian Institute of Botanical Science? 8

Flagship programs

• Discovering, understanding and documenting plants 10 • Unlocking our collections 12 • Long-term conservation 14 • No species need ever go extinct 16 • Ensuring resilient ecosystems 18 • Greening the urban environment sustainably 20

We recognise that our understanding of plants and their environment is informed by thousands of years of knowledge generated by First Nation’s people in plant taxonomy, ecology and ecosystem engineering in order to sustainably manage the landscapes of Australia. Our aim is to generate science that will continue this connection with country and to work in partnership with First Nation people to promote a broader appreciation of Australia’s unique flora.

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Leaves of the Wollomi Pine, Wollemia nobilis

OUR VISION FOR SCIENCE:Our world leading research and collections advance fundamental knowledge of plants and drive effective conservation.

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PROTECTING. CONSERVING.TRAINING. INSPIRING.

The Australian PlantBank. Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan

prolonged contributions to documenting, understanding and protecting plant life in Australia.

With the establishment of the Australian Institute of Botanical Science (AIBS) we have ambitious plans to expand and elevate our role in botanical science on a local, national and global scale. As the fires, droughts and other devastating events in Australia have exemplified, protecting plants is no easy task but indeed a vital one. By training and inspiring the next generation of plant scientists we aspire to look forward and work with our collaborators, partners and the community to ensure Australia’s plant species are protected for generations to come.

FOREWORD The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust is Australia’s oldest continually operating scientific organisation and has been leading the discovery, documentation and conservation of plant life in the country for over 200 years. Over time the priority has shifted from developing critical economic industries based on plants to an urgent need to document and conserve Australia’s unique flora. Now in the midst of climate change, habitat loss and the extinction crisis, exemplified by the bush fires in the summer of 2019/20, the impetus to ensure species are securely conserved is vital for our plants and all life that depends on them. In its various guises the Gardens and its scientists have made substantial and

Philip Marcus Clark AO Chairman, Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust

Denise Ora Chief Executive, Botanic Gardens Greater Sydney

The Hon. (Rob) Robert Gordon Stokes, MPMinister for Planning and Public Spaces

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WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF BOTANICAL SCIENCE?

Daniel Solander Library – a unique repository of horticultural and botanical knowledge, the Library holds a wealth of information from some of the earliest botanical publications up to the latest cutting edge research. These collections support our research programs as well as education and outreach programs for the whole community.

Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience – based at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, the Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience focuses on providing genetic expertise and evidenced-based information on how to restore, repair and protect native ecosystems confronted by climate change, degradation and the impacts of invasive pathogens. The ReCER includes the flagship project “Restore and Renew”, programs on threatened species genetics to support conservation and biosecurity research on diseases affecting plants in gardens, parks and in our natural environments.

The living collections at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah – each of these gardens contain a scientific resource of plant material of known provenance that has been collected in the wild that can be used in a range of scientific endeavours. Our nurseries and propagation facilities are critical in the production of plants for use in supplementing at risk plant populations. Our collections contain plants that will have potential for use in the development of bush food, new plants for horticulture and agriculture, sources of new medicines, that we will work with partners to develop.

The National Herbarium of New South Wales – one of the most significant botanical resources in the Southern Hemisphere housing a growing collection of over 1.43 million preserved plant specimens and is a critical part of New South Wales and Australia’s scientific infrastructure. The growing collection is essential for informing and making decisions about the conservation and management of our natural environment as well as management of our urban and rural areas. Our collection data is freely available online through BioNET and Australasia’s Virtual Herbarium, part of the Atlas of Living Australia. The herbarium and our research programs on species discovery, and plant and algal taxonomy and systematics, are soon to be located at a state-of-the-art purpose-built herbarium at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan.

Centre for Education and Engagement – provides transformative learning experiences to foster connections, curiosity and understanding of nature, STEM, culture and community. Through curriculum aligned, formal and informal programs, the Centre connects our higher education programs, science communication activities and outreach initiatives to highlight the importance of plants in our lives.

The Australian PlantBank – an award-winning and innovative plant conservation and research centre at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, focussed on saving our flora through ex situ conservation. It is home to the seed bank, which contains seeds of over 5,300 native species and over 65% of New South Wales’ threatened species. This vital collection and its cutting-edge facilities provide an insurance policy against the extinction of our native plants in the wild. Research programs at PlantBank focus on seed biology and storage technology, restoration and translocation ecology and threatened species conservation.

The Institute brings together the people, with the physical and virtual scientific collections, research, services and facilities of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.

Our people bring exemplary expertise, knowledge and passion to our mission. Highly trained, with an international reputation in expertise in their chosen disciplines, they are our greatest resource.

Their important work is facilitated through and supported by:

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DISCOVERING, UNDERSTANDING AND DOCUMENTING PLANTS

24,000

87%

species of plants in Australia

of those occur nowhereelse on the planet

2,000species are still to be

discovered, on estimate

Dr Trevor Wilson in central Western Australia

IT IS ESTIMATED that Australia is home to approximately 24,000 species of plants (flowering plants, conifers, cycads, ferns, mosses, liverworts etc) and 3,000 species of algae. It is a megadiverse continent with a huge range of plants – 87% of which occur nowhere else on the planet! It is also estimated that only around 90% of those plants have been discovered and formally described – meaning that over 2,000 species are still to be discovered and described! In less well-known groups like algae, lichens and fungi, the number and proportion of species still to be discovered are much, much greater. If we don’t know the identity or existence of a plant, it is very difficult to protect it.

We are the recognised authority of scientific plant names in NSW and work with like-minded institutions around Australia to develop the list of accepted plant and algal names for Australia. Importantly our knowledge is accessible for all the community to use through the NSW Flora Online.

We discover, document and classify a diverse array of plants and algae through nationwide revisions of specific plant groups, the formal description of newly discovered species and the development of identification tools. We also seek to understand the ecology, conservation status and evolutionary relationships of plants, algae and fungi. To do this we are conducting research in the field, the herbarium collections and the laboratory. Well-founded, scientifically rigorous classifications allow predictions about the properties and traits of plants that can be applied to other branches of science including conservation, horticulture, agriculture and medicine.

Though our primary focus is the Australian flora, many of our projects have a global perspective – recognising that the floras in our neighbouring countries is even more diverse and less well documented than our own.

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UNLOCKING OUR COLLECTIONS

IT INCLUDES OVER 800 COLLECTIONS made by Banks and Solander on the Endeavour voyage to eastern Australia in 1770 as well as collections by Ludwig Leichhardt, Allan Cunningham and numerous other colonial explorers. Much of the critically important data associated with the specimens from the Australian collections is accessible via Australasia’s Virtual Herbarium and the Atlas of Living Australia. With the construction of a new herbarium at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan and the need to move all the collection provided the impetus to fully complete the databasing of specimens and photograph every specimen to complete the accessibility of the collection to the whole community.

This will be the largest herbarium imaging project in the southern hemisphere with our herbarium specimens becoming high-resolution digital images. These images and the associated collection data will become a very significant scientific resource that will be accessible to everyone. Additionally it will help to better protect the collection by eliminating the need to handle the specimens as often, and assist researchers make new discoveries to advance science and conservation. The digitisation process will be an ongoing process as new collections are added to the herbarium.

Information from collections, spanning across countries and through time, are a powerful resource for understanding the changes in the distribution and occurrence of plants, how they are responding to environmental changes and for predicting the impact of climate change in the future.

The National Herbarium of New South Wales is one of the most important botanical collections in the Southern Hemisphere

high-resolution digital images will be available for everyone around the world to access in 2021.

OVER1 MILLION

The herbarium collection is being photographed in high resolution by Picturae (photo courtesy of Picturae)

Growing and digitally transforming our collections to create a knowledge hub for the flora of New South Wales and Australia

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LONG-TERM CONSERVATION

For some species, traditional methods of seed storage can result in seed death. This may be because the seeds, such as those produced by many rainforest species, have a high-water content when mature. Trying to dry the seeds results in death, while freezing the seeds with a lot of ‘free’ water is also inevitably fatal. Further, there are species that can be dried, but then do not (for unknown reasons) survive cold storage. This often includes rainforest species that come from naturally warmer environments where plants never experience, and therefore cannot cope with, low temperatures.

Understanding the plantbanking requirements and tolerances of each species is essential for effective conservation, whether in the wild or in cultivation. Horticultural research also provides valuable information on the propagation and cultivation of Australian plants for the nursery and floriculture industries. The overall aim of this research is to bring a range of native plant species into cultivation and thus contribute to the conservation of biodiversity by increasing community appreciation of the Australian flora.

Plantbanking

T O P : A small selection of the diversity of seed-bearing structures of Australian plants.

L E F T: Tissue culture is the propagation of small pieces of plant material in sterile conditions to produce new plants. This technique is extremely useful for species that are difficult to propagate from seed.

A KEY COMPONENT of our work to save plants is via the long-term conservation of ‘germplasm’, that is, any part of the plant that can be regenerated to form another plant.

Germplasm includes seeds, embryos, buds and other tissues. At the core of our long term conservation and research effort is the PlantBank seed collection, where over 5,300 wild-source native species are held. The seedbank program supports an active statewide seed collecting program with a focus on threatened species as part of the NSW government’s Saving our Species program. For each species of plant there may well be a different approach needed in order to understand its requirements for storage, propagation and then cultivation. Unlike the roses or azaleas in our gardens, for most of the species we work on we have little or no knowledge to base our decisions on – the research challenge is substantial!

The research also includes work on cultivation requirements, reproductive strategies and seed biology. This aids in the management of threatened species by providing information on factors affecting their growth, reproduction and dispersal. The scientists in these programs work closely with our expert horticulturists to propagate plants for use in programs to return plants to the wild to re-wild and supplement populations under threat of extinction.

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NO SPECIES NEED EVER GO EXTINCTConserving threatened species

4. Rescuing rare species – The first step in saving a rare species is to accurately identify it – our botanists are collecting these species all over New South Wales and Australia – Hibbertia fumana was only described in 2012 from material collected in the early 19th century and assumed to be extinct. Subsequently, this species was rediscovered in western Sydney and is now part of a key conservation project at the Institute using an integrated approach involving genetics, seed biology and horticultural production.

5. Collecting for the future – Our collectors travel all across New South Wales collecting herbarium specimens to permanently document the distribution and ecology of species, as well as seed and other propagation material of species at risk to bring back to the Australian PlantBank for storage in the seed vault, in cryopreservation and tissue culture or to grow in the greenhouses and garden.

6. Detecting new incursions of exotic invasive diseases – Our plant pathologists are researching the impact of invasive diseases like myrtle rust and Phytophthora root rot. Diagnostic tests are at hand to rapidly detect new disease incursions and we are working on improving knowledge of the impact of these diseases on species at threat.

1. Protecting species against climate change – Our scientists are contributing expertise in seed research to conserve rainforest plants endemic to tropical mountain tops in Queensland. These plants are at risk of disappearing from the wild as rising temperatures reduce the amount of suitable habitat available.

2. Understanding rainforest evolution and dynamics – Our evolutionary and ecological research on Australian rainforests has revolutionised the way we think about these unique plant communities. Rather than static islands of unchanging vegetation, rainforests are highly dynamic and connected. The knowledge gained through our research supports management strategies that will enhance the long-term resilience of rainforests within NSW and beyond.

3. Discovering new species – Thanks to the important field work conducted by Dr Richard Jobson in 2013, Lobelia claviflora was discovered and named. The tiny flower only grows in a few shallow swamps near Wee Waa in New South Wales. Discovering and documenting the species is the vital first step in developing management strategies to ensure protection of this critically endangered species.

WE ARE CURRENTLY experiencing the start of a mass extinction event – caused by the impact of humans on Earth’s environment. We have a strong focus on ensuring that plant species do not become extinct – an increasingly difficult challenge in the face of climate change.

Our ultimate aim is to learn more about each species so that we can better advise conservation agencies and landholders how to look after them and help conserve and strengthen healthy and resilient populations.

We use genetic tools to develop long term management strategies for conservation of threatened flora.

Many factors impact the recovery of threatened species. For example, if there is a need to rewild a population, considerations include:

• Which individuals from the natural population should be selected for establishing translocated populations?

• What factors are involved in successful re-establishment of plants in the wild?

• What other related species might live nearby, and will they be able to hybridize with the translocated population?

We are working with conservation agencies to answer these questions using genetic analyses, with the aim of designing the most diverse populations possible, while minimizing the risk that they will be swamped by more abundant, closely related, species. As part of that process our scientists are members of NSW’s two independent Scientific Committees responsible for formal assessment and listing of Threatened Species in NSW.

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ENSURING RESILIENT ECOSYSTEMS

THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA, landscapes are in need of restoration and rehabilitation, to support healthy bushland for animals, plants and people. Plants we thought were common and abundant are battling to stay alive and reproduce as the impact of climate change, drought, fire, and invasive diseases take hold. A new approach is needed.

Restore & Renew is an ambitious and important project that responds to the need for bush regenerators to incorporate the latest science into their toolkit, restoring healthy ecosystems that are genetically diverse, resilient and adaptable.

This critical information has applicability in areas where large scale restoration of bushland is needed, such as in mine site rehabilitation and Landcare activities. We are using the same technology to threatened species management in order to ensure that populations of these species are as genetically diverse as possible.

We are collecting thousands of plant specimens from hundreds of species across NSW, for genetic analysis. This information is used to create a publicly available online resource where plants can be selected to suit specific sites. The recommended species will be genetically-appropriate and suited to the user’s location and conditions. Climate modelling will also allow practitioners to plant according to future predictions, increasing the likelihood that the species will cope with a changing climate.

We are applying our knowledge to our own landscapes at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan with the restoration of several endangered ecological communities with both direct seeding and the establishment of seed production areas.

Giving detailed information about how to create genetically diverse plantings for maximum health and longevity and adaptability to change.

Supporting creation of seed production areas that can be harvested for use in bush regeneration.

Guiding optimal plant banking and seed storage to support the establishment of new wild habitats for threatened species.

Guiding habitat restoration with the latest technology

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The four steps in creating resilient ecosystems include:

Providing maps that show where genetically suitable seed can be collected for ecological restoration projects.

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WE ARE FORTUNATE to have a group of living collections that are a unique scientific resource – these are three distinct collections – at the Gardens at Sydney, Mount Annan and Mount Tomah. Included in these are sites with natural vegetation that provide an opportunity to demonstrate best practice in maintaining biodiversity.

Our very long-term perspective of understanding tree growth in the different environments of our gardens is a huge resource and when combined with our scientific expertise in plant pathology, genetics and restoration is creating an unparalleled font of tree knowledge that has direct relevance to community needs. This information will be critical in ensuring that programs to enhance the numbers of trees planted in Sydney and other urban areas are sustainable and the trees are given the best chance to survive into the future.

These are all aspects of tree cultivation that botanic gardens excel in – we have experience in cultivating the broadest range of plant species possible, have monitored tree growth over decades and have expert arborists that understand the requirements of monitoring and modifying tree growth to prevent future failures.

Our living collections are regularly used for a variety of scientific and conservation purposes such as sourcing wild material, DNA extraction and understanding plant taxonomy and evolution.

These sites and collections provide opportunities for climate change studies, reciprocal transplants and the ability to monitor changes to the collections in response to the environment through time.

GREENING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABLY

In our gardens we have 12 species that are extinct in the wild and 614 species that are critically endangered (according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature).

growing at our gardens.

There are

DIFFERENTSPECIES

614SPECIES CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

In our nurseries we have the people, material and facilities to lead in threatened species production – and to conduct large scale experimentation.

T O P L E F T: The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is an oasis in the heart of the city

A B O V E : Puya berteroniana, the blue Puya, growing at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah

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Community Engagement The Centre for Education and Engagement offers a range of learning opportunities for everyone, focusing on our world leading research addressing some of the most critical challenges of our time. Through tours, hands-on workshops and discussions, visitors gain first-hand experience and learn from world-renowned experts and leaders in their field.

First Nation Cultural Knowledge The Centre’s team of First Nation Educators have significant cultural knowledge of plants’ and their origins and offer visitors unique perspectives and insights on the Australian continent and our place in the world. Sharing traditional knowledge and making connection to country highlights the powerful and complex relationships between people, plants, animals and place.

Education Our inquiry-based primary and secondary school programs are curriculum aligned, focused on cutting edge botanical science and environmental conservation. Our team of highly skilled Educators inspire students’ curiosity about the natural world and encourage students to take positive action for a sustainable future. We collaborate across AIBS to promote STEM and the next generation of researchers.

At the Centre for Education and Engagement, we are passionate about inspiring with botanical science. By sharing our knowledge and expertise we ignite curiosity about plants, their importance and the need for their conservation. Through talks, panels and hands-on experiences we engage students, teachers and the wider community to understand the critical role plants play in the sustainability of our natural and built environments.

CENTRE FOR EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT

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COLLABORATING WITH SCIENTISTS FROM AUSTRALIA AND ALL OVER THE WORLD

Key partnershipsMillennium Seed Bank Partnership: co-ordinated by the Royal Botanic Garden Kew, this partnership involves like-minded research organisations from over 95 countries around the world collecting seed of native plant species for long term storage in seed banks. We have been a partner in this program for over 15 years.

Australian Seed Bank Partnership: We work with seed banking partners across Australia to co-ordinate collecting of threatened species, wild relatives of crop plants and a range of other targeted groups of plants.

Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG) and the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH): The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust is a member of these peak organisations co-ordinating the collaborative activities of botanic gardens and herbaria in Australia and New Zealand.

Universities and other research organisations: Nationally and internationally, we work collaboratively on research and on training the next generation of scientists with the ultimate aim of improving the knowledge and conservation of plants across the globe.

Federal, state and local governments: We work closely across a range of jurisdictions to support initiatives to conserve plant species, document biodiversity and to enhance both the natural and urban environments.

Our scientists work on a range of active national and global projects in a variety of disciplines. Additionally, they advise and teach in an even larger number of locations and our collections are used and accessed in a broad diversity of countries and institutions across the world.

Dr Russell Barrett is part of an international collaborative team from Australia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa who are using next-generation DNA sequencing techniques to create a new global classification of Cyperaceae (sedges) that will stabilise names across the family and bring new insights into global biogeography and evolution.

Dr Brett Summerell has co-organised a series of 20 annual international training workshops on the fungal genus Fusarium, one of the most economically important pathogens globally. Held in the US, Italy, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Argentina, these workshops have trained nearly 900 scientists from 70 different countries.

The institute is a key partner in the Royal Botanic Garden Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank program. As the world’s largest wild plant seed conservation program, the Millennium Seed Bank holds seed collections for over 40,000 species from around the world, including over 1,800 species collected by our team.

Dr Hervé Sauquet coordinates the eFLOWER project, an international initiative aimed at solving key questions on the evolution of flowering plants from their origin at least 140 million years ago to now. Involving 112 colleagues from 19 countries, and in particular close collaboration with teams in Austria and Mexico, key milestones were reached in 2017 with the reconstruction of a new model for the ancestral flower (pictured) and in 2020 with a new global timetree for all flowering plants.

Professor Pierre Taberlet (in the red coat) from the University of Grenoble (France) collecting soil samples with Dr Maurizio Rossetto in the Border Ranges (NSW) for a collaborative study on soil biogeography in Australian rainforests.

Dr Edward Liew is part of an international network investigating vanilla stem and root rot which is common in vanilla growing regions in French Polynesia, Indonesia (North Sulawesi) and Reunion Island.

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OUR SCIENCE IN NUMBERS

Living collections in our 3 Gardens Our Gardens are living labs with documented

collections of plants for the purposes of research, conservation and education.

65,306individual plants from

individual species

25,624individual plants from

individual species collected in the wild

More than 3,400 plants, algae, fungi and lichens discovered, described

and named in the last 25 years.

3,400species discovered

56full-time and grant

funded scientists

16honorary scientists

Australian PlantBank Vital seed and tissue culture collections that

provide an insurance policy against extinction of native plants valued at $ 27 million.

5,310 species in the seed bank

100 million seeds in the seed bank

60% NSW threatened species stored

50 species in cryopreservation

48 species in tissue culture

2018 milestones

$1.606 million in grants

98 peer-reviewed publications

105 local, national and

international presentations delivered

2231 plants identified through our Botanical Information Service

256 plant diseases diagnosed through our PlantClinic

>580 soil samples

47,595,454 Royal Botanic Garden Sydney records downloaded from the

Atlas of Living Australia

748,028 data of species in the

Atlas of Living Australia

26,438 scientists, students,

consultants and other users from around the world

accessing PlantNET

Delivering our data

Restore & Renew Using DNA research to

help ecological restoration, threatened species

conservation and resilience to climate change.

60restoration

species sequenced

8threatened

species sequenced

National Herbarium of New South Wales

Vital botanical resource at the centre of our science, home to over 1.43

million plant specimens and valued at over $ 284 million.

1.43 million

total specimens

14,500 type specimens

the specimen attached to the official name of a new species

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OUR SERVICES

We provide specialist plant identification and

plant pathology services, including root identification

and plant disease diagnostics.

You can access our online tools for plant information and ecological restoration.

Essential resources for students, plant

enthusiasts, industry, land management services and

government agencies.

NSW Flora Online The Flora of New South Wales

is available electronically through PlantNET and contains keys,

descriptions and images of plants found in New South Wales. This information is used by

government, industry, consultants and the public to identify plants.

Botanical Information Service We provide a comprehensive

plant identification and botanical information service and general botanical information, including

current scientific names of plants and details on the distribution of

NSW plants. This information helps in areas such as threatened species

assessments, environmental impact statements, weed identification

and where plants have caused poisoning of animals.

Plant Disease Diagnostic Unit offers a wide range of plant

disease diagnostic, pathogen detection and plant DNA

identification services. We detect new disease incursions, protect the

natural environment, help local governments and communities

protect trees and determine what trees roots are in a sewer pipe!

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The Australian Institute of Botanical Science Advisory Council will advise the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust on matters relating to the activities of the Institute with a view to creating collaborative opportunities and ensuring that the scientific, education and other relevant programs of the Trust are at the forefront of national and international initiatives in plant science and conservation, living collections management relating to the conservation of plants and STEM education and learning.

The Advisory Council will include representatives who are prominent scientists in a field relevant to plant and biodiversity science, STEM education as well as stakeholder representatives from government and industry from the relevant fields which align with our priorities such as environment, mining and restoration, biosecurity, digital transformation, green infrastructure and horticultural industries.

Australian Institute of Botanical Science Advisory Council

About the Institute: rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/science/australianinstituteofbotanicalscience Our team: https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/science/our-science-staff The Vital Science: rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/science/Vital-Science Branch Out podcast: rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Science/Branch-Out

Australian Institute of Botanical Science Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia (02) 9231 8111

Online resources

Contact

Diuris chrysantha

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