Curator Botany Leon Perrie was recently part of a panel that, for the first time, assessed the conservation status of all the mosses in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here, he introduces a few species you can report if you see them when you’re next mingling with moss. There are about 500Read more
Recording the distributions of weeds both in Wellington and further afield is an ongoing interest for Te Papa’s Botany Curator Leon Perrie and Researcher Lara Shepherd. Together they have added hundreds of weed specimens to Te Papa’s herbarium since the Covid lockdown. One recent weed collecting trip to Upper Hutt demonstrated how the use of common names can lead to confusion.Read more
Earlier this year, the Wellington branch of Forest & Bird held a bioblitz in a local reserve they are helping to restore. Curator Botany Leon Perrie talks about looking for the little plants.Read more
The warmer months are, in many respects, the ideal time for enjoying nature, including connecting with the amazing diversity of plants around us. This time last year, Curator Botany Leon Perrie was traversing the country to get the final photos for the fern guidebook he co-authored with Patrick Brownsey.Read more
A species of sedge hiding under our noses for over a hundred years has been revealed by Te Papa’s Science Researcher Lara Shepherd, Botany Curator Leon Perrie and the University of Auckland’s Marley Ford. Schoenus vacillans is a sedge described from Coromandel in 1878. However, botanists since 1906 have consideredRead more
In March, Te Papa’s Leon Perrie, Bridget Hatton, Julia Wilson-Davey, and Lara Shepherd travelled to inland Hawke’s Bay to collect plant specimens from Puahanui Bush, a rare lowland forest remnant.Read more
Ever wondered what curators take with them when they go out on the field (or in the mountains, or down in the depths of the oceans)? Let’s begin with botanists Lara Shepherd and Leon Perrie.Read more
Two Te Papa botanists recently spent a week collecting ferns on Lord Howe Island. They were adeptly guided by Lord Howe Island museum curator Ian Hutton and joined by Daniel Ohlsen from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The natural history of Lord Howe Island was introduced in an earlier blogRead more
Pat was a stalwart of the museum, beginning in 1977. He was a curator of botany and expert on New Zealand ferns. But he was so much more, including curating Te Papa’s stamp collection, and at various times managing the natural history team and the museum’s acquisitions process. Significantly, he was a role-model, mentor, and friend to many. This blog is a tribute to his wide-ranging contributions to Te Papa and its people.Read more
Exotic species that spread into the wild are one of the pressures impacting the uniquely special biodiversity of Aotearoa New Zealand. Biosecurity measures are intended to mitigate this. But one aspect of the country’s biosecurity was recently criticised as patchy, limited, passive, and serendipitous. Curator of Botany Leon Perrie andRead more
Two Te Papa botanists recently spent a week collecting ferns on Lord Howe Island. They were adeptly guided by Lord Howe Island museum curator Ian Hutton and joined by Daniel Ohlsen from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Lord Howe Island is a nature-lovers’ paradise with much of the island protected in reserve and mammal pests recently eradicated. Our fern findings will be detailed in a future blog post but here Lara Shepherd and Leon Perrie discuss the natural history of Lord Howe Island and introduce some of its flowering plants.Read more
Three Te Papa botanists recently visited Norfolk Island together with colleagues from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Their purpose was to collect ferns for research. Curator of Botany Leon Perrie introduces the significance of Norfolk Island’s ferns. Our research programme investigating the relationships and naming of Aotearoa New Zealand’s fernsRead more
The large-leaved Aciphylla speargrasses or taramea are difficult plants to collect. Their rigid leaves are tipped in a sharp point and the bracts on their flower spikes are similarly ferocious. These defences are thought to have evolved to avoid browsing by moa, but they also work against botanists! Consequently, speargrasses are under‑represented in plant collections (herbaria). Te Papa Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie describe how they approached sampling speargrasses on their recent collecting trip.Read more
Sun, rain, hail, mist and snow – Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie encountered them all over an epic six-week plant collecting trip late in 2022. Their aim was to collect Aciphylla speargrasses for a research project to determine the number of species. Here is an overviewRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has a plethora of weird and wonderful plants. The ferociously spiky speargrasses are some of our most distinctive plants and an iconic feature of New Zealand’s high-country, especially when flowering. Te Papa Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie recently embarked on a new projectRead more
