Tag Archives: Plants

Developing the next generation of systematists

14 August 2009 – 2.15pm

Developing “the next generation” of professionals is perhaps one of the most important duties of skilled workers in any discipline.  Te Papa’s Botany staff are involved in co-supervising postgraduate university students in systematics. We are currently calling for applications for the Te Papa MSc Scholarship in Molecular Systematics for 2010.

Te Papa is offering this scholarship in collaboration with the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington.  The purpose of the award is to promote research, collaboration, and mentoring between Te Papa and Victoria University in the area of molecular systematics—the scientific study of the diversity and evolutionary relationships of living organisms, based on genetic (DNA) evidence—and taxonomy (naming and classification).
 
Potential projects for 2010-2011 include investigation of species boundaries amongst Gleichenia ferns, phylogeography and/or hybridisation in Asplenium ferns, species relationships amongst Myosotis forget-me-nots, or another topic to be determined.

If you know of any keen students who may be interested, please spread the word–the deadline for applications for is 1 November 2009! 

Potential project plants: Gleichinia, Asplenium, and Myosotis. Copyright Leon Perrie (Gleichinia and Asplenium) and Viv McGlynn (Myosotis).

Potential project plants: Gleichinia, Asplenium, and Myosotis. Images of Gleichinia and Asplenium by Leon Perrie, Curator; © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Image of Myosotis By Viv McGlynn, © Viv McGlynn.

 

Edit – 1 December 2009 – Link to the description of the scholarship removed, as it is no longer available

By Heidi Meudt | Posted in Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Restoring our surrounds

16 June 2009 – 12.41pm

I went to a very interesting Wellington Botanical Society talk last night, by Paul Blaschke of Friends of Owhiro Stream. Paul was talking about their work revegetating the catchment of the Owhiro Stream in southern Wellington.

It stimulated an intriguing discussion about how and what we should be restoring, which in turn relates to what our goals for conserving biodiversity are.

Ecological restoration is a vexed issue, with many controversial aspects, so it was good to discuss, learn, debate, and think.

For instance, some people believe that only plants present in an area before humans arrived should be used in restoration.

Collections of plant specimens, like that held by Te Papa, can play an important role in establishing where plants are/were distributed.

Houpara, coastal five-finger, Pseudopanax lessonii, is native to the northern North Island, but not to Wellington. However, after being introduced by people, it now grows wild in Wellington (and many other parts of New Zealand outside its native range [http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2009/06/10/our-promiscuous-pseudopanax-plants/]). There are now a reasonable number of New Zealand plants occurring wild outside their indigenous distributions, entirely as a result of human activities. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Houpara, coastal five-finger, Pseudopanax lessonii, is native to the northern North Island, but not to Wellington. However, after being introduced by people, it now grows wild in Wellington (and many other parts of New Zealand outside its native range). There are now a significant number of New Zealand plants occurring wild outside their indigenous distributions, entirely as a result of human activities. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Other people go even further when considering restoration, saying that only locally-derived material should be used.

Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Mahoe, Melicytus ramiflorus, occurs indigenously throughout most of New Zealand. For restorations in, say, Wellington, should only material derived from local-Wellington sources be used? Or, is it okay to use mahoe plants from anywhere? Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

But, is it practically possible to ensure such ‘eco-sourcing’? Do the costs outweigh the benefits?

And, what geographic scale is appropriate for eco-sourcing? Should plants be from the same province, river-catchment, …, or hillside?

Is it already too late, at least for some species/communities/regions, to even attempt to ensure that pre-human patterns are preserved? Has the colloquial horse already bolted? Are the ‘genes’ out of the bottle?

And, on a temporal scale, what are the implications from past and future climate-change? Many lowland New Zealand plants were more widespread during past warmer periods (and, similarly, much restricted when it was colder). Indeed, many warmth-loving plants were eliminated completely from New Zealand during the Ice-Age. Given the dynamism of biodiversity, what are appropriate parameters for restoration targets?

Managing ‘nature’ is often a tricky business…

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Plants | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Our promiscuous Pseudopanax plants

10 June 2009 – 1.43pm

New Zealand’s plants have a bit of a reputation for pronounced promiscuity. There is supposedly a high rate of hybridisation, or individuals of one species breeding with individuals of a different species.

I’m not entirely sure that this reputation is nationally deserved. Nevertheless, a striking example of hybridisation occurs in Pseudopanax, which is one of the groups I am researching; indeed, their hybridisation is what attracted me to them!

Two of the species – Pseudopanax crassifolius, horoeka, lancewood, and Pseudopanax lessonii, houpara, coastal five-finger – hybridise wherever they occur together, be this in the wild or in cultivation. 

The leaf on the left is of coastal five-finger, that on the right is from a juvenile lancewood, and the three in between are from different hybrid individuals. Photos by Leon Perrie. Montage (c) Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The leaf on the left is of coastal five-finger, that on the right is from a juvenile lancewood, and the three in between are from different hybrid individuals. Photos by Leon Perrie. Montage (c) Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

More images of leaves from hybrids are here.

There are several other five-finger and lancewood Pseudopanax species in New Zealand. However, despite their very different appearance, most of the hybridisation I have seen appears to be between lancewood and coastal five-finger, and we are using genetic analyses to determine just how much gene-flow occurs between them.

 

Juvenile lancewood, horoeka, Pseudopanax crassifolius. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Juvenile lancewood, horoeka, Pseudopanax crassifolius. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Adult lancewood, horoeka, Pseudopanax crassifolius. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. (c) Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Adult lancewood, horoeka, Pseudopanax crassifolius. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. (c) Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

 

Coastal five-finger, houpara, Pseudopanax lessonii. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Coastal five-finger, houpara, Pseudopanax lessonii. Photo by Leon Perrie. (c) Leon Perrie, Wellington.

Some of the hybrids are easy to identify, but others closely resemble one or other of the parental species. Any individual with leaves that look like those of lancewood but with two or more leaflets is actually a hybrid. Coastal five-finger always has broad leaflets.

Wellington’s Otari-Wilton’s Bush has a garden display of lancewood, coastal five-finger, and their hybrids, for 2009.

Lancewood occurs naturally throughout New Zealand. Coastal five-finger and the hybrids are native only to the coasts of the northern North Island (about Raglan and Gisborne northwards), but are frequently cultivated elsewhere. Coastal five-finger and the hybrids have escaped from cultivation, effectively becoming weeds, in many places outside their native distribution.  They can be very invasive.

Distribution maps for (A) lancewood, (B) coastal five-finger, and (C) their hybrids. Circles indicate natural distributions, and were compiled using data from the AK (Auckland Museum), CHR (Landcare Research), NZFRI (Scion), and WELT (Te Papa) herbaria. Squares for coastal five-finger and the hybrids indicate their ‘weedy’ distribution, this being a preliminary assessment based on my observations.

Distribution maps for (A) lancewood, (B) coastal five-finger, and (C) their hybrids. Circles indicate natural distributions, and were compiled using data from the AK (Auckland Museum), CHR (Landcare Research), and WELT (Te Papa) herbaria. Squares for coastal five-finger and the hybrids indicate their ‘weedy’ distribution, this being a preliminary assessment based on my observations.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Plants, Pseudopanax | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (9)

More about squid, now online!

9 February 2009 – 5.28pm

The Te Papa blog is growing and diversifying and it’s all good.  It reflects the range of collections and expertise in the museum which span art, history, science, plants, animals, fossils, taonga Maori, and the Pacific.  

Check out the recent art blog posts, along with posts on spiders, plants and even fossil tuatara.

Among world museums the interdisciplinary nature of Te Papa’s collections makes us unique – it gives us great strengths, and also some challenges.

For squid fans out there I just wanted to let you know that the colossal squid interactives are now ALL available online through the squid website.  

You can now explore the insides and outside of the big squid from the comfort of your own computer. 

Check out the jaw-dropping footage of the live colossal squid being hauled up onto the San Aspiring fishing boat from the depths of the Southern Ocean in The Squid Files interactive. 

And if you want to find out about life in the dark depths of the Southern Ocean where the colossal squid lives you can have a go with The Deep interactive.

Build a Squid is still going strong – we’ve got about 42,000 squid as of today!

If you’ve played the squid interactives in the exhibition at Te Papa or online and you’ve got a favourite one, tell us!

Or if you’ve got another  computer interactive at Te Papa that you really like then let us know.

By pamelalovis | Posted in Colossal squid, Exhibitions | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (8)
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