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
Botany Curator Heidi Meudt and colleagues have formally described some new forget-me-nots in two published papers. Read on to learn their names, see what they look like, and discover more about them.Read more
Curator Historical International Art Dr Mark Stocker introduces us to Australian artist Lionel Lindsay, and a famous print that oozes 19th-century nostalgia: ‘Cobb and Co’.Read more
Dr Hamish Campbell, Te Papa’s geologist in residence from GNS Science, talks about the news that intrigued the world in February 2017 – that it can legitimately be claimed that Zealandia is a distinct continent.Read more
Originally from South America, myrtle rust invaded Australia in 2010 and rapidly spread. Botanist Lara Shepherd discusses what Australian scientists have discovered about myrtle rust over the last seven years.Read more
Why are botanic gardens important? And what does this have to do with Te Papa?Read more
My name is Heidi Meudt and I’m a Research Scientist in Botany at Te Papa, currently doing taxonomic research on New Zealand’s native forget-me-nots. As part of my job, I occasionally attend scientific conferences in New Zealand and overseas. I’ve blogged before about some of the reasons that international conferences are importantRead more
Over the Christmas holidays, Australian researcher Stephen Marshall visited Te Papa to view a little-known watercolour in our collection: John William Tristram’s ‘A Tremulous Dusk‘, painted in 1904. Stephen is currently writing a book on the artist, and wrote this blog to tell us more about the beautiful painting heRead more
I have been an avid listener of the BBC World Service’s wonderful series on the War that Changed the World, which is being broadcast locally by Radio New Zealand. Working in partnership with the British Council, the BBC has recorded a series of panel discussions in different cities around the world fromRead more
One of the sections in the current incarnation of the Ngā Toi, Arts Te Papa exhibition showcases a selection from Te Papa’s collection of Australian Aboriginal art. The show Gifted: Aboriginal Art 1971 – 2011 includes Papunya Tula paintings created in the 1970’s in a community near Alice Springs withRead more
There’s ferns even in the desert. Strictly speaking, it’s apparently an “arid” region, rather than desert. In any case, it was dry.Read more
