Botanical Treasures:

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Botanical Treasures
Unlocking the many values of Australian plants
Wee han tresor in the feld, of whete, and of
barly, and of oile, and of hony. 1382 WYCLIF
Jer. xli. 8
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What is a treasure?

• treasure (noun) something of great worth or
  value
• treasure (verb) to collect and store up
  something of value for future use
• treasure-house (noun) a place or source (as a
  collection) where many things of value can be
  found

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The Australian Flora - your treasure

• The Australian Flora something of great worth
  or value
• Plant Collecting to collect and store up
  something of value for future use
• Herbarium a place or source (as a collection)
  where many things of value can be found

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Botanical Treasures

• What is the value of the Australian Flora?
• How do we discover and preserve it?
• How do we use it?

• How do plant collections . . .
• including herbaria, botanical gardens, and
  seed collections
• Function,
• Interact with other disciplines, and
• Translate the information into an accessible
  format?

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Kimberley Plateau
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Cradle Mountain Tasmania
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Eucalyptus ficifolia
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Radyera farragei
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Mistletoe
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Traditional uses of the Australian flora

• Humans earliest interests have always been
  functional rather than aesthetic
• Which tree makes the best canoes?
• Which plants are safe to eat, and which plants
  are poisonous?
• Which plant stops the pain?

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Collecting water plants
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Plants Aborigines used
Santalum acuminatum
Mentha diemenica
Typha orientalis
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Bush food
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Macadamias
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Travelling stock reserves
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Sandalwood for the East
From Central Australia comes this sandalwood
which will be burned in Eastern temples. It was
shipped by the City of Guildford yesterday at
Port Adelaide. 15 July 1930
Santalum spicatum
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Domestication

• The process of adapting plants to agriculture
• Maximising useful characteristics
• Fruit size
• Fiber strength
• Minimising undesired characteristics
• Thorns
• Seed or fruit dispersal
• Adapting to monoculture
• Annual habit
• Loss of seed dormancy

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Native pasture
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Horticulture
Grevillea rosmarinifolia
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Horticulture
Melaleuca Sea Foam
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Forestry
Acacia melanoxylon
Blackwood furniture
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Genes to improve crops
Glycine clandestina
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To the treasure-vaults! they quaffed, And
shouted loud and wildly laughed. 1813 SCOTT
Rokeby VI. iv
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The tools of the trade
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The glamour of collecting
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The glamour of collecting
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What do we collect?
Herbarium specimen
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What do we collect?
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What do we collect?
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What do we collect?
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What do we collect?
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How do you access these resources?
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How do you access these resources?
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How do you access these resources?
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Electronic flora treatment
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New outputs
Australias Virtual Herbarium
Australian herbaria house a total of 6 million
specimens
www.chah.gov.au/avh.html
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AVH Map search

• Select the plant species for which you want
  information, e.g Acacia aneura

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AVH distribution map
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AVH summary

• Stage 1
• databasing (dots on maps)
• plus map overlays, precision flags, spatial
  queries, pretty interfaces, etc.
• conflicting taxonomies - towards a National
  Census
• Stage 2
• images, descriptions, identification tools
• linking to other on-ground applications

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Which Eucalypt is this?
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Early identification key
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New outputs - Euclid
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New outputs - Euclid
New outputs - Euclid
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New outputs - Euclid
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New Outputs - Euclid
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New outputs - Euclid
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New outputs - The Rain Forest Key and The Pea Key
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New outputs - specialist keys
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Historical record of flora
Ptilotus fasciculatus (Fitzgeralds Mulla Mulla)
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Distribution of Rutidosis
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Greening the Grainbelt
1907
Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Revegetation lt 3
native vegetation remaining
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Greening the Grainbelt
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Greening the Grainbelt
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Cotton evolution
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Cotton evolution
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The Tree of LIFE
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Wild crop relatives - Sorghum
Native Sorghum
Cultivated Sorghum
Sorghum intrans
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Wild crop relatives - Soybean
Native Glycine
Cultivated Glycine
Glycine tabacina
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Wild crop relatives - Cotton
Native Cotton
Cultivated Cotton
Gossypium sturtianum
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What is cotton?
young cotton seed
Developing cotton fibres on seed coat
cotton field
cotton boll
Electromicrograph courtesy of Applequist et. al.
2001 Evolution Development 3 3-17
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Process of domestication
wild cotton
Kidney cotton
modern cotton
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New challenge Fusarium wilt
Fusarium infected stem
Dying cotton plant
Fusarium infected field
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Where did it come from?

• Overseas introduction, or
• Host-switch from native species or weed

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Genetic fingerprinting
Sc1
16611
Overseas Fusarium races 1-8
141148
141112
Ag6
Ag85
338122
325576
24500
?-1
?-2
Australian Cotton Field Fusarium
24230
24291
011101
021101
031101
51101
061101
24595
24492
Australian Cotton Field Fusarium
B/96/02
24597
4391G2
063101
071101
24598
2613
3556
Wild Fusarium
3608
3588
3558
3508
0.70
0.75
0.80
0.85
0.90
0.95
1.00
Genetic Similarity
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If the pathogen is native, how do the native
cottons get on with it?
17 species of Australian cottons
K genome (12)
C genome (2)
G genome (3)
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K genome cottons
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C genome cottons
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G genome cottons
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If the pathogen is native, how do the native
cottons get on with it?
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Looking for Fusarium in wild populations
Isolating fungi from soil
Isolating fungi from stems
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Some are, some arent
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Treasure hunting in the genome
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It starts with the collectors
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Which value takes priority?
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Who gets to decide?
The Swine may see the pearl, which yet he values
but with the ordinary muck. 1661 GLANVILL Van.
Dogm. xxiv. Apol. Philos. 247
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Where a mans threasure ys there is his hart.
1597 J. PAYNE Royal Exch. 44
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Acknowledgements
The staff of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity
research, with special thanks to Siobhan Duffy
and Jo Palmer
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Upcoming Public Lectures
Web version of todays lecture can be found at -
http//www.cpbr.gov.au/cpbr/lectures/treasures/

• Plant Invaders 2 October
• Its not only the exotics that are escaping our
  crops are getting away and even some of our
  natives are on the move.
• Bushland on Life Support 6 November
• Remnant vegetation and the quality of life.

For further information - http//www.cpbr.gov.au
/cpbr/lectures/