,
Acacia taxonomy and applications
Acacia is the largest genus of vascular plants in Australia with over 1000 species. They are a prominent part of the Australian flora, growing in a wide range of plant communities and habitats, from coastal to subalpine, tropical to arid.
After much controversy Acacia s. lat. has been split with the genus name Acacia retained for the largest group which occurs in Australia, but only after the Type was changed following international botanical code processes.
This talk will discuss interesting facts and figures about the genus and related taxa, including recent taxonomic debates, and developments in the Flora of Australia on-line version and the electronic plant identification tool WATTLE.
Speaker: Dr Phillip Kodela, Flora botanist and scientific editor, Australian Biological Resources Study, Parks Australia Division, Department of the Environment and Energy.
Topic: Evolutionary ecology of plants: Understanding the evolution of plant mating systems.
Speaker: Dr Francisco Encinas Viso, OCE Postdoctoral fellow, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), CSIRO National Facilities and Collections
Place: Theatrette, ANBG
Talk summary:
Plants have a huge diversity of mating systems and life-history traits.
The evolution of this high diversity of plant mating systems is still poorly understood.
One commonly observed pattern in plant species that vary in their mating systems among populations is that the margins of their geographical range are enriched by increased selfing rates.
This has often been attributed to a lack of mates and/or pollinator limitations.
In this talk, I will explain what hypotheses explain the evolution of plant mating systems (self-incompatibility) and how we use computer modelling to investigate such ideas.
The last of the Plant Science Group technical talks for 2013 will be held in the Banks building at 10:30 on Monday 2nd December. Emma Clifton will talk about Native Plant Cultivar Names – Plant Breeders Rights, Australian Cultivar Registration Authority, Trade Names and everything in between.
Background: Emma Clifton has recently been appointed to the staff of the Australian National Herbarium, and one of her roles will be to come to grips with the various rules and regulations that apply to the naming of cultivars. Emma has had previous experience in this area with a project funded by ACRA to get cultivar names entered into the Australian Plant Name Index (APNI).