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UNE scores another botanical discovery in northern NSW

June 05, 2006

FatemiCopeland.thm.jpgA botanist at The University of New England has contributed to the University’s pioneering research on a group of rare native shrubs by collecting an entirely new species.

Dr Lachlan Copeland, based at UNE’s N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium, collected specimens of a new species in the genus Bertya above Dungowan Dam near Hanging Rock last week. (Only last month, Associate Professor Caroline Gross and Dr Mohammad Fatemi from UNE discovered a new population of the rare and related species Bertya ingramii on an isolated spur at Dangars Gorge in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.)

Dr Copeland was looking for new populations of a critically endangered but as yet undescribed species of Asterolasia (closely related to Correa) for the National Parks and Wildlife Service. In the moist gorge he found a population of the Asterolasia (with white, star-shaped flowers) and also specimens of the new species of Bertya.

Dr Mohammad Fatemi, who recently completed a comprehensive revision of Bertya species (members of the Castor Oil family) based on the collection at UNE’s Herbarium, said: “This discovery brings the number of species in the genus to 42, and further highlights north-eastern NSW as a centre of diversity and rarity for Bertya.” (The photograph displayed here shows Dr Fatemi, left, and Dr Copeland studying a specimen of the new species in the Herbarium.)

Dr Copeland added: “The whole gorge and escarpment country of north-eastern NSW is very understudied, and we continue to discover new orchids, herbs, shrubs and even trees. The area is very important as a water catchment and flora and fauna refuge. There is great potential for ecotourism, and commercialisation of some of the plants, but much basic botanical and zoological study needs to be done just to know what is there.”

Associate Professor Jeremy Bruhl, the Director of the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium, said Dr Copeland’s discovery had brought to light in the Herbarium some unincorporated specimens of the new species that had been collected from the same population about 10 years ago by UNE Botany graduate Doug Beckers. “The significance of these specimens had been overlooked until Dr Copeland’s and Dr Fatemi’s identification of the new species,” he said.

“We are working on bringing UNE scientists together with researchers from government agencies and community groups to discover more of the biological treasures of the escarpments and gorges of north-eastern NSW,” Dr Bruhl explained.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 5, 2006 04:29 PM