The Partnership has had another busy year identifying priority species and undertaking extensive field work to secure new collections for seed banks across Australia. These collections are now stored securely in Australia’s major conservation seed banks, with many collections also duplicated for safe keeping at the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew UK. In addition to the wonderful stories about the work our Partners have delivered, some of the highlights from the past year include the rediscovery of the presumed extinct Acacia prismifolia in South-West, Western Australia, the important contributions made by our Partners to the revision and release of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation’s revision of the Guidelines for the Translocation of Threatened Plants in Australia, and a joint collecting trip in Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory in May 2019. These and many more stories are available in our 2018-2019 Annual Report.
The seeds of Acacia prismifolia captured for cataloguing as a reference for the species. The variation among seeds of Acacia species can be significant, so images like these can help to identify species and to share knowledge about seed morphology. (Photo: Andrew Crawford, DBCA)
Ben Wirf checking seed quality of Helicteres tenuipila prior to the Partners collecting more seeds of the species for the GBDBG seed bank. (Photo: ASBP)