Speakers: Lara Shepherd, Science Researcher, Te Papa and Leon Perrie, Botany Curator, Te Papa. Lord Howe Island is a small, remote, subtropical island between New Zealand and Australia that has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite its small size it has a wide diversity of habitats. Over 40% of its vascular plant […]

Speaker: Dr Debra Wotton – Director and Principal Ecologist, Moa’s Ark Research; Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury. Limestone outcrops in the eastern South Island are hotspots of native plant diversity, with many endemic herbs and a disproportionately high number of threatened species. Almost half of the specialist limestone taxa in the […]

Speaker: Emeritus Professor Dave Kelly, University of Canterbury Aciphylla is a genus of about 40 species, all but two endemic to New Zealand.  Aciphylla species show mast seeding (synchronous variable reproduction across years within a site). This is unexpected, because the plants are insect-pollinated, relatively short-lived, herbaceous, and dioecious, all of which are globally uncommon […]

Speakers: Paul Bell-Butler and Lisa Wolf, Victoria University of Wellington. Paul—New Zealand’s bryophyte flora remains poorly understood – even basic knowledge is lacking for many liverwort species, with 23% of taxa classified as ‘Data Deficient’. The genetic and biogeographic affinities of the country’s non-vascular flora are also only beginning to be explored. Using a multi-gene […]