 Jason Halford collecting on the coast at Portland Road Photo: Brisbane Botanic Gardens |
 Trays of acacia seeds Photo: Brisbane Botanic Gardens |
The Brisbane Botanic Gardens has been involved in seed banking since 1983. With the support of the Millennium Seed Bank, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens' seed banking facility has collected and stored seed of more than 800 native Queensland plant species to date.
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A recent Seeds for Life trip to far north Queensland reaped excellent on-ground rewards and established important relationships with Traditional Owners in the process. A total of 41 collections were made along the journey, which enabled the Queensland partnership to realise its entire annual collecting targets for 2015-2016 in one trip.
The Queensland team has been targeting endangered solanum species as part of their recent plant conservation efforts.
The Seeds for Life collecting team of Jason Halford and Simon Bush from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens (BBG) ventured into the steamy wet tropics of north Queensland in November, where they successfully secured Queensland’s targeted collection quota for the 2014-15 season.
Plans for seed collections in 2013-14 in South East Queensland had to be changed due to significant drought conditions affecting some of the target species, but opportunistic collecting did secure other endangered, vulnerable and non-threatened species from the area.
Myrtle rust is a newly arrived and threatening fungal disease that affects plants in the Myrtaceae family, including the Southern Penda (Xanthostemon oppositifolius). The Queensland Seeds for Life team has successfully collected enough seed to act as a safeguard until more is understood on the impacts of myrtle rust.