Plant Science and Herbarium Program

Verticordia insignis subsp. insignis. Photo by Kevin Thiele/DBCA

About Plant Science and Herbarium

The Plant Science and Herbarium Program undertakes activities to create and disseminate new knowledge on the diversity, distribution, evolution and ecology of the state’s flora, providing a scientific- and evidence-base for conservation policy, planning and management.

The program includes the Western Australian Herbarium that houses the state collection of scientific specimens of plants, algae, cyanobacteria, lichens, slime moulds and fungi. The Herbarium is responsible for:

documenting and describing the diversity of Western Australia's flora
maintaining a collection of specimens providing the authoritative, permanent and physical record for the presence, distribution and names of flora in Western Australia
helping the community, industry and researchers understand and identify plants through provision of identification tools, an identification service, and a self-service Reference Herbarium
taxonomic research focussing on the formal naming and description of novel components of the Western Australian flora
providing authoritative information on flora names and distribution to government, industry and the community via the Florabase website and the Herbarium's information management systems

The program includes the Western Australian Seed Centre (Kensington) which houses that state seed collection of conservation-significant species, insuring against extinction and loss of genetic diversity in the wild and providing material for seed-based flora recovery actions.

Applied flora conservation research undertaken in the program seeks to understand the factors and processes that are critical for the conservation of Western Australia's native plant diversity. This includes:

Plant genomics at the Sid James Conservation Genetics Laboratory to support taxonomic work on particularly challenging groups, to identify conservation units, and to provide an evolutionary context for flora recovery actions
Understanding the impacts of threats and the effectiveness of threat mitigation approaches for key plant species and ecological communities
Development of practical approaches for flora recovery, including seed conservation and plant translocation

Strong collaborative linkages exist with universities, cooperative research centres, national and international herbaria, CSIRO, the National Environmental Science Program, NRM groups, NGOs, other government agencies, traditional owners and the corporate sector.