Bush Blitz - back in the lab

Posted by jnaylor on March 18, 2012

Photo: Phil Hurle, Australian National Botanical Gardens preparing specimens collected from Skullbone Plains

Our Bush Blitz to Skullbone Plains in Tasmania’s central highlands was a huge success — with between 520 to 550 species of plants and animals collected during the week.

Now that the fieldwork is now over, the team of 20 scientists are back in their labs identifying the specimens. This can often take many months, if not years to complete. Each specimen will be painstakingly described and documented before being entered into the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Tasmanian Herbarium, as well as other museums, universities and herbaria around Australia. They will be carefully preserved and made available for research.

The nursery team are busy preparing cuttings from each species and expect it will take from 12 to 18 months before the cuttings are ready to be planted out in the Tasmanian section of the Botanic Gardens.

Phil Hurle, nursery manager at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, has a slightly different type of collection. He has collected live specimens from over 60 species of iconic Tasmanian plants found on Skullbone Plains.  Carefully packed, the plants have made it back to the Botanic Gardens in Canberra in good condition. 

These plants are a beautiful addition to the Gardens and preserve living examples of many species. They are also a living scientific collection. Each individual plant is given a unique number and recorded in a database along with details of where and when it was collected. Every living plant is also complemented by a pressed and dried specimen in the herbarium.

Bush Blitz is a multi-million dollar continental biodiversity discovery partnership between the Australian Government, BHP Billiton and Earthwatch Australia that aims to document the plants and animals across Australia’s National Reserve System.

Skullbone Plains is a recent addition to the National Reserve System that is managed for conservation by theTasmanian Land Conservancy.