FloraBase News

November PotM: Hibbertia stellaris 1 Nov 2009: This species flowers of orange, or orange/yellow are a striking stand-out attraction in the bushland from August to December.
Species rediscovered after 160 years 30 Oct 2009: Two acacia species have been rediscovered in the central Wheatbelt, one of which had not been sighted since it was first collected 160 years ago. Acacia leptoneura was previously only known from a specimen collected by James Drummond between 1837–48.
New plants discovered in Kimberley 20 Oct 2009: More than 100 new species of plants have been recorded in the Kimberley as scientists begin to discover more about the relatively unknown botanical life of the far reaches of north-west WA.
Woodland Watch 2008 14 Oct 2009: The latest comprehensive report describing the valuable work of Woodland Watch has just been published.
WA Herbarium moves to new premises 9 Oct 2009: The Western Australian Herbarium will be moving to new premises as part of a Biodiversity Science Centre in May 2010. The building will be a state of the art complex with improved facilities for the collection, staff and visitors.
New population of the Water Wheel Plant 7 Oct 2009: ![CDATA[The recent discovery of
October PotM: Angianthus tomentosus 1 Oct 2009: An erect or ascending, dwarf, woolly, annual herb, with yellow clyindrical flower heads on show from August to December.
September PotM: Cephalipterum drummondii 1 Sep 2009: A small, slender, erect annual herb to 0.45 m high that forms a glorious floral carpet throughout late winter and spring in the northern wheatbelt and beyond.
New floristics data for last 120 years 25 Aug 2009: A graphical summary of the increase in formally recognised vascular plant species (including weeds), and growth in vouchered specimens, between 1889 and 2009.
August PotM: Trichodesma zeylanicum 1 Aug 2009: An annual or perennial, herb or shrub to 2 m high. Its pendulous flowers of blue or white are displayed from March to December and make a striking contrast against the red earth of outback regions.
July PotM: Pityrodia axillaris 1 Jul 2009: This low, diffuse shrub with flowers of deep lustrous red to yellowish-scarlet is a joy to view in a cold wheatbelt landscape or through to the high temperatures of December.
New fungi book published 23 Jun 2009: An essential guide to the colourful fungi of the south-west: Fungi of the Perth Region and Beyond - a Self-Managed Field Book, by Dr Neale Bougher, published by the WA Naturalists Club.
2009 flora stats published 3 Jun 2009: The latest authoritative stats on species names in use in WA, and a baseline count of the number of cryptogams tracked in the Census of Western Australian Plants.
Nuytsia 19 published 2 Jun 2009: Volume 19 of Nuytsia - WA’s Journal of Systematic Botany was published, containing 14 papers describing, amongst others, new species in Darwinia, Ptilotus, Acacia, Tecticornia, Guichenotia and Pultenaea plus two new genera in the Myrtaceae.
June PotM: Petalostylis labicheoides 1 Jun 2009: An erect shrub that grows to 4 metres, the wonderful yellow-orange flowers bloom from March to December and are insect-pollinated.
Woodland Watch 2007 14 May 2009: The latest comprehensive report describing the valuable work of Woodland Watch has just been published.
May PotM: Drosera erythrorhiza 1 May 2009: Found blooming from April to June, its white flowers contrasting with the red leaves of its basal rosette from which it takes its common name - Red Ink Sundew.
April PotM: Halgania anagalloides 1 Apr 2009: An erect, spiny shrub to 0.6m, while small, is generous in displaying its blooms of glorious blue to purple from August to May.
March PotM: Corymbia calophylla 1 Mar 2009: An iconic south-western Australian species blooming from December to May, with both pink and white flowering forms.
Ten Years of FloraBase 17 Feb 2009: A poster, presented during TDWG 2008, discusses the development of this web site since its public launch in November 1998 (in PDF).
New server for FloraBase 5 Feb 2009: A new web server has been commissioned today to deliver content for FloraBase, AVH and World Wide Wattle, making these services even faster and more reliable.
February PotM: Heliotropium glabellum 1 Feb 2009: Its flowers of white, yellow or orange are on show from January to August throughout the Kimberley region.
Pilostyles moves family 20 Jan 2009: With the reclassification of the obscure, stem-dwelling parasitic genus Pilostyles to the family Apodanthaceae, no members of the related Rafflesiaceae now occur in WA.
January PotM: Actinotus leucocephalus 1 Jan 2009: This small, erect, hairy white herb is an annual belonging to the family Apiaceae. Flowers of white to cream appear in September and continue to February.
Scientific Plant Names Dictionary 12 Dec 2008: Version 2.1 of an authoritative listing to aid with the correct spelling of WA’s scientific plant names within common word processing software. Now includes 170 moss names!
TDWG 2008 Conference 16 Oct 2008: The Western Australian Herbarium, together with the WA Museum and Notre Dame University are hosts of this years international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) 2008 Conference, on in Fremantle from 19-25 October 2008.
Family and generic names improved 26 Aug 2008: Work over the last year has seen the addition of authority and protologue information to the family and generic names in the Census. FloraBase is now able to display this information in searches.
Nuytsia 18 published 21 Aug 2008: Volume 18 of Nuytsia - WA’s Journal of Systematic Botany was published, containing 24 papers and two short communications on the taxonomy of sections of Asteraceae, several new Acacia species and a census of the mosses of the Perth region, amongst others.
2008 flora stats published 25 Jun 2008: The latest authoritative stats on species names in use in WA, and a baseline count of the number of cryptogams tracked in the Census of Western Australian Plants.
Tecticornia bibenda a ‘Top 10’ species 27 May 2008: Tecticornia bibenda — a succulent plant in WA that resembles the ‘Michelin Man’ — has been recognised as one of the ‘Top 10’ new species described in 2007.
Why dryandras changed their name 20 May 2008: A brief explanation of the reasoning behind the merging of Dryandra and Banksia.
Over 800 new descriptions added 13 Mar 2008: Since 1993, coded descriptive data has been captured and maintained for every taxon in WA. In the last year 812 queryable descriptions have been added or updated.
Bumper year for naming new plants 7 Mar 2008: Environment Minister notes that scientists named a record number of new species and varieties of Western Australian plants in 2007.
Scientific Plant Names Dictionary 14 Dec 2007: Version 2.0 of an authoritative listing to aid with the correct spelling of WA’s scientific plant names within common word processing software.
‘SoS’ Nuytsia edition published 5 Dec 2007: The Minister for Environment and Climate Change launched a special Saving our Species edition of Nuytsia in which 95 WA plants - many of which may be vulnerable to future mining activities - are scientifically named.
Nuytsia 16(2) published 23 Nov 2007: The final part of Nuytsia Volume 16 was published, containing ten papers and four short communications on the taxonomy of Agonis and segregates, new species and keys to Cryptandra and Stenanthemum and a review of the grass genus Puccinellia, amongst others.
Botanical Glossary upgraded 5 Nov 2007: The FloraBase glossary of botanical terms, first published online in v2.5 has been refined to more comprehensively link terms and referenced taxa.
Minister launches Interactive Keys 14 Sep 2007: The Minister for Environment and Climate Change launches our latest innovation — online identification tools — in the new FloraBase 2.5.
New Churchill Fellow: Ray Cranfield 15 Aug 2007: To study historical lichen collections and community participation in lichen surveys and collections — UK, Sweden.
2007 flora stats published 8 Jun 2007: The latest authoritative stats on species names in use in WA, and a baseline count of the number of cryptogams tracked in the State Census.
Nuytsia 16(1) published 20 Dec 2006: The first part of Nuytsia Volume 16 was published on 20 December 2006. It contains twenty-two papers on the taxonomy of sections of Stylidium, Eriochilus, Goodenia and other genera including publication of the new daisy genus Rhetinocarpha.
Science Division’s Database Server upgraded 6 Oct 2006: The database server upgrade of Tuesday 3 October has been successful, and a number of minor issues corrected subsequently.
New Herbarium Curator 6 Oct 2006: Dr Kevin Thiele began duties as the new head of the WA Herbarium on Wednesday 4 October 2006.
New version of FloraBase released 21 Sep 2006: Version 2.1.3, released today contains a significant upgrade to the usability of plant names currency information, and improved browser compatibility for the new Phylogeny Browser.
Phylogeny Browser now available 1 Aug 2006: A new interactive tool for the exploration of relationships between orders and families of flowering plants, with links to FloraBase genera and species and three authoritative external sites.
2006 Flora Statistics published 1 Jun 2006: The latest authoritative stats on species names in use in WA, and for the first time a baseline count of the number of cryptogams tracked in the State Census.
WA Plant Census List released 14 Feb 2006: The latest update to the Census of Western Australian Plants contains 19,729 species-level records and 828 family records, including significant numbers of new entries for the algae, bryophyte and lichen flora.
Major new revision of Senecio 8 Feb 2006: Seven newly recognised species and four new subspecies of Western Australian Senecio have recently been described.
14000 species descriptions reached 2 Feb 2006: Since 1993 taxonomic descriptions of Western Australia’s vascular flora have been captured and maintained in a sophisticated standards-based database environment and provides simple interactive identification in FloraBase.
49 specimen updates in WAHERB 17 Jan 2006: 49 herbarium specimens were examined by specialists and were re-determined or had their taxonomic identity confirmed.
114 WA plants published in 2004 16 Jan 2006: 114 new or recircumscribed WA plant taxa were documented in scientific journals during 2004, including 34 conservation taxa.
Marine Plants Project launch 20 Dec 2005: The innovative Marine Plants Project was offically launched by the Minister for the Environment. It provides ready access to authoritative current names for WAs 1,000 marine species and access to some 20,000 specimens.
Further new taxa in Dryandra 16 Dec 2005: Six new taxa in the endemic WA genus Dryandra published by A.S. George in the journal Nuytsia, including one new species and five subspecies and varieties.
Nuytsia 15(3) published 16 Dec 2005: The final part of Nuytsia Volume 15 was published on 16 December 2005. It contains fourteen papers on the taxonomy of sections of Drosera, Dryandra, Eucalyptus and other genera including publication of the new myrtaceous genus Astus.
Five years of Woodland Watch 8 Dec 2005: A project to restore and protect the Wheatbelts eroded bush has found even the most degraded land to be rich with previously undiscovered species.

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