Press gang
The press gang meets on the 1st Monday of the month from 10am to 3pm and on the second Sunday of some months (from 9am to 12pm) the Maud Gibson Room (which is near the RBG Cranbourne Office).
Our task is to find, photograph and collect plant specimens at each stage of their development in the RBG Cranbourne, while ensuring relevant details - such as their locations, appearance, substrate they are found on, and habitat - are recorded. These specimens are then dried and mounted for herbarium collections at the RBGC, and the National Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
Anyone who is keen to participate in this very important and interesting activity is welcome to join the group. Contact Nola Foster on 9583 5731 or Linda Moon on 5996 9759 for further information.
Recent news
A very wet winter hampered some collection days, but on the positive side it has produced some vigorous plant growth this spring. This has enabled us to add to some previously collected species that were in sparse supply, or were poor flower specimens, and therefore insufficient to produce two good Herbarium mountings.
We gathered:
- more flowers of Solanum mauritianum (tree tobacco) and of Comesperma volubile (love creeper). What a beatuiful blue that love creeper is, and it is in abundance this spring in the Woodland area;
- two more complete plants of Glossodia major (wax lip orchid). We had only two plants before;
- and, a nice suprise, Wurmbea dioica (early Nancy), which hasn't been seen for a number of years. Still few in number though, we found only two plants. Hopefully they will increase and we can collect some another year.
Last updated 03 Dec 2012
