Asteraceae

Project Leader: Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

The daisy family (Asteraceae or Compositae) is the largest of all plant families with an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 species worldwide. From a human perspective, it is highly relevant because it includes economical, culinary or medical plants such as murnong, sunflower, marigold, lettuce, chicory, artichoke, chamomile, absinthe and tarragon as well as numerous ornamentals, but also a great number of weedy representatives. The daisies are represented in Australia with ca. 1,000 native species, constituting an important part of plant biodiversity especially in arid and alpine habitats. In addition, there are ca. 200-300 introduced species, a higher percentage than for most other plant groups, and several of them are declared noxious weeds.

2016/17 Progress

In 2016/17, we delivered two online identification keys. The weedy daisy seed key was funded by the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to assist biosecurity officers with the identification of weed seeds at the borders. It is freely accessible online at http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/daisy_fruit/. The second key covers the native shrubby paper daisy genera Cassinia and Ozothamnus as well as their smaller relatives, just over 100 species in total. It was funded by BushBlitz through the Applied Taxonomy funding scheme and can be found at http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/cassinia/.

We also delivered a report to GISERA, finalising research on the genetics of the rare Queensland endemic button daisy Rutidosis lanata. Results from this project, which was supervised by NRCA director Andrew Young, inform conservation management of the species and are outlined at https://gisera.org.au/project/ensuring-biodiversity-offset-success-the-right-kind-of-seed-for-a-rare-daisy/

Over the summer CSIRO vacation scholar Meg Elliott contributed to our research by studying the impact of phylogenetic tree choice on the inference of phylogenetic diversity patterns.

^ CSIRO Canberra
* Tropical Herbarium, Cairns
# SEWPaC (ANBG)
(PDF) = Postdoctoral Fellowship
(HRF) = Honorary Research Fellows
(PhD) = Graduate Students

Scientific and Technical Staff

PROJECT LEADER

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn ^

STAFF, HONORARY ASSOCIATES & STUDENTS

Ian Lester (ANU)
Tim Collins (UNE)
Dave Marshall ^
Jess Bovill ^