NZ Conservationist Celebrated in Pioneering Botanical Publication
A newly described species of NZ liverwort marks a pioneering effort by international plant scientists to enter a brave new world in the realm of the electronic age. Lead authors, Dr. Matt von Konrat (Field Museum, Chicago) and Dr. Peter De Lange (plant scientist, NZ Department of Conservation) described the new liverwort species under the revolutionary new rules that allow electronic publication.
The new liverwort species, named Frullania knightbridgei, is noteworthy because it involved national and international participants from universities, museums, and government departments”, said von Konrat, “and was named after a prominent New Zealand conservationist, Phil Knightbridge, who passed away last year and who epitomized the dedication and commitment of staff at the Department of Conservation.” “The continued collaborative efforts between agencies such as the DOC and international research institutes such as The Field Museum and our partners, will help uncover more of the as yet hidden biodiversity of this plant group. The new species was first discovered in Rakiura/Stewart Island, an area of high rainfall, which is particularly significant as this group of plants, together with mosses, are able to soak up water like a sponge and critical in preventing deleterious effects of high rainfall,” said von Konrat. Image shows shoot with distinct oil bodies, unique to Frullania knightbridgei.
2012 brought extensive changes to the way plant scientists name new plants, algae, and fungi. Traditionally, publication of new plant names, governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), never allowed publication of new names in anything other than print on paper.
“The electronic publishing of new names will not only facilitate the work of taxonomists and publishers”, said Dr. W. John Kress from the Smithsonian Institution, Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal PhytoKeys, “but this innovation will accelerate the whole process of scientific discovery and description of new plants. As natural habitats are degraded at an ever faster rate, it is crucial that botanists speed up their work on finding and describing new species of plants before they are threatened with extinction”! “This is particularly pertinent to biodiversity hotspots, such as NZ”, added von Konrat and de Lange.
The newly described species is from a group of plants referred to as liverworts. “This group of generally small-sized plants forms an incredibly conspicuous and significant component in NZ ecosystems. NZ may have almost 10% of the world’s species of liverworts which are related to those that first colonized land millions of years ago. That is an astonishing figure”, said Dr. von Konrat.
NZ has a high proportion of endemic plant species not found anywhere else in the world. Some of these are like the tuatara’s of the plant world, and are significant towards our understanding of early land plant evolution. “The new species underscores how this enigmatic group of plants has been largely overlooked compared to seed plants and our fauna, especially on many of our offshore islands which harbour significant biodiversity” said Dr. de Lange.
Liverworts are being increasingly recognised as beautiful and important to global biodiversity, as important environmental indicators and as potential indicators of global warming. In 2011, two liverworts – the highly threatened Frullania wairua and Lejeunea hawaikiana – made the top 10 in the annual Plant Network’s “vote for your favourite plant” competition.
Posted: 06/01/2012