Title: What’s in a name? Cataloguing New Zealand's cultivated plants
[Landcare Research NZ - 22 July 2010] -- While New Zealand has good information on native species and naturalised (weedy) species there has been a lack of reliable information on cultivated plants, such as your traditional and everyday garden species. And, as a result, this is causing problems for many organisations and people working with plants. New Zealand,s door has been firmly closed to new plant species since the HSNO (Hazardous Substances and New Organisms) Act came into force more than a decade ago. "
One idea behind this legislation is to prevent new plant species arriving into the country and then escaping from cultivation to become weeds by jumping the fence" says Landcare Research botanist Murray Dawson. "
It is true that some recent weeds are establishing in this way, but most exotic plants do not have weedy natures" Mr Dawson says.
However, HSNO regulations have denied plant breeders like Auckland's Keith Hammett new species and selections from which to create new crops and ornamental plants.
"At the border, MAF biosecurity have a list of species already here. This list - the Plants Biosecurity Index - is far from complete and has about 27,000 species out of as many as 40,000 exotic plant species thought to already be here. If your plant is not on that list you usually can't bring it into New Zealand," Dr Hammett says.
"And that's the crux of the issue - knowing what we have, what it's called, and where it is. Managing the country without knowing everything in the flora is like managing a supermarket without knowing everything on the shelf," he says.
In response, a workshop was held in September 2009 and funded by the Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity System (TFBIS) programme. The workshop was attended by organisations and interest groups involved in managing plants and they agreed that there needs to be better communication, management, and co-ordination of plant collections and plant names.
"TFBIS have also funded a new information platform called the New Zealand Organism Register and the potential of this major new initiative was also explored at the workshop," Mr Dawson says. "Although the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture (RNZIH) and other plant groups and societies have lists of plants and collections, the information is currently very scattered and out of date. There is no authoritative and comprehensive catalogue or database of our cultivated plant collections - there needs to be a lot more collaboration among all the groups working on cultivated plants," Mr Dawson says.
"Cataloguing our cultivated plants, both native and exotic, and correct application of their names is of fundamental importance to biodiversity conservation and a crucial knowledge gap that needs to be addressed," Mr Dawson says.