Resources of Australian Herbaria

Compiled by K.J.Cowley & J.G.West on behalf of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH)

HERBARIUM CODE:

CNS

CITES number:

AU047

HERBARIUM NAME:

Australian Tropical Herbarium

DEPARTMENT / ORGANISATION:

CONTACT DETAILS
Street Address:

Australian Tropical Herbarium
E2 Building, James Cook University Cairns Campus
PO Box 6811
CAIRNS QLD 4870
AUSTRALIA

Postal Address:

P.O. Box 6811

City:

CAIRNS

State:

Qld

Postcode:

4870

Telephone:

07 4042 1086

Facsimile:

07 4042 1319

Email:

darren.crayn@jcu.edu.au

Location:

E2 building on James Cook University’s Cairns campus

AUTHORITY/STATUS:

ACCESS:

Collections accessible to researchers, by appointment
Basic inquiry services provided to public
Public Reference Collection: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm daily

ASSOCIATED LIVING COLLECTION:

Arboretum of Tropical Forest Research Centre, Atherton, Qld

FOUNDATION:

The Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS) is a joint venture formed in 2008 by the amalgamation of the CSIRO Atherton Herbarium (QRS), the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency Mareeba collection (MBA) and the James Cook University Townsville collection (JCT)

FUNCTIONS:

Research, reference, contributing to discovery, documentation and understanding of the flora of tropical Australia

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE:

Australia 's tropics, especially northeastern Australian rainforests; related plant groups of Papua New Guinea, Pacific, and southeast Asia.

TAXONOMIC SCOPE:

Existing collections of all vascular plant groups. Developing collections of algae, bryophytes and fungi.

NUMBER OF SPECIMENS:
(ex QRS specimens only)

Total

Types

Angiosperms

-

-

Dicots

78,723

593

Monocots

16,474

-

Gymnosperms

736

-

Pteridophytes

3,823

-

Mosses

-

-

Liverworts

-

-

Lichens

-

-

Fungi

-

-

Algae

-

-

Fossils

-

-

Wood Samples

c. 1400

-

Accessioned

-

-

Unaccessioned

6000

-

Status:

All mounted and processed specimens databased.

Database Name:

QRSHERB.DBF

Database Description:

Foxpro database to be migrated into Oracle database

Number of Specimen Records:

160,000

Access:

Access restricted to authorised users, data transfers may involve data licence agreements.

Email and Internet:

pending

Significant Historical Collections:

Atherton Forestry Office in 1994;
BRIU in part (rainforest specimens);
CAIRNS in 1971;
JCT in part in 2007;
MBA in 2007;
QRS in 2007

Significant Special Collections:

Australian Rain Forest Tree Collection.
Australian Rain Forest Vine Collection.
Australian Rain Forest Seedlings.
Ian Price algae collection

Ancillary Collections:

Wet collection of rain forest species mainly flowers & fruits.

Photographic Collections:

The image collection used in the production of the ‘Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants’ interactive identification system.

Botanical Library:

Subset of CSIRO, Black Mountain Library. Access during normal work hours by appointment; worldwide tropical areas with emphasis on Australia, nearby Pacific and South East Asia.

Director:

Darren Crayn

Curator:

Frank Zich

Manager:

-

Chief Botanist:

-

Taxonomists:

Darren Crayn
Paul Gadek
Sandra Abell
Ashley Field
Frank Zich

Ecologists/Evolutionary Biologists:

Eda Addicott
Jonathan Cornelius

Technical Officers:

Gary Wilson
Mark Newton
Peter Bannink
Gerry Turpin

Volunteers:

-

Associates:

Bruce Gray
Bernie Hyland
John Clarkson
Wendy Cooper

Taxonomic:

Systematics of Elaeocarpaceae

Non-Taxonomic:

Vegetation mapping of northern Queensland
Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants, an interactive identification system.

Relating to the Collection:

Australian Tropical Rain Forest Plants, an interactive identification system for Australian tropical rain forest plants. First published in 1993, the most recent version was published in 2003. Work continues on the next version which will include Parasites and Herbs.

Relating to the Herbarium:

-

Notes:

In 2007, the herbarium collections, staff and projects of Australian National Herbarium Atherton (QRS), Queensland Environmental Protection Agency Mareeba (MBA) and part of the James Cook University Townsville (JCT) were incorporated into a new joint herbarium the “Australian Tropical Herbarium”. Specimens originally from QRS will continue to be cited as QRS; specimens originally from MBA will continue to be cited as MBA; specimens originally from JCT will continue to be cited as JCT.