A key to Weeds of SE Qld was first released over 15 years ago, mainly as a teaching tool for students at the University of Queensland. Subsequently, with funding from Brisbane City Council, this key was updated and published as a CD ROM. More recently, with funding from 4 SE Queensland councils, there have been…
A website (https://www.idseed.org/), recently launched by the International Seed Morphology Association, aims to “promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, resource development, and research among those who are interested in seed morphology and seed identification”. Currently, the site hosts two seed keys, both are Lucid keys and both have been developed for use by biosecurity agencies in particular…
The increasing worldwide demand for plants suitable for use in aquaria and ponds has an unfortunate consequence that many of the plant species involved in this trade end up being released into local waterways causing a range of environmental and economic problems. Some of the worst examples include water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), Salvinia (Salvinia molesta),…
The EPPO-Q-bank invasive plants database provides detailed species-level information on all plant species on the EU list of Union concern, associated with EU regulation 1143/2014. This includes fact sheets, look alike pages and DNA barcodes to facilitate identification during border inspection and verification of interceptions in support of the implementation of the EU regulation regarding…
Mosquitoes have been important vectors of human pathogens for thousands of years; their importance is likely to increase as global warming changes the world-wide distribution of mosquito species. Since the early 1960s, taxonomists at the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU), within the National Museum of Natural History, at the Smithsonian Institution, have been providing taxonomic…