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New plant discoveries

New species of plants could be discovered at any time. Learn about the discovery of a Wild Carrot!

The Trachymene was found near Armidale by botanist Lachlan M. Copeland in 2000. Since then it has been stored as a dried specimen in the National Herbarium of New South Wales in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Here, hundreds of thousands of Australian plants are stored and every year the number increases. 

At the moment, it only has a descriptive name which gives us: 

  • Family name: Araliaceae
  • Genus name: Trachymene  (Wild Carrots)
  • Species name: not named yet!
  • Where it was found : NSW Northern Tablelands (around Armidale)
  • Who found it: Lachlan M. Copeland
  • The unique number was was given to his collection when he gave it to the herbarium: 4234

Watch what happened to our Wild Carrot in this little video.

 

Also check our podcast about the work in the Herbarium. 

Can you finish this sentence now?

“In a Herbarium, scientists ….”

And there are not only scientists in the Herbarium, if you love drawing, it might be just the right place for you.
 

Watch scientific illustrator Catherine’s story!


Activities - New plant discoveries

  1. Your own Herbarium 

  Create your own Herbarium collection from your garden, school ground or the park. Watch this video to see how it is done!

  Pick at least 5 plants and prepare them as pressed, dried and mounted specimens.  

Activity Sheet 

  2. Plant Habitats

  Different plants have preferences for where they like to grow!

  Find out about their choice of real estate in the activity sheet.

Activity Sheet

3. Draw your own Trachymene

Did you like the video about Botanic Illustration?

Catherine made this simplified version of our Trachymene for you.

Try drawing it yourself – you can hold it up to the window and trace it or even try and copy it.

Open in full size

Scientific illustration of Trachymene

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