Overview
In January 2019, Research Scientist Heidi Meudt, and VUW Summer Student Justin Liu made botanical collections in Westland and Canterbury. They visited the following areas:
- Tai Poutini Westland National Park
- Arthurs Pass National Park
- Aoraki Mt Cook National Park
They were joined in their search at different places by DoC Scientists Sam Rowland and John Barkla, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research botanists Alex Fergus, Jessie Prebble, Chris Morse, and Kerry Ford, and botanist Jane Gosden,
Seven populations of five native Myosotis species were located. A herbarium specimen and leaf samples for DNA research were collected for each species to help address key research questions as part of Te Papa's Myosotis research program.
Other indigenous and naturalised species were also collected as part of general Te Papa collection development to improve our knowledge of what grows where in New Zealand.
Read more about this trip on the Te Papa blog:
Most of the collection records and photos of plants we collected on this trip can be seen here (scroll down to "Related Objects" below).