Plant Biodiversity & Biosecurity Information Services
Landcare Research offers a range of information services for invertebrates, fungi and plants. This service is closely associated with the Allan Herbarium and the Plant Systematics and Invasive Weeds research.
Four Plant Biodiversity and Biosecurity Information services are:
Plant Identification and Information Service
The Plant Identification and Information Sevice is available to members of the public, commerical organisations, and government organisations. This service is provided by the systematists and utilises a range of resources including the Allan Herbarium and international literature. If you wish to submit material for identification, please read the guidelines provided on how to collect and send plants for identification.Contact: Email
or use the online request page
Presence and Distribution in New Zealand
This service provides a method to help determine whether a plant species
is present in New Zealand. The service is often used by a company
wishing to import plant material to meet biosecurity requirements. This
service uses the All New Zealand Species Database,
a wide range of literature sources, and the Allan
Herbarium (other New Zealand herbaria may also be contacted if necessary). Contact: Email
or use the online request page
Nomenclature Check
Plant names can often be confusing. This is because the same plant may be
known by different names, especially as our knowledge about the plants and
their relationships with each other improves. Scientific names can also
be confusing when different plants have accidentally been given the same
name! This service anwers questions about scientific plant names. Examples
of questions include: Is this the most up-to-date name for this plant? What
other names has this species been called? Could this name have been given
to two different species? Do these two names refer to the same species?
Much of this information is available on our website - Ngā
Tipu Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants - however this Nomenclature Check
service is available for a more in-depth check and is provided by the systematists of the Allan Herbarium. Contact: Email
or use the online request page
Weed Risk Assessment
This service provides a method to help determine whether a given species
is likely to represent a weed risk if it is introduced into New Zealand.
It may also be used to obtain an advance-warning of weedy tendencies for
plants already in the country. This assessment is based on an adaptation
of a model developed by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
that scores a number of attributes of the species to give an overall rating.
Examples of the attributes used in the scoring include whether the plant
is nitrogen fixing, reproduces vegetatively, is toxic to humans or stock, by
what method its seed is dispersed, and whether the species is considered
a weed overseas. The information for these assessments is based on the New
Zealand and international ecological and systematic literature.Contact: Email
or use the online request page
More information
For more information about any of these services, please contact us by Email
,
or use our online request page.