Conservation Week Livestreams

Tying this in with the Department of Conservation’s 50 years by looking back at the conservation of five of our Nationally Significant Collections and Databases (NSCDs). These livestreams cover when they first started, what’s changed in preservation and conservation compared to now, and how will we continue to preserve and add to them going forward.

Taking you to the heart of New Zealand's national Harakeke collection

Have you ever wanted to harvest and use the harakeke in your backyard or school for weaving? We show you how to and the importance of doing this in a sustainable way!

Join our expert weaver and kaitiaki of the collection, Katarina Tawiri in the heart of our living Te Kohinga Harakeke o Aotearoa | The National NZ Flax Collection with over 50 different cultivars of harakeke.

Katarina explain's the importance of conserving this collection and take you on a journey from how to assess a harakeke bush right through to extracting muka and weaving a small object.

Discover the critters that lie behind the doors of New Zealand’s largest land invertebrate collection

Hidden away in The New Zealand Arthropod Collection | Ko te Aitanga Pepeke o Aotearoa lie 7 million carefully preserved insects, spiders and other land invertebrate specimens. It is home to the largest collection of New Zealand land invertebrates in the world and contains specimens collected over 100 years ago to the present day. It is used by scientists from all over the world to answer a huge range of research questions.

New Zealand’s invertebrate fauna is unique: 80% of species are found no-where else on the planet. Not only does the NZAC provide an insight into invertebrate biodiversity today, but it also provides a window to the past. The collection makes important contributions to conservation by identifying threatened species, helping us to understand changes in their distribution and abundance and telling us about their habitat requirements.

Join Sarah Tassell, Collection Manager, as she shows you a range of pinned specimens inside the drawers of our specially built facility.

Explore New Zealand’s national Fungarium

The New Zealand Fungarium | Te Kohinga Hekaheka o Aotearoa was established nearly a century ago and contains specimens of over 7,300 local fungal species. The collection includes dried fungal specimens of mushrooms and other larger fruitbodies, and dried plant material that bears the fruitbodies of microscopic fungi. With over 100,000 specimens stored safely at our Auckland site, the collection continues to grow with up to 2,000 specimens added annually.

Join Maj Padamsee and Peter Buchanan as they show the weird and the wonderful treasures that are contained inside the walls of the Fungarium. They share the importance of maintaining a collection like this and the benefit it provides in protecting and conserving our native fungi and other biodiversity, and in supporting New Zealand’s biosecurity system to keep out unwanted overseas fungi.

Check out what’s tucked away in our national microorganism collection

The International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants (ICMP) is a collection of living bacteria and fungi. Over 21,000 bacteria and fungi are stored at our Auckland site in Liquid Nitrogen (that’s at a temperature of minus 196oC!). Come inside one of our labs and view some of these living cultures, how they are stored and what we do.

Join Bevan Weir as he showcases the diverse range of cultures we have and teach you how these microorganisms have impacted plant life around New Zealand and the world. You also see the importance of maintaining a collection like this and its importance in supporting New Zealand’s biosecurity system.

Dig into the new treasure trove of subantarctic species dating back to the 1800s

Join us as we take a peek inside the doors of the world’s largest collection of species from the subantarctic islands. New Zealand's subantarctic islands are home to some of the most abundant and unique wildlife on earth. A treasure trove of around 9,000 new specimens that date back to the 1800’s has recently been transferred from the University of Canterbury to Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research’s Allan Herbarium making the subantarctic collection the largest in the world.

The new collection of species include Cryptograms (mosses & lichens) and other subantarctic specimens. It adds to the Herbarium collection of specimens that provide a permanent, irreplaceable resource to researchers both in New Zealand and across the world working to learn more about, understand and document New Zealand’s flora.

Join Ines Schonberger in showcasing this collection inside the Allan Herbarium as she explains the importance of conserving these crucial collections.