NEXT MEETING: Saturday 11 May 2024

About the presentation -  

Our very own Shirley McLaran will be the Presenter for our next meeting on Saturday 11^th May, 2024.

Shirley’s experience as a Botanist, passionate bush regeneration teacher and a forager for pea flowers has led her to revive the Pea Flower Study Group where she is able to share knowledge with others, using iNaturalist, to learn more about her favourite plant group.

iNaturalist Australia, an online social network, is where animal and plant observations and information can be recorded, identified, shared and collected with this data being collated for science and the conservation of our natural environment.

Shirley will show us the tips and tricks on How to become a Citizen Scientist connecting us to nature, our observations of biodiversity from across our local area contributing to and being shared by others.  As well as enhancing our community database, this information will provide statistics and connection to a community of millions of people, including Scientists and Naturalists worldwide.

About Shirley -  

Shirley’s love of Australian native plants began in 1996 when she enrolled in a TAFE horticultural course to learn about soils and nutrients. A passionate bush regeneration teacher encouraged her to attend the Queensland Society for Growing Australian Plants (SGAP) spring flower show and she was hooked from that day. Shirley joined the Pine Rivers Branch and quickly became obsessed with the desire to know which family each species belonged to, and why. Before long, she became an Australian Native Plants Society Australia (ANPSA) biennial conference junkie, where she eagerly learned from other ‘plant people’. Shirley was especially amazed by the diversity of pea-flowered plants.

In 2014, Shirley’s passion for plant identification and classification led her to undertake a Bachelor of Science, majoring in botany, at the University of New England. During her studies, she was accepted to participate in the Volunteer Botanical Training Program at the Australian National Herbarium. At the ANPSA biennial conference in Albany in 2019, she volunteered to revive the Pea Flower Study Group seeing it as an outlet to share knowledge with others and learn more about her favourite plant group.

Shirley’s passions for foraging for pea flowers and citizen science go hand in hand.