Menai Wildflower - Saturday super meeting - Season and Smoke, Dr Mark Ooi and Dr John Porter

Menai Wildflower Group of the Australian Plants Society are hosting a super meeting on Season and Smoke: Key Elements in Dormancy and Germination, with speakers Dr Mark Ooi and Dr John Porter. 

Senior Research Fellow, Mark Ooi, will delve into the Dormancy and Germination characteristics of Sydney Flora seed.

Research Fellow, John Porter, will concentrate on Actinotus (The Flannel flowers).

Mark and John are from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science at UNSW.  Menai Wildflower Group are providing a Scholarship of $2000 for research into the dormancy and germination in Actinotus species. This donation follows on from the basic work carried out into A. heliathii and forsythii seed which indicates that while smoke and age are important factors in breaking their dormancy, they are not the only factors. The feeling is population, temperature and the ‘Mother’ effect also may be important.

We hope this further research may contribute to increasing the number of Actinotus plants available to the public and in Australian gardens.

The meeting is being held on Saturday 14 July, commencing at 1pm, at Illawong Rural Fire Station, Old Illawarra Rd, Illawong. The gardens will be open from 12 noon. 

Along with the guest speakers there will be a raffle and plant sales. The day will include a look at the Illawong Rural Fire Station gardens. There have not been a lot of flowers out due to the drought but thanks to the recent rains that seems to be changing. And there should be some interesting plants in flower. 

Everyone is welcome. 

For more information, contact:  menaiwildflower@austplants.com.au                     Or see Facebook: https://austplants.com.au/Menai-Wildflower