Nursery Catalogues List

About

This data was extracted from a spreadsheet supplied from Lincoln University Library in support of the "Taking Stock" project (see below).

It catalogues a snapshot (January 2020) of their holdings of Nursery Catalogues.

Each record field in the spreadsheet had a rather cryptic label ... and there were many fields that were not used (so they were removed).

The contents were tidied and each record is displayed here as follows:

Taking Stock: Resolving New Zealand’s Cultivated Plants Problem

A project of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture

The New Zealand cultivated plants project is a new collaboration among scientists, botanic gardens, horticultural societies and plant producers in New Zealand. The project goal is to significantly improve the documentation and recording of cultivated plants in New Zealand by registering species missing on ‘official’ databases – the NZ Plant Names Database (Ngā Tipu o Aotearoa), the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR), and MPI’s Plants Biosecurity Index (PBI). This will facilitate better management and utilisation of plant biodiversity in New Zealand.

The project began January 2020, thanks to three-year support from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures fund, with co-funding provided by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture (RNZIH), Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (MWLR), and others.

The project is led by Murray Dawson of the RNZIH, with many collaborators including Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand – NZ Region, International Dendrological Society – NZ Branch, International Plant Propagators’ Society – NZ Region, Massey University, NZ Plant Producers Inc., NZ Rhododendron Project Group, NZ Tree Crops Association, and the Orchid Council of NZ Inc.

There are many thousands of species of cultivated plants in New Zealand⁽¹⁾, yet lack of knowledge and poor cataloguing of which species are actually present impacts our prosperity: we do not adequately know what is in this country, what it is called, or where it is growing. Innovation is severely hampered by barriers to importing new germplasm, uncertainty about presence (biostatus), validity of names (botanical nomenclature), and the correct identities of plant material of economic interest. Pre-border problems arise for commercial growers and plant breeders trying to import new selections, germplasm, and breeding stock under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) 1996 Act, because of the limitations of the MPI Plants Biosecurity Index (PBI) in determining if species are already in New Zealand⁽²⁾. The PBI is incomplete, and also lacks taxonomic authorities, references, and synonymy from which to validate names.

In this project we will help address these issues by capturing and resolving names, identities, and biostatus for numerous plant species of interest to horticulture, production, and biosecurity sectors that are not currently listed on the PBI. This will be achieved by coordinating the capabilities and resources of plant producers, breeders, collection managers, researchers, regulators, and other interest groups. Key activities include:

• Searching, collating and evaluating scattered information held in living collections, stocklists, nursery catalogues, horticultural and botanical literature, and herbarium specimens to confirm that species are present in New Zealand.
• Checking the taxonomy of species and documenting the taxonomically correct and current names.
• Development of sets of validated plant names (properly referenced and with evidence such as herbarium specimens or nursery catalogue listings) to establish their presence in New Zealand. Resolved names and associated data will be inputted into two taxonomic databases: the New Zealand Plant Names Database (Ngā Tipu o Aotearoa) and the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR)⁽³⁾.
• For an estimated 600–800 species with the best evidence-based cases for presence in New Zealand, applications will be submitted to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for Section 26 determinations.

This work will help resolve major knowledge gaps for faster and more informed plant importation and regulatory decisions, improved access to new germplasm for plant production and breeding, and more effective management of biosecurity, pest plants, disease and biocontrol vectors, and living collections.

Please contact us if your group can contribute to this important initiative.

We are also seeking positions for a Governance Group.

Project leader: Murray Dawson (RNZIH) (dawsonm@rnzih.org.nz)

Project chair: Marion MacKay (Massey University)

Project finance manager: Chris Webb (RNZIH)

1. Dawson M. (editor). 2010. Documenting New Zealand’s cultivated flora: A supermarket with no stock inventory. Report from a TFBIS-funded workshop held in Wellington, New Zealand.
2. Dickson M. 2009. The Plants Biosecurity Index (PBI). New Zealand Garden Journal 12: 8–9.
3. Carver J, Cooper J, Vignaux M, Wilton A. 2007. What’s in a name? New Zealand Organisms Register scope. Report prepared for the TFBIS programme.