Detailed Flora Inventories of the Various Forest Systems of PNG

Missionary collectors were active throughout PNG. Some notable collectors included Gerhard Peekel New Ireland (1941-450, J and MS Clemens (1935-41), and Cedric Carr (1933-36).

Much exploration for the purpose of extending Administration control was undertaken during the term of office of Sir Hubert Murray 1908-40. Major well-organized expeditions were conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. In a major journey in 1927-28, C. Karius and I.F. Champion spent four months crossing from the Fly River to the Sepik River. In 1935, J. G. Hides and L.J. O’Malley followed the Strickland River into the well populated southern highlands. In 1936 and 1937 expeditions led by Ivan Champion reached Mount Hagen and Lake Kutubu. By 1939 Murray believed that the whole of Papua had been explored. This was not entirely correct. It was not until the 1950s that Administration patrols reached parts of the Southern Highlands.

Photo Credit Mark Coode 1968 Osia, Keith Woolliams and Wakaru Lae Gardens.

Keith Woolliams (1940-2011) replaced Andree Millar in the Garden side of the Division of Botany and went subsequently to Waimea Botanical Garden in the Hawaiian Islands, then to Oregon. http://keithwoolliams.last-memories.com/.

DETAILED FLORA INVENTORIES OF THE VARIOUS FOREST SYSTEMS OF PNG

The island of New Guinea has a high diversity of species and a high level of endemism, containing more than 5 percent of earth’s biodiversity in just over one half of a percent of the land on the Earth. It supports the largest area of mature tropical moist forest in the Asia/Pacific region.

Papua New Guinea consists of the eastern part of the island of New Guinea, plus the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Buka, and Bougainville. There are between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand species of vascular plants in Papua New Guinea, with at least two thousand species of trees.

At no time was PNG completely joined to South East Asia, but it was joined to Australia, probably until about 6000 years ago. As a result, PNG shares many species of plants and animals (including marsupials) with Australia but not Indonesia. The Wallace line marks the deep water between Bali and Lombok and Kalimantan and Sulawesi that formed a natural barrier to animals and plants. To reach PNG, people had to cross open water on canoes or rafts.

TODAY, the most important challenge for Papua New Guinea is the protection of biological diversity against the pressures resulting from global climate change, inappropriate destructive conversion of natural communities, unsustainable exploitation of forests, national economic development, and societal demands, including a fair sharing of the nation’s wealth, and law and order issues.

LAE BOTANY

Collections of plants have been made in Papua and New Guinea from the earliest explorers. In North East New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, early botanical investigations were carried out by German botanists and explorers. Their specimens were sent to Berlin. In Papua, Sir William MacGregor made numerous collections which were sent to Baron von Muller in Melbourne to be provided with scientific names.

In 1922-24 Mr C E Lane-Poole, the Commonwealth Inspector General of Forests made extensive explorations throughout the forests of Papua and New Guinea. His botanical collections are held in Brisbane.

In 1925-26, Leonard Brass first came to Papua as a plant collector of the Arnold Arboretum in America. During his career, Brass, through the six Archbold Expeditions in which he participated contributed more to New Guinea botany than any other person. His collections exceeded 33,000 specimens from many parts of Papua, New Guinea, and West Irian.

It was not until the latter stages of the 1939-45 war, that a serious attempt was made to establish a reference collection of dried plant specimens in New Guinea. This came about through the inspiration of the late J B McAdam MM, then a major with the Australian Army Engineers under whose command were two Forestry Survey Companies. Subsequently he was the first Director of Forests, TPNG. He was greatly assisted by C T White Government Botanist Queensland and H E Dadswell CSIRO Division of Forest Products. In charge of the plant collecting and identification was Lieutenant Lindsay Smith, a staff member from the Government Botanist in Brisbane.

The primary object of the botanical work of the Forestry Companies was identifications of the various tree species potentially suitable for engineering construction such as wharfs, bridges etc. In achieving this objective, the botanists established a collection of dried specimens of the plants being handled by the unit. The specimens carefully identified and labelled constitute an herbarium.

When the Division of Botany (under the Department of Forests) came into being in 1946, it took over the small collection of less than 2000 specimens prepared by the Army Forestry Companies during the Second World War.

John Womersley7 was appointed the first Director in 1946. In 1949, the Department of Forests acquired control over 140 acres (57 Hectares) on the outskirts of Lae for the purposes of a botanical reserve.

7 John Womersley Part B pp 532-534

PNG PLANT COLLECTION SERIES

By 1975 the collection had been expanded to over 120,000 specimens with an annual accession of some 7,000 specimens.

Joe Havel was an avid botanical collector from 1955. By 1965, he had compiled an illustrated textbook of forest botany. This publication sat on a shelf in the Lae Herbarium until 1970 when Managing Director Don McIntosh arranged for its publication.

8

9

8 Havel J 1970 reprinted 1975 Training Manual for the Forestry College Volume 3 Forest Botany-; Part 2 Botanical Taxonomy. 9 Havel J 1970 Training Manual for the Forestry College Volume 3 Forest Botany Part 1 Terminology.

Long service in forestry rewarded10

Joe Havel trained Kairo Aubeta in botanical collection who has been instrumental over his lifetime in making a major contribution to PNG botanical collections. On the 30th of August 2018, 89-year-old Aubeta Kairo was recognised by PNG in being made a Member of the Order of Logohu. Kairo remarked on the day that he was in the Second World War and in 1955 started in forestry with Joe Havel. He went to forests everywhere in PNG. He worked at the Bulolo Forestry College and became a botanist for 28 years and retired in 2017. Previously he had been honoured for his work in New Year’s Awards in 1975 and 1982. Professor Barry Conn11 referred to the work of PNG renowned botanist Paul Katik. Both Paul and Aubeta are the giants of PNG Botany. The modern-day equivalent of these two amazing botanists is Kipiro Damas. David Frodin12, described the plant collections series. During World War 2, e.g., in 1944 when Max Jacobs was collecting on the Bulldog track, the series was called the NGF (New Guinea Forces Series). This was started under Jim McAdam and Cyril T White. (Queensland Forest Botanist). After World War 2, it stood for New Guinea Forests under the Division of Botany. This continued until around 1970, when, as proposed by Peter Stevens, John Womersley changed the collection series to the prefix LAE, referring to the Lae Herbarium’s official international abbreviation (LAE). 13

Further to the NGF-series, the “top set” of material from the Forces is in the Queensland Herbarium Brisbane with a duplicate set left in Lae. This was inherited in 1946 by John Womersley and the Botany Division. After 1946, the series was managed from Lae, with duplicates distributed to major collections in Australia (particularly Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra), the UK (mostly to Kew), to Leiden in the Netherlands, the USA (including the Bishop Museum), Singapore and to Bogor (Indonesia). Collections were also sent to

10 The National Newspaper Port Moresby 31 August 2018. 11 Personal communication Professor Barry Conn 30 Dec 2020 12 David Frodin Kew Gardens personal communication 11 April 2019 13 Mark Coode personal communication 30 Dec 2020 the switch from NGF to Lae was when the NGF series reached 50,000 specimens.

botanical specialists in other institutions. While the focus was on woody plants, other plants, including grasses and weeds (grasses being Ted Henty’s speciality) were also collected.

Many of the early NGF series were collected by Joe Havel and Aubeta Kairo from Bulolo. All these collections were distributed from the Lae Herbarium. Some duplicates of these were returned to Bulolo, and others were distributed to the Department of Forests - Wood Products Division in Port Moresby which were then deposited with UPNG in the 1970’s. David Frodin14 described the georeferencing of specimens which was one relative innovation introduced by the Division of Botany at Lae, perhaps 60 years ago. It was then relatively rare amongst botanical institutions – and today helps account for the relatively good showing of PNG amongst specimens from tropical countries documented in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)11, a public website.

The PNG records on that site are there particularly thanks to the contributions made by

Barry Conn’s PNG Plants project15 initiated several years ago. the former National Herbarium of the Netherlands (now NCB Naturalis) in Leiden (which databased and imaged all three major Dutch herbaria earlier this decade; there is some overlap between the two, due to duplicate specimens). and what the Australian Virtual Herbarium has contributed – and that was partly the work of William (Bill) Barker, Barry Conn, and Jim Croft16 .

In general, the standard seems to have been to the nearest 5 minutes unless the collections were from an area with several landmarks. Botany had a considerable range of surplus World War 2 topographical maps along with what was available in the T504 1:250,000 series (and various others).

Incidentally, T504 never covered New Britain. Botany had to use WW2 material along with a redrawn version made in Konedobu showing potential survey strip sites. David Frodin still had a copy of the latter, in 3 1/2 sheets. (David Frodin was on most of the early 1966 survey in western New Britain which was led, if his memory was correct, by Neil Brightwell)

14 David Frodin Kew Gardens personal communication 27 February 2019 15 Conn BJ, Lee LL and Kiapranis R (2004+). ‘PNGplants database: Plants of Papua New Guinea’ http://www.pngplants.org/PNGdatabase 16 Jim Croft Botanist 1973 to PNG becoming Director PNG National Herbarium and Gardens. In 1988 moved to Australian National Botanical Gardens ACT

The Lae Herbarium was opened on the 12th of April 1965 by Sir George Taylor Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew England.

In Womersley’s17 work on tropical herbarium practice, he contributed to raising awareness in UNESCO during the “transitional times” of the 1960s of the need to establish a repertoire of good practice for existing and future collections. (David Frodin18)

17 Womersley J S 1969 Plant collecting for Anthropologists Geographers and Ecologists in New Guinea Dept of Forests PNG. Largely based on F.R. Fosberg Plant Collecting Manual for Field Anthropologists (1939). More comprehensive plant collecting information for the tropics is provided in B.J. Conn (2011). Botanical collecting. pp. 250–280. In Thieberger N. (Ed.). ‘The Oxford handbook of linguistic fieldwork’ (Oxford University Press: Oxford). 18 David Frodin Kew Gardens personal communication 27 February 2019

19 The 1965 manual of the

Forest Trees of Papua New Guinea

Part 5-8 by Pieter van Royen

Several eminent botanists have served at Lae Botany over the period until 1975. They include John Womersley, Kevin White, Pieter van Royen, Alick Dockrill, Alec Floyd, Don Foreman20 , David Frodin, Tom Hartley, Ted Henty16, Andree Millar, Colin Ridsdale, Heinar Streimann, Peter Stevens (1970-73), Mark Coode (1966-72), Andy Gillison, Bob Johns, Barry Conn21 (1974-75, Jo Vandenberg (1969-1971), Heinar Streimann22 (1971-72), Greg Leach (1972), Jim Croft (1973-1987), Nigel Clunie (1974-1977), Bill Barker23 (1974-1976), Michael Galore, Paul Katik, Aubeta Kairo, Artis Vinas and Yakas Lelean. Artists employed at the time included expatriates Terry Nolan, Faye Owner and Damaris Pearce, eventually to give way to nationals, Taikika Iwagu and Semeri Hitignuc in the early 1970s.

19 Van Royen 1965 Manual of the Forest trees of Papua and New Guinea Part 5 -8 Dept of Forests PNG 20 Conn BJ 2004 Donald Bruce Foreman in Papua New Guinea (1969-1975) Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 119: 12–15 http://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/04-june-119.pdf 21 Conn BJ 2004 Donald Bruce Foreman in Papua New Guinea (1969-1975) Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 119: 12–15 http://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/04-june-119.pdf 22 Ramsay H. 2002 Streimann, Heinar (1938 - 2001) Australian Bryological Newsletter 45 23 Barker, WR, Conn BJ and Croft J (2002) Ted Henty: the quiet achiever of New Guinea botany Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 110: 8–9 http://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/02march-110.pdf

24 25

2627

24 Van Royen P 1963 The Vegetation of the Island of New Guinea Division of Botany Dept of Forests PNG 25 Henty E E 1981 Handbooks of the Flora of Paua New Guinea Volume2 Melbourne University Press ISBN0522842046 26 Gray B 1975 size Composition and Regeneration of Araucaria Stands in New Guinea. J. Ecol 63,273-289 March 1975 27 Millar Andree 1971 Gardening with Andree Millar South Pacific Post- Production

In 1973, the publication “28New Horizons” (pages 7 to 23), of the Dept of Forests summarised the forest resources of PNG, as then known (from the work of botanists and foresters alike). Some 200 species had been identified as having economic potential. The forest resources are extensive and varied in composition. However, they were divided into seven homogeneous systems, classified on the lines of the major forest types of forest present.

Map Potential forest areas PNG. Source Dept Of Forests New Horizons publication 1973.

A published booklet titled “Properties and Uses of Papua New Guinea Timbers” (revised in March 1970) contained details of 200 main species.

By 1973, of the 200 potentially commercial species, the following 30 species had been selected, given their availability and commercial acceptance.

NAME

Agathis spp. FAMILY

Araucariaceae COMMON NAME

Kauri

Araucaria cunninghamii

Araucaria hunsteinii

Aglaia

Alstonia scholaris

Amoora cucullata

Anisoptera polyandra Araucariaceae

Araucariaceae

Meliaceae

Apocynaceae

Meliaceae

Dipterocarpaceae Hoop pine

Klinkii pine

Aglaia

White cheesewood

Amoora

Anisoptera

28 New Horizons Dept Of Forests 1973 Jacaranda Press pp 7-23 ISBN 0701681845

Anthocephalus cadamba

Calophyllum spp.

Campnosperma brevipetiolata

Castanopsis accuminatissima

Dracontomelum mangiferum

Elmerrillia papuana

Endospermum spp.

Eucalyptus deglupta

Eugenia spp.

Homalium foetidum

Hopea spp.

Intsia spp.

Nothofagus spp.

Octomeles sumatrana

Palaquium spp.

Planchonella spp.

Pometia spp.

Pterocarpus indicus

Pterocymbium beccarii

Spondias dulcis

Terminalia brassii

Terminalia spp.

Toona sureni

Vitex cofassus Rubiaceae

Guttiferae

Anacardiaceae

Fagaceae

Anacardiaceae

Magnoliaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Myrtaceae

Myrtaceae

Flacourtiaceae

Dipterocarpaceae

Leguminosae

Fagaceae

Datiscaceae

Sapotaceae

Sapotaceae

Sapindaceae

Leguminosae

Sterculiaceae

Anacardiaceae

Combretaceae

Combretaceae

Meliaceae

Verbenaceae Labula

Calophyllum

Campnosperma

Oak

Walnut

Wau beech

Basswood

Kamarere

Water gum

Malas

Hopea

Kwila

Beech

Erima

Pencil cedar

White & red Planchonella

Taun

Rosewood

Amberoi

Spondias

Brown terminalia

Terminalia

Red cedar

Vitex

HISTORY29 NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARDENS LAE

The first botanic garden in Papua New Guinea was established by the German Administration in Rabaul in the early 1900s and was regarded as one of the most auspicious reserves in the tropics. Australia further developed this site after the annexation. However, the 1937 volcanic eruptions followed by the events of the Second World War brought about the complete destruction of this fine garden.

The Forest Botanist John S Womersley began development of the present botanic garden in Lae, now known as the National Botanical Gardens in 1949. The site evolved in conjunction with the National Herbarium to provide a consolidated centre of botanical research. The original site of the herbarium is thought to have been in the Butibum region of Lae, possibly as part of Forestry offices. The National Herbarium was constructed to house the nation’s collection of preserved plant specimens whilst the National Botanical Gardens was built to create an area where the country’s living collection of flora could be displayed. The gardens and herbarium are an integrated unit for conservation, education and recreation with each facility regarded as essential to the other’s success.

The original site located near the Commonwealth War Cemetery consisted of approximately 26 hectares of land, but further clearings of a post-war coconut plantation and some areas of forest adjacent to the escarpment increased the area to its present size of 56 hectares.

During the 1950s, permanent buildings and a nursery were established, and propagation and cultivation of both indigenous and exotic plants intensified. Several trial blocks of timber tree species were planted within the lower portions of the site for scientific research.

Towards the later parts of the 1950s, Diddyman Creek was modified, and various ponds constructed and planted with waterlilies and riparian flora. In subsequent years animal cages, enclosures and displays were also built. The garden rapidly developed into a major tourist attraction and an attractive recreational area for the residents of Lae.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the area was renowned both nationally and internationally as one of the most attractive botanic gardens in the South West Pacific. The site helped Lae obtain its title as the “Garden City” of Papua New Guinea.

Unfortunately, by the early 1980s funding for the Botanic Garden began to decline. The number of office staff was reduced. The number of labourers in this period was also reduced. The site deteriorated significantly during this period obtaining a dubious reputation. As a result of this neglect much of the infrastructure and facilities are now in need of repair, plant species need to be recollected and displayed and substantial groundwork is required. Due to concerns for safety, the gardens were closed in the mid-1990’s and suffered further degradation. A redevelopment program of the National Botanic Gardens was started in 1995. It included fencing of the main garden area, major landscape work to improve the drainage of the area, construction of public amenities area, children’s playgrounds, shade houses for display of the country’s rich flora and various smaller projects. The above activities were controlled through a garden management committee comprising various sectors of the Lae city community.

29 Source http://laebotanicalgardens.com/history

OPENING LAE HERBARIUM 1965

PNG PLANT COLLECTORS 30

Plant Collectors of Papua New Guinea

Barry J. Conn, Linn Linn Lee & Tory Kuria

The primary aim of PNGcollectors database is to produce a list of past and present staff of the Papua New Guinea National Herbarium (LAE), based on official records held at LAE and on the collections in the PNGplants database. Therefore, information about Administration and other support staff will be included. Although the focus of this website is on LAE staff, there are many other important plant collectors who worked in Papua New Guinea. The NGF and/or LAE collections series has been used by LAE staff and by many other collectors (for example, by those from the Papua New Guinea Forestry College, Bulolo, now Papua New Guinea University of Technology, and by staff from the Department of Forests, Papua New Guinea, now Papua New Guinea National Forest Authority).

Information about many of these are provided by M.J. van Steenis Kruseman in her Cyclopaedia of Malesian Collectors (now maintained by P.C. van Welzen). Researchers who are interested in bibliographical information about collectors from the Malesian region should refer to this comprehensive reference. Links from PNGcollectors to this publication have been included when relevant.

Year

1700

1768/1769

1770

1792/93

1834

1825

1858 Plant Collector

William Dampier

Bougainville

Cook

D’Entrecasteaux

D’Urville

Belcher

Alfred Wallace

30 PNG Plants and Editor’s contributions. Note there are many more collectors who scholars could identify.

1871-1872

1872

1875

1875

1875

1875

1876-1877

1879

1880-1882 & 1884

1882-1894

1883

1885

1885-1886

1887

1888-1898

1889-91

1892-1893

1903

1919

1922 & 1935

1925-1959

1927

1933-36

1935-41

1938

1939-45

1939-45

1939-45

1939-45 Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay

Beccari with d’Albertis

William Macleay

Luigi Maria D’Albertis

Andrew Goldie

J Turner

Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay

J Turner

Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch

Richard Parkinson

Dr Guillemard

Dr F H Otto

Forbes

C Schrader (astronomer) with a botanist up Sepik River

Sir William MacGregor

Dr Carl Weinland

Ebenezer Cowley

R Parkinson

Carl Ludwig Ledermann

Lane Poole

Leonard Brass Arnold Arboretum America

C Karius and L F Champion

Cedric Carr

J and MS Clemens Missionaries

J B McAdam

Gerhard Peekel Missionary New Ireland

CT White

Dr Lindsay Smith

Dr Max Jacobs

1942-1945

1942-1946

1946 - 1975

1949

1950-59

1950 -1972

1952-68

1953

1954

1955-1965?

1955 -2017

1955-1964

1956-1972

1957-1984

1957-1977

1961-1965

1961-1972

1962 -

1962-1980

1962-1965

1963-65

1963-1966

1964-1973

1964-1967

1965

1965 -

1965 -1971

1966-1972

1966- 1980’s Knowles Mair

Dr Lindsay Smith

John Womersley

Bill Heather

EC (Ted) Gray

Jim Cavanaugh

Dr Ruurd Dirk Hoogland

Michael Galore

H S McKee

Joe Havel

Kairo Aubeta

Andree Millar

Royal Pullen

Ted Henty

Kevin White

Dr Tom Hartley

Heinar Streimann

Henry BFC with Joe Havel

Prof John Davidson

Dr Pieter van Royen

C. David Sayers

John Buderus

Andy Gillison

Lyndley Alan Craven

Opening Lae Herbarium

Neville Howcroft

Maru Kumul

Alick Dockrill

Dr David Frodin

1966-1972

1966-1968

1967-1970

1969-1975

1969-1990

1970-73

1971-73

1973-1988

1973

1974

1974-1978

1974-1979

1974

1974-1976

1975 -

1979 Mark Coode

Colin Ridsdale

Joanne Vandenberg

Dr Don Foreman

Prof Bob Johns

Dr Peter Stevens

Dr Gregory Leach

Jim Croft

Paul Katik

Prof David Mabberley

Dr Nigel Clunie

Dr Barry Conn

Elizabeth Kilangina

Dr Bill Barker

Joseph Wiakabu

Kipiro Q Damas

Barry Conn helped organize a project to bring together databased records of New Guinea plants in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Lae over the last decade. This is available through http://www.pngplants.org/, and as there are considerable amounts of NGF/LAE material in those locations and in the Netherlands Plants of Papua New Guinea

Welcome to PNGplants — information for students, researchers, development workers, community leaders, government and non-government agencies and others working on plant identification, conservation, and diversity of plants in Papua New Guinea.

PNGplants database

An internet accessible herbarium plant collection database of plants from Papua New Guinea

PNGtrees project An interactive identification guide to the common trees of Papua New Guinea

Plant collectors of Papua New Guinea Information about Papua New Guinean plant collectors and support staff

Census of Vascular Plants of Papua New Guinea Names of vascular plants of Papua New Guinea

PNGplants Website Information about the website

ACP Forenet

Forestry Research Network for Africa, Carribean and Pacific Countries Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea

Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3