The National Herbarium of NSW is an important ally in the fight to prevent new weeds from establishing and spreading in our State. Our extensive physical specimen collections provide a record of plant distributions through time and are a valuable resource for the timely detection of new weed incursions. We maintain systems of plant names and classifications in NSW according to international standards, enabling accurate and consistent identification of high-risk weeds. The Herbarium is working with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) to strengthen NSW capacity in weed botany, with the appointment of a dedicated Weed Botanist in 2023.

This workshop, presented by Herbarium staff, will outline the role of the NSW Herbarium, and how weed and biosecurity officers can collaborate with us. We will discuss with attendees the situations where they might need or want to collect specimens to submit to the Herbarium. Examples include when formal identification is needed, and to document significant new discoveries such as new weed incursions or range expansions. We will provide practical instruction in specimen collection, offering a hands-on exercise demonstrating how to construct a press and use it to press plants. Finally, we will briefly review how plants are named and classified, with the goal of clarifying why botanical name changes happen and providing guidance on how to know what the correct name for a weed is.

We welcome anyone to attend: the workshop will be aimed at a broad audience with a general interest in botany (no prior knowledge will be assumed). We suggest allocating 1 hour and 20 minutes for the workshop and holding it in a room set up with a projector and tables arranged crescent or banquet style to promote group work and discussion.

Keywords: plant collection, nomenclature, Australian Plant Census, PlantNET Flora