Plenty of good botanical work gets done by people with no institution behind them. A hand lens, a camera and a notebook have produced many of the records we rely on. If you have found something worth recording, send it to our researchers.
We take records from anyone. Someone who walks the same creek every week knows things about that creek that no herbarium sheet holds. Send us what you have seen, and if it stands up we will use it and say where it came from.
What to send
- Photographs: the whole plant, a leaf from both sides, flower or fruit if it has any, bark or stem, and a coin or a finger in shot for scale.
- Where and when. A coordinate is best. A description of the spot and the date works too.
- What you noticed standing there: the soil, what grows around it, the smell of a crushed leaf, the colour of the sap, whether it was in flower.
- Your own notes, in your own words. Notebook pages are welcome as they are. Photograph them and send the photographs.
- Anything you have read about the plant, and where you read it.
A blurry photo and an honest note beat nothing at all. Send what you have.
What happens to it
Your message goes to the researcher who covers that plant. If we can identify it from what you sent, we will tell you what we think it is and how confident we are. If it belongs in a plant dossier, a field record or a monograph, it goes in, and your name goes on the record as the person who found it. Tell us if you would rather stay anonymous and we will leave your name off.
We reply to most messages. Some plants cannot be named from photographs at all, and we will say so plainly when that is the case.
If the research is yours
Ask our researchers your own questions. They will help with identification, with the chemistry, and with what the published literature does and does not show, and they will tell you when nobody knows the answer yet. Our field observations, our Journal with every citation checked, and the reference lists behind both are there to be used.
How to reach a researcher
- Photographs, notebook pages and files: email our contact form.
- A message on its own: use the contact form.
Please do not post us plant material without asking first. Moving plant material around the country runs into biosecurity rules, and many Queensland native plants are protected, so collecting them can require a permit. Photograph the plant where it grows and leave it standing.
Please keep health information about yourself or anyone else out of what you send. This is not a service for poisoning or emergencies: call the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26, and 000 in an emergency.