Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

Today I rode the rivercat (a catamaran ferry) into Sydney from Rydalmere. I went to the Royal Botanic Garden to use the herbarium collection and to give a research talk in the afternoon. I spent most of the day looking at herbarium specimens of Euphrasia, a parasitic plant that is pretty diverse in Australia. I wouldn’t mind working on this group if the opportunity arises.

Here are some pictures of the day.

The rivercat arriving at Rydalmere.


Revision of previous harbor bridge picture. Today was sunny and hot! If you look closely at the larger picture you can see people standing on the very top of the bridge and then about halfway down the right side of the arch. You can pay a fee to go up there.


Ditto for the opera house.


And the skyline.


A scene of the botanic garden near the rose garden.


A nice scene in the garden looking toward the harbor.


A plant in the legume family.


Another cool looking plant. The plants weren't labeled very well - sorry.


Entrance to the research center.


The "Scrophs" section of the herbarium (Scrophulariaceae, Orobanchaceae, Plantanginaceae - only they hadn't updated to reflect the current taxonomy). This is a different sort of shelving compared to most herbaria. The sheets are stored in plastic boxes racked in shelves.


An example of what I was looking at today. I wanted to get a "feel" for Euphrasia to see if I might be interested in pursuing some work on them. They do seem pretty interesting from what I saw today.