Australian National Herbarium (Program HC)

Cultivar Collection

Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA)
Plant Breeders Rights (PBR)

The cultivar collection is located at the Australian National Herbarium on the ANBG site and is maintained jointly by the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA), the ANBG and the Australian National Herbarium. The collection, which began in Melbourne in the 1960s, was transferred to Canberra in 1974 and now contains in excess of 1200 herbarium specimens, while the ANBG maintains 450 associated living plants. These specimens are of cultivars and plant varieties derived from genera endemic to Australia and those predominantly Australian. In addition, as an International Cultivar Registration Authority since 1962, ACRA has taken responsibility for registering cultivars of some genera that are not predominantly Australian for example, Helichrysum, Syzygium and Microlaena.

The cultivar collection includes herbarium specimens of ACRA registered cultivars and varieties that have been submitted for Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) through IP Australia. Under the PBR Act (1994) Section 44.2 "If an application for PBR in a plant variety is accepted and the plant variety is a variety of a species indigenous to Australia the Secretary must require supply of a satisfactory specimen plant of the variety to the herbarium". Under the Regulations the Secretary has designated the Australian National Herbarium as the location for this collection. As ACRA does not discard any herbarium specimens the herbarium collection includes specimens of cultivar applications that have been rejected, as well as specimens of comparators used to demonstrate the distinctiveness of new plant varieties.

Specimens are preserved with high levels of accuracy in identification and botanical nomenclature. When ACRA receives a plant variety, information about it is documented in a field book and it is either pressed to create a herbarium specimen or planted in the ANBG. Information from the field book is then entered into the Australian National Herbarium Specimen Information Register (ANHSIR) database. ANHSIR database records store information on things such as the plant breeder, plant variety origin information and the date of submission to ACRA; with ANHSIR facilitating the creation of location records for live specimens within the ANBG.

Herbarium specimens of ACRA registered cultivars and cultivars granted Plant Breeders Rights are used as 'standards' or 'types' for describing these cultivars. The ACRA herbarium collection is used to gauge the novelty and distinctiveness of new cultivated plant varieties. As the cultivar collection grows it is becoming increasingly important as a resource for assessing new cultivar applications.

Australia’s flora has not been developed to the extent that other civilisations have developed their flora where cultivated plant varieties have been developed for 1000’s of years. As a result the ACRA collection details an invaluable historic record of the horticultural development of Australasian flora.

November 2006-2007 Report

Plant Breeder’s Rights

During this period 30 Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) applications and/or plant specimens were submitted to the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA) for comment, with 43 applications from previous years pending comment. Plant specimens were pressed for addition to the ACRA herbarium collection. Since November 2006 ACRA commented on 30 PBR submissions, and in November 2007 approximately 43 PBR submissions were pending comment.

Australian Cultivar Registration Authority cultivar registration

During this period 10 new cultivar applications and/or plant specimens were submitted for registration by ACRA, and an extra 36 ACRA cultivar applications pending comment, were identified. These applications were pending comment for various reasons. Typically applications were awaiting fertile live plant material for colour coding distinctive characters, such as flower or leave colour, and to provide herbarium vouchers for correct identification. In this period 25 ACRA submissions were registered, with 2 ACRA cultivar applications rejected and 8 applications closed due to insufficient information being provided by the breeder.

Australian Plant Name Index

More electronic images of cultivars are being linked to the Australian Plant Name Index, and as new images are added to the Australian Plant Image Index these will be automatically linked with the Australian Plant Name Index.

During this period, n o new records were created in the Australian Plant Name Index to link cultivar names to publications .

International Cultivar Registration Authority

The annual Activity Report to the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) was submitted on time and the ACRA details on the ICRA web site were updated.

In October 2007, the International Society for Horticultural Science Commission approved the reappointment of ACRA as the official International Registration Authority for Australian plant genera for a further 4 years.

ACRA Herbarium Collection

The ACRA herbarium specimen collection has been moved from the Botany building in the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) to the Australian National Herbarium (ANH) on the CSIRO site. It is in a compactus on the north side of Level 2, between the end of the monocots and the beginning of the dicots. The new location will provide ACRA with access to more botanical resources, including visiting experts.

Web Statistics

The web site is continuing to be popular. The web visitor statistics for October 2007 are: General ACRA web directory – 27,075 hits (cf. 21,580 in 2006, 19,947 in 2005, 16,415 in 2004)

Scientific and Technical Staff

TEAM LEADERS

Lepschi, Brendan #
Murray Fagg #
Paul Carmen #

STAFF, HONORARY ASSOCIATES & STUDENTS

Carmen, Paul #
Goodwin, Maryna (# volunteer)
Percival, Julie #