June Monthly Meeting – Speakers: Peter Bredell and Emma Cook ‘Tuggeranong Lignum (Muehlenbeckia tuggeranong)’

Tuggeranong Lignum (Muehlenbeckia tuggeranong) is an endangered dioecious shrub, endemic to the ACT Murrumbidgee River corridor. The current population now consists of only male plants in four locations within a limited distribution of just 1 km near Tuggeranong, containing very low genetic diversity and no chance of any natural reproduction.

Since the 1990s, the ACT Government has worked with the Australian National Botanic Gardens and the National Seed Bank to establish an ex-situ collection of M. tuggeranong that includes both male and female plants. This collection contains all the known available genetic diversity within the species, including most genotypes of now extinct individuals in the wild. In 2022 seeds developed within the ex-situ collection at the ANBG, the first time ever observed for the species. Seed has been collected and germinated in each of the following seasons. Genetic analysis has shown that the new generations of plants contain genetically unique individuals which present multiple morphological differences compared to the parent plants, including a change in breeding system, suggesting a potential increase in fitness and survival potential. These findings led to a current funding program with the Commonwealth Saving Native Species team for further genetic and germination research and the development of a seed production area for future genetically diverse in-situ translocation. Emma and Pete will discuss the progress of this new research and potential next steps for the conservation of this rare and unique species.

About Emma and Peter:

Emma studied Environmental Science at the University of Canberra as a mature age student after an early career in vet nursing and then immunology at the Therapeutic Goods Administration. During the course of her studies at the university, she worked as a research assistant with the Institute for Applied Ecology, focusing on grassland ecology and invertebrates. Emma began working as a field ecologist for the ACT Government’s Wildlife and Research Monitoring team (now the Office of Nature Conservation) on the completion of her degree in 2009. Primarily involved in projects focused on grasslands, grassy woodlands, threatened flora, grassland reptiles, rural land management and post fire vegetation response.For the last decade, Emma’s role and responsibilities have been that of a vegetation ecologist, specialising in the conservation of rare and threatened flora and vegetation communities of the ACT. Helping guide policy and management and running monitoring and conservation projects.

Pete Bredell is a Senior Horticulturalist at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, supervising the Production Nursery as well as being involved in external conservation projects. Previously a medical practitioner, his love for the Australian flora and a passion for conservation in general lead him into a new career in conservation horticulture, first at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens in Perth, and for the last 10 years in the Nursery at the ANBG. At the ANBG he has been involved in many conservation projects with external partners, including with Emma Cook and her colleagues in the ACT Office of Nature Conservation

Peter Bredell and Emma Cook are co-authors on a paper :

Walcott, Isobel & Lanspeary, Angela & Shams, Foyez & Bredell, Peter & Cook, Emma & Higgisson, William. (2025). On the Precipice of Extinction: Genetic Data in the Conservation Management of In Situ and Ex Situ Collections of the Critically Endangered Muehlenbeckia tuggeranong (Tuggeranong Lignum). Plants. 14. 1812. 10.3390/plants14121812

Photo: Emma with a new ACT population of Swainsona recta

Refreshments available from 7pm. Mugs or keep-cups encouraged. Non-members welcomed.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.