April 10th

Treasures of the Ottawa Valley

Presented by Brian Carson.  As many of you know Brian is a superb speaker on anything plant related and in particular with regards to all types of plants in the Ottawa Valley.

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For more information & to request zoom link, email

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Thursday May 6, 2021  7:00 PM

Dinosaur plants of Tasmania's Inala Jurassic Botanical Garden

You can't hang out with dinosaurs, but at a unique garden in Tasmania you can wander among the plant species they ate, flew over and trampled underfoot during the Jurassic era. It is the only garden in Australia, and one of just 14 in the world, that in Feb 2021 received a grant from the Global Genome Initiative to help preserve genetic plant material so the species never become extinct.  This initiative, which is run by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, collects the Earth's genomic biodiversity to preserve plant genes, and makes them available to researchers around the world.

Dr Tonia Cochran, managing director of the Inala Jurassic Garden, planted the garden on Bruny Island near Hobart in 2013 with species that have existed for more than 150 million years. They are the plant equivalent of dinosaurs, but they are very far from being extinct.  In the garden are now growing about 50 plant families, with a total of about 700 species — more than 100 of which the Global Genome Initiative did not have genetic material for.

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For more information & to request zoom link, email