The 13th International Congress on Plant Molecular Biology was held last week in Cairns. The conference involved networking evenings, poster sessions, and a plethora of talks on everything from bryophyte meristems to medicinal plants in agriculture. 

IPMB 2024 was my first time attending a scientific conference. Despite having only just finished undergrad, I was exposed to so much brilliant science, networking with fellow students and professors alike. Before the conference I even had the chance to take a road trip up the coast and visit some spots in the Daintree Rainforest. Although we didn’t see any crocodiles, we saw some incredible plants including mangroves (Rhizophora stylosa), touch-sensitive plants (Mimosa pudica), and native epiphytic orchids, among many others. I also visited the Cairns Botanic Gardens not once but twice; being absolutely enamored by the beautiful conservatory and its thriving plants.  

One of my favourite IPMB sessions themed around ‘Plant Teaching and Outreach’ included a talk from Daniel Chamovitz, who discussed the impact of his excellent book ‘What a Plant Knows’ on standards for teaching and communicating plant science.  

I would definitely recommend that anyone interested in research considers attending a conference, no matter your career stage! Whether you are or aren’t yet embedded into a research field, it can provide a wealth of insight into the kinds of research out there, exposing you to potential future supervisors and colleagues. Although I didn’t present my own research, it was so exciting to see some of my data presented by my supervisor!

Conference attendance can admittedly be expensive. My lab generously covered my registration and travel expenses, but support is also available for students from conference providers and organisations such as the Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) who offer travel grants and are a great resource for information on upcoming botanical conferences in Australia.

On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending the seminar ‘Copies, multiples and remixing art history in the Digital Age’, presented by art historian Dr Katrina Grant. I was intrigued by this seminar topic after having spent time working on the conservation and digitisation of herbarium specimens and botanical artwork collections in the UniMelb herbarium and RBGV library. 

Dr Grant discussed thought-provoking aspects of digitisation and the idea of culture as data. Although we typically celebrate things like machine-learning data management and large scale digitisation as positive forces in the sciences because it streamlines analytic practices, it is interesting to consider the implications of these tools.

Accessible digital collections such as our own herbarium database undeniably expand access to historically and scientifically important resources, but should we be concerned about curatorial biases (such as preferencing of well-known collectors or species of current interest) echoing into the digital realm? Is it possible that something important is lost when we separate these historical records from their cultural context in the process of aggregating digitised material over the internet? 

Despite these concerns, it seems like replication in the digital age is increasingly valuable for its contributions to teaching and learning. Dr Grant discussed how 3D modelling has been used to produce replicas of fragile artefacts for children’s education and tactilely accessible exhibitions in museums. I couldn’t help but think of the School of BioSciences Botanical Model Collection. 

The school looks after an incredible collection of ~150 antique plant anatomical models handmade in the 1800’s. The collection hasn’t been used for teaching purposes since the 1980’s due to fragility of the models, however, recent efforts have been made to reignite their educational purpose and accessibility through digital curation - namely 3D imaging and interactive modelling. Straddling an intersection of botanical science, history, and art, these plant models are the perfect example of fertile ground for fruitful outcomes of ‘remixing’ cultural history in the digital age.

Pictured: Drosera rotundifolia anatomical model, and Coeloclonium tasmanicum specimen collected in 1886, The University of Melbourne Herbarium (MELU)

On the 11th November, thousands of people flocked to the Geelong Botanic Gardens to witness the blooming of a rare and unusual flower, Amorphophallus titanum, otherwise known as the ‘Titan Arum’ or ‘Corpse Flower’. This was the first bloom for this particular plant, which is about 10 years old and was acquired by the Geelong gardens from the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Africa in 2021.

These incredible plants bloom as infrequently as once every 10 years. When not in bloom, the plant grows to store energy in the form of a tall, branched leaf with many leaflets. These single leaves look deceptively like a small green tree. As for the inflorescence itself, it consists of a tall spadix which houses many flowers at its base, a deep purple spathe, and large underground tuber attached to the inflorescence by a structure called a peduncle. A. titanum is classified as the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, with the largest tuber on record weighing 153.9kg and the tallest inflorescence at 322.5cm.

Once the flower begins to bloom, it lasts between 24-48 hours with the spathe the most open at night, when the odour released by the flower is also at its peak. While the scientific name Amorphophallus titanum pertains to its morphology, the common name 'corpse flower' is inspired by its smell, which serves to attract pollinating flies and carrion beetles usually attracted to the smell of rotting animals.

You can read an ABC article on the bloom here.

And more about the cultivation of A. titanum here. 

The entire blooming of the Geelong specimen was live-streamed on youtube.

 
Image: infographic guide to A. titanum morphology. Jessica Lazner 2024