Top honour for UC botanist
First an orchid species, now a whole new genus – University of Canterbury botanist Professor Pieter Pelser is honoured again as a daisy genus is named after him.
Professor Pieter Pelser received the rare honour – one of the highest in taxonomy – in acknowledgement of his decades-long contribution to studying the family tree of plants, with a newly established South American daisy genus named Pelseria. The Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury biologist and Herbarium curator’s research found that a plant species long classified within the large and complex Senecio genus had evolved along a distinct evolutionary pathway.
“Back in 2007, our team discovered that this species did not belong to the genus Senecio but needed to be placed in a different or new genus,” Professor Pelser says.
At the time, Professor Pelser’s work was based on DNA evidence, but researchers from Argentina have now confirmed his conclusion using non-molecular data, specifically the shape of its leaves, pollen, grains and anthers. “These researchers decided there is indeed enough evidence to place the species in a new genus. They named it Pelseria to acknowledge my previous research and wider contributions to improving our understanding of the family tree of the Senecioneae,” he says.
Despite the honour, Professor Pelser has never seen Pelseria growing in the wild.
“I have never seen it alive myself,” he says. “In 2007, all I had to work with was a dried and preserved plant specimen. It is a great honour to have a species named after you, and an even greater privilege if a genus carries your name,” Professor Pelser says.
Professor Pelser also has a Philippine orchid species named in his honour – Bulbophyllum pelseri – while his wife Dr Julie Barcelona, a research fellow at UC, is also recognised with as many as three species names. These species were named to acknowledge their scientific contributions in plant biology in the Philippines through their Co’s Digital Flora of the Philippines website and associated citizen science project.
Most of this work happens in the herbarium, of which Professor Pelser is curator. “They’re not just collections – they’re repositories of scientific data that help us understand biodiversity, track changes over time, and ultimately protect species.”
Just this month, Professor Pelser contributed to the discovery of two new Philippine species – a species of Amorphophallus (a foul-smelling ‘corpse flower’) and a new species of Medinilla (a genus containing popular ornamental plants).
