About
With funding from the State Government in 2025, the Friends of Jirdarup Bushland engaged the Wildflower Society of Western Australia (WSWA) to complete a condition report and floral survey of the Kensington Bushland. This is the first comprehensive survey since the original survey in 1980-81 by the WA Herbarium.
A by-product of that project was a collection of some 150 pressed and identified plant specimens. Weeds have also been collected and will be presented separately.
Volunteers are using these specimens as the basis for a comprehensive Kensington Bushland Field Herbarium that can include not only plant specimens but also photos of the plants.
The vision is a resource readily available to researchers and citizen scientists with accompanying guidelines in both printed and digital formats. It will complement the records held by the WA Herbarium. Our thinking at this point in time is that the list of plants in the Herbarium will be included with the guidelines with a clear link to our website to get the most recent list.
Always a work in progress
Each specimen is mounted on an A4 sheet by volunteers and recorded in a data base. The original database with important information like Family, Genus, Species and some common names was provided by the WA Herbarium. Where known, Nyoongar names specific to this area are included, and we hope more will be added as they are recorded.
What is happening now
Following a workshop conducted by the WSWA, several enthusiastic volunteers are meeting weekly from July to November 2026 to mount the specimens. During this period, more specimens have been collected so it is doubtful that they will all be mounted by the end of the year.
At the same time, volunteers have started to develop guidelines for users of the Herbarium and for its ongoing development. Work has also started on collecting and organising photos of the plants to help with their identification. In time, the guidelines and a searchable database of the specimens in the Herbarium will be available for reading and downloading from this website.
We are also working with local artist Michelle Crean to include some colour and connection in the guidelines. Check her Instagram to see why.
If you want to get involved, contact us at [email protected].
