Dr Rosemary Purdie ‘Plants of the Simpson Desert; collecting by camel.’

Rosemary Purdie is an Honorary Associate at the Australian National Herbarium, Canberra. Before that she was Commissioner for the Environment for the ACT Government. Formerly Director Natural Resource Evaluation and Communication in the Office of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and earlier a Deputy Executive Director at the Australian Heritage Commission where she was responsible for natural and cultural heritage assessments and advice on heritage conservation.
Rosemary trained as a plant ecologist, and in a variety of positions has been involved in helping to describe Australia's biodiversity for many years through land system surveys, vegetation surveys, extensive botanical collecting and a short stint helping to edit several volumes of the Flora of Australia. Her botanical collections are lodged mainly with the Queensland Herbarium and the Australian National Herbarium.

The Simpson Desert is a large dune field located in the driest part of Australia. The popular image of the desert — mobile red dunes with scarcely a plant in sight — is far from the reality on the ground. In this talk Rosemary will show there is more to the desert than just sand dunes, discuss how the landforms and vegetation vary from north to south, outline some of the factors affecting what plants you might see, and share some of challenges of, and insights from, collecting plants on camel supported treks.