Monday, 2 February 2009

Researchers at The University of Western Australia and Kings Park and Botanic Garden have given a Noongar name to a substance that stimulates seed germination and seedling growth in many plants after bushfires.

Only days after a bushfire destroyed more than 40ha of Kings Park and threatened nearby homes, apartments and the Old Swan Brewery, the name of a substance that could play a major role in regenerating the park has been revealed in the world's most highly cited plant journal Plant Physiology . Published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, the front cover also features a photograph of seeds from smoke-responsive WA species.

UWA's Professor Steven Smith of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology said the discovery of the family of compounds that stimulate seed germination had led to the launch of the new scientific name - karrikins - derived from the Noongar word ‘karrik' , meaning smoke. The -in suffix is the family name for bioactive substances.

Discovered by chemists at UWA and Murdoch University, the substance originally had a complex name. According to UWA Professor of Linguistics Alan Dench, the first recorded Noongar word for smoke from the Perth area in the 1830s is ‘karrik'.

Professor Dench said the word joins other Noongar words such as jarrah, karri and chuditch. "Second only to the original language of Sydney Cove, Noongar has given more words to the English language than any other Indigenous Australian language," he said.

Kings Park and Botanic Garden Director, Professor Kingsley Dixon said: "The new name recognises that the scientific discovery was made on Noongar land, and it reflects the importance of fire and smoke to plant ecology and to Indigenous culture."

Dr David Nelson, the lead author on the latest research from the UWA team, said that the ‘lab rat' of the plant world, a cress called Arabidopsis, also responds to karrikins despite being from the temperate northern hemisphere. This discovery will enable botanists to uncover the mechanism of karrikin and its role in the life cycle of plants.

To read the article, follow the link: https://www.plantphysiol.org/

Media references

Professor Steven Smith (+61 8) 6488 4403
Professor Kingsley Dixon (+61 8) 9480 3637
Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 7975 / (+61 4) 20 790 098

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