The Australian officers burned a collection of rare and valuable daisies
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Australian biosecurity officers destroyed a valuable collection of rare daisy flowers. This incident occurred after the flowers reached the country with documents which were filled incorrectly, which led to the mistreatment of the rare specimens.
The flower collection came from France and it contained a series of rare specimens which were dating back to 1850. Reports suggest that the National Museum of Natural History in Paris sent the collection to Brisbane. However, it was labeled incorrectly, which caused the biosecurity officers to mistake it for something else.
Therefore, the officers burned the collection in March, and the mistake was discovered some time after this had happened. Shortly after, the quarantine authorities issued a review of the incident. Professor Michelle Waycott from Australia Herbaria declared that the officials from the French museum were not happy to hear the news.
The rare collection of flowers is impossible to replace
They declared that the destroyed flower specimens can no longer be replaced, since their natural habitats might not exist anymore. What the Australian officials fear is the fact that these daisy samples were the only remaining specimens in their species, and they were collected long time ago and thoroughly preserved to avoid their deterioration.
The French Natural History Museum decided to share the rare collection of flowers to achieve a better analysis of the specimens. However, the Australian Biosecurity department, controlled by the Federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, did not offer any interview or declaration regarding the unpleasant incident.
A spokesperson offered some commentaries on the matter and revealed that the flowers reached Australia in January. However, the documents which came with them were not in accordance with the import conditions of the country. Also, there was no mention of the high value of the collection, so the biosecurity officials decided to destroy them.
This is an uncomfortable situation for both the Australian and the French officials. An unfortunate situation let us without a valuable collection of flora with a huge potential for research, as the species were extremely rare and hard to find.
Image Source: Public Domain Pictures
Melissa Gansler
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