Prof. Eileen Campbell from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, arrived at Buffelskloof at the beginning of July with a suitcase full of Asparagus specimens from the University Herbarium (PEU) and spent a few days tapping the vast knowledge and understanding of the genus that Sandie and John have accumulated over the years. John and Sandie were able to supply the correct identifications of the specimens so that PEU will have a good Asparagus reference collection; in return they gleaned some more localities for their own research.
Above: discussions and comparisons of PEU specimens with material from BNRH in the Buffelskloof Herbarium taking place. The combination of good, well curated specimens and the sharing of the extensive field experience and taxonomic knowledge the Burrows Duo possesses, makes BNRH a research centre for which scientists are prepared to travel considerable distances.
Douglas McMurtry and Shane Burns, horticulturists and botanists from Whytethorne Botanic Garden near Nelspruit with a huge knowledge of the local wild flora as well as cultivated plants, spent a very busy day at the Herbarium with us focussing on certain species of Berkheya found in
Mpumalanga. The exercise was valuable to both institutions and some hitherto unknown or incorrectly named specimens in the genus were given a new lease of life, so to speak, with their correct identifications.