Frank Zich

Projects

1. Herbarium curation and management. As Curator of the Australian Tropical Herbarium I oversee day to day operations, apply current taxonomic concepts to the collections, maintain collection databases, train and supervise collection users, develop the Public Reference Collection, develop policies and procedures.

2. Identification tools. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants – An interactive identification system. I led the development of the next version of this DVD- and web-based interactive identification system for over 2550 species of trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, palms, pandans and epiphytes of northern Australian rain forests. Currently, I continue the development of the final part of the identification system, which will be for ferns of northern Australian rainforests, and a new extension to include the region from Townsville to Rockhampton.

3. Taxonomic research. I currently have a couple of small taxonomic projects in progress, in particular a project to describe a new Australian species in Tecomanthe (Bignoniaceae).

4. Public Engagement. I am support the volunteer program of the Australian Tropical Herbarium, and occasionally give public talks and seminars.

Selected Publications

Field AR, Zich FA (2012) Types of enigmatic north-Queensland Orchids from the Dockrill herbarium. Austrobaileya 8(4): 696-698

Harrington M, Zich F (2012) A new combination in Australian Costaceae. Telopea 14, 9-10.

Zich F, Ford AJ (2011) Wilkiea kaarruana Zich & A.J.Ford (Monimiaceae), a new species from north-east Queensland. Austrobaileya 8(3): 406-409.

Hyland, BPM, Whiffin, T, Zich, FA, Duffy, S, Gray, B., Elick, R., Venter, F , Christophel, D. 2010. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants – An interactive identification system. CSIRO