The 37th Annual conference of the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB), hosted by the Botany Department, will be held at Rhodes next week from 17 to 19 January.
The conference theme is "Plants in a changing world" and provides local and international botanists a chance to present their work on a diverse range of topics, including plant physiology and climate change, pollination biology, ethnobotany and medicinal use of plants, taxonomy and evolution, ecology, restoration and rehabilitation.
Three scientists of international repute will give plenary addresses, one on each day of the conference.
The conference opens with a talk by Prof David Beerling (Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield) titled "The Emerald Planet: how plants 'greened the Earth'". Prof Beerling is the author of the book "The Emerald Planet", copies of which will be available during the conference.
On Tuesday 18 January, Prof Mike Wingfield, the Director of the NRF - DST Centre of Tree Health Biotechnology at the University of Pretoria, will talk on "Global tree health: what next?" This talk will highlight the challenges facing tree (and general plant) health in the face of invasive pathogens and insects and climate change further complicates these interactions.
On Wednesday, Dr Peter Weston (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia) will present his thoughts on the role that systematics and evolutionary studies can play in linking historical climate change and evolution, and extrapolating this to future climate change.
With over 250 delegates from South Africa and abroad (including Sweden, Australia, USA, UK, Ghana and Nigeria), this conference promises to energise South African botanical studies, and presents a platform to showcase the research undertaken by Rhodes staff and students.