1. Collections of C.E. Carr in New Guinea – 1935 to 1936.
Carr departed from Singapore for Papua in 1935, on what was to be his last collecting expedition. Tragically he died in Port Moresby in 1936 from black-water fever (overdose of quinine). His Papuan collections have received limited attention and still include specimens which are, as yet, poorly studied.
A database of Carr's Papuan collections is being prepared and details recorded of the species in the collections in Singapore, Canberra, New York, Brisbane, Kew, Leiden, and Arnold. The Natural History Museum (BM), which funded Carr's trip to Papua, has the top set of his collections. Several species, particularly in the Ericaceae and Proteaceae, were described by Sleumer (1942) based on collections in Berlin. The duplicate sets sent from Singapore to Berlin and the Philippines were apparently largely destroyed during the war. Less complete sets also occur in Brisbane, Lae, Paris (n.v.) and Bogor.
Details of Carr’s Papuan expedition are not well known. His diaries from the expedition were reportedly lost, but some field notes for his vascular plant collections, which are held at the Natural History Museum, were not fully reproduced on the labels distributed with the specimens. The Papuan collections can be placed into four series. (1) Carr’s orchid collections include 686 numbers (Carr 10001 – Carr 10685). A small number of spirit collections of orchids have recently been located by Vermullen in the Singapore Herbarium. (2) The largest block of numbers, totaling 5413 collections (Carr 11001– Carr 16533), includes mainly flowering plants but also smaller numbers of gymnosperms, ferns, fern allies, bryophytes, mosses, algae, and fungi. (3) A small number of orchids subsequently numbered by staff at the Natural History Museum comprise the majority of the collections in the third series (Carr 16683 – Carr 17279). Collections in this series are widely dispersed and data for many of the numbers have not been seen. (4) There is a series of collections which are dated and usually located, but they are unnumbered. These are listed as Carr s.n.
2. Zingiberaceae
The New Guinea region is one of the major centers of diversity for the family Zingiberaceae. Worldwide, the family includes ca. 52 genera and 1300 species (Larson et al. 1998). Newman (in press) estimates that there are probably some 300 species in New Guinea, but all genera/species are poorly studied. Many potential new species remain to be collected and described.
Over 1700 collections of Zingiberaceae have been databased from New Guinea. The database includes 227 species in 15 genera from New Guinea, with records of many species new to science. Newman (in press) lists six major genera from New Guinea: Alpinia, Amomum, Etlingera, Hornstedtia, Pleuranthodium, and Riedelia. Other genera recorded from New Guinea are cultivated or possibly naturalized; these include Curcuma, Globba, and Zingiber. Where available the ecology of the collections is noted in the database.
3. Pandanaceae
Preliminary data have been collected on the family Pandanaceae from New Guinea, and detailed scans have been prepared of Sararanga from the Philippines and New Guinea. Copies have been made of the type photographs of the Pandanus species in the Bogor Herbarium. Digital images have been made of ca. 80 unpublished botanical plates drawn for Ben Stone, and a preliminary study has been made of Stone's manuscript notes at BRIT on Pandanus, Sararanga, and Freycinetia.
4. Dilleniaceae
The family Dilleniaceae was revised for Flora Malesiana by R.D. Hoogland. Since his publication, many additional New Guinea collections have been made. Collections studied in Canberra include 10 undescribed species of Dillenia -- these were photographed and descriptions have been prepared for The Flowering Plants of Papuasia, Vol. IV(A). This includes the food plant dillenia on which the endemic Green Tree Snail ("forest jewel") of Manus Island lives – a rare CITES listed species.
4. Ericaceae
The Ericaceae is one of the largest families in New Guinea with very high levels of endemism. Much taxonomic work is yet to be done, especially in the smaller genera.
