Terry Macfarlane is a Senior Research Scientist at the Western Australian Herbarium. He researches the taxonomy of the Western Australian flora, describing new species, revising the taxonomy of particular plant groups to improve knowledge of the species, their characteristics, distribution, relationships, conservation status and providing identification keys. Fieldwork is frequently necessary to resolve problems of interpretation and to fill information gaps. Terry is involved in a number of Australian and overseas collaborations on several plant groups relevant to Western Australia in order to place our plants in their world context, and to provide access to a broad range of expertise. Current collaborations include researchers in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia, and overseas colleagues in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Russia Spain and United Kingdom.
Plant groups researched by Terry include Poaceae (grasses – especially Neurachne), Colchicaceae (Wurmbea), Asparagaceae (Thysanotus, Arthropodium, Tricoryne, Lomandra), Hydatellaceae (Trithuria) and Potamogetonaceae (Lepilaena). These projects range from describing individual new species to investigating higher level relationships and the connection of these relationships with important biological properties such as the evolution of photosynthetic pathways in the Neurachne group of grasses.
Other roles Terry has include involvement with flora conservation teams, associate editor of the Herbarium’s scientific journal Nuytsia and membership of a team that has prepared a national list of plants in Australia (Australian Plant Census). He has a long-standing interest in information systems for plants as a means of making flora information available to the community and scientists, and he was a member of the team which developed the Western Australian flora Website FloraBase.
Adey ME, Allkin R, Bisby FA, White RJ, Macfarlane TD (1984). The Vicieae Database: an experimental taxonomic monograph. In Databases in Systematics (eds Allkin R, Bisby FA). Academic Press, London, Orlando.
Allkin R, Macfarlane TD, White RJ, Bisby FA, Adey ME (1983). List of species and subspecies in the Vicieae: issue 2. Vicieae Database Project, experimental taxonomic products. Publication No. 1. University of Southampton, Southampton.
Allkin R, Macfarlane TD, White RJ, Bisby FA, Adey ME (1983). Names and synonyms of species and subspecies in the Vicieae: issue 2. Vicieae Database Project, experimental taxonomic products. Publication No. 2. University of Southampton, Southampton.
Allkin R, Macfarlane TD, White RJ, Bisby FA, Adey ME (1983). The geographical distribution of Vicia: issue 1. Vicieae Database Project, experimental taxonomic products. Publication No. 5. University of Southampton, Southampton.
Bisby FA, White RJ, Macfarlane TD, Babac MT (1983). The Vicieae Database project: experimental uses of a monographic taxonomic database for species of vetch and pea. In Numerical Taxonomy. [NATO Advanced Studies Institute, Series G1.] (ed. J Felsenstein). Springer, Berlin. pp. 625-629
Macfarlane TD, But P (1982). Tovarochloa (Poaceae: Pooideae), a new genus from the high Andes of Peru. Brittonia 34, pp. 478-481
Macfarlane TD, Watson L (1982). The classification of Poaceae subfamily Pooideae. Taxon 31, pp. 178-203
Macfarlane TD (1981). Wurmbea. In Flora of Central Australia. (ed. Jessop JP). AH and AW Reed, Sydney.
Macfarlane TD (1980). A revision of Wurmbea (Liliaceae) in Australia. Brunonia 3, pp. 145-208
Macfarlane TD, Watson L (1980). The circumscription of Poaceae subfamily Pooideae, with notes on some controversial genera. Taxon 29, pp. 645-666
Macfarlane TD, Kuo J, Hilton RN (1978). Structure of the giant sclerotium of Polyporus mylittae. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 71, pp. 359-365
