Geoff Baylis, fungi, symbiosis and the power of lichens

Location: Archway lecture theatre, University of Otago. Drinks and nibbles starting from 5:15 in the Botany tearoom.

Geoff Baylis was an eminent botanist who led and nurtured the Department of Botany for 33 years. He drew attention to several critically endangered plants on Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, including the last surviving kaikōmako manawatāwhi / Pennantia baylisiana in the wild, brought back from the brink of extinction. In 2002 the Botanical Society of Otago held the first annual Geoff Baylis Lecture. Geoff described his pioneering advances on the function of arbuscular mycorrhizas, a symbiosis between a plant root and a soil fungus. Around this period Allison was spending time with leading field botanist Tony Druce, botanical artist Audrey Eagle and innovative micro-photographers Bill and Nancy Malcolm. She collected lichens for David Galloway’s Flora of New Zealand Lichens and Ramalina for Jennifer Bannister’s meticulous studies. Inspired by these notable botanists Allison set out to make knowledge of New Zealand’s exceptional lichen diversity more accessible to a general public and produced an illustrated introductory guide. Lichens, like mycorrhizas, are a mutually beneficial symbiosis between a fungus and a photosynthesizing organism. We now know that the lichen symbiosis is a powerful ecosystem in miniature, made up of organisms from many different kingdoms. Over millennia lichens created soil from bare rocks and became widespread pioneers of life on land. Most are long-lived and all sequester carbon. Lichens are so resilient they can survive temperature extremes, nuclear blasts and outer space. Some make antibiotics with great potential. Many are sensitive indicators of pollution, and some respond rapidly to climate change.
This lecture will highlight the significant contribution that Geoff Baylis made to botany. Allison will discuss lichen evolution, structure, identification and function and integrate current knowledge of the lichen ecosystem into understanding the critical role that lichens play in keeping the earth resilient.