Senior Plant Pathologist Jenny Morrison has been given a remarkable accolade: a newly discovered species of fungus has been named after her.
It all started in north Queensland in 2019, when Jenny was one of 26 scientists from around Australia who took part in the ‘Pathoblitz’ workshop on plant disease.
The workshop gave participants the opportunity to observe, collect and identify diseased plant samples from the Atherton Tablelands-a unique environment with savannah, rainforest, horticulture and agricultural ecosystems, all within a 50 km radius.
The various plant disease samples that Jenny collected included leaves from Freycinetia scandens, a species of climbing plant. Jenny noticed that some of the leaves had spots on them, which were grey in the centre and pale brown towards the margins and then made isolations.
Hundreds of samples were collected by the workshop participants, (which included several of Jenny’s plant pathology colleagues in DAFF) and lodged with the Queensland Plant Pathology Herbarium for further examination.
Five years later, Jenny was surprised to hear from the Principal Scientist at the Queensland pathology herbarium. She learned that her isolations from Freycinetia scandens had led to the discovery of a new Zasmidium fungus species, confirmed by molecular sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. They named the species in her honour.
Jenny, who has worked for DAFF for the past 17 years, has now been immortalised in mycology with an entry on Zasmidium morrisoniae appearing in the Index of Australian Fungi. Finally her children are taking an interest in her career, thanks to the ability to claim this fungus was named after them too.
