The record comprises available data on the abundance of
Cassia (
Senna artemesioides) in an area of 7150 m
2 in the TGB Osborn (Koonamore) Vegetation Reserve (or Koonamore Vegetation Reserve (KVR)) since the early 1940s. Available data cover 26 instances from 1940 to 2014 and include the number of individuals of each species encountered, and their life stage (adult or juvenile).
This is version 2.1 of the Koonamore Cassia Corner data release and supersedes any previous versions. Change log for the Cassia corner collection:
- V2.1, 2026-02-16; Specht, Arun Singh Ramesh; Ensured dates recorded are in ISO format yyyyMMdd. Updated the metadata description and adjusted camelCase to be consistent with the TERN vocabulary. Added information to be consistent with TERN standards.
- V2, 2025-06-19; Alison Specht; Created, cleaned and organised data files to comply with FAIR standards, aligning vocabularies with the TERN vocabularies and comprehensive metadata created.
- V1, 2008-2014; Russell Sinclair; digitised field data sheets and computer records delivered to the AEKOS TERN portal. V1 metadata was recorded in the AEKOS-TERN portal
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. Acknowledgement is due to all the students, staff and researchers who have collected data at the site since its establishment, to those who have entered the data, and to the support of funders and interested parties, including the Adelaide University. Without the vision, tenacity, and diligence of many past researchers, these unique data could not have been made openly available.
Purpose
In the mid-1920's Professor Theodore George Bentley Osborn, Professor of Botany in the University of Adelaide, put forward strong scientific arguments concerning the lack of knowledge of the ecology of arid zone vegetation, and the effect of grazing on it. In 1925, a parcel of land of around 390 ha was identified in Koonamore Station in South Australia and fenced to exclude rabbits and other stock, and Mr Wilcox, one of the directors, had a three-roomed house erected to serve as a field laboratory. The area was originally referred to as the Arid Region Flora Reserve but later was named the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve after its founder. For simplicity it is commonly referred to as the Koonamore Vegetation Reserve. There have been some unwanted animal incursions over the years, but these have been rare. In 1931, for example, rabbits were able to enter due to fence damage. Kangaroos and emus are not fully excluded. As is clear from the objectives stated by TGB Osborn, the reserve was to provide the basis for systematic measurements of the now-protected vegetation. Osborn and his team (including Prof. J.G. Wood and Mr Terry Paltridge) set up a series of quadrats (square plots) and photopoints within the reserve. A series of transects was later added. All of the foregoing were permanently marked, and observations on species occurrence (presence and abundance) and physical measurements of the plants were made repeatedly, but at varying intervals.
