Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 46
WORDS › ANNA KANTILAFTAS | PICTURES › ISAAC FREEMAN
Sowing
a greener
future
home gardens, cut flowers and nursery plants – as well as
nutraceuticals, which include superfoods and food crops.
In a world grappling with escalating
climate change and global agricultural concerns, the Waite’s research
is vital to addressing modern-day
food and biodiversity needs.
“My research has always been about finding new things
to fit into our environment to help humans,” Kate says.
“I realised how important plants are to people, even just
looking at them and being in nature, or having trees that
provide biodiverse habitats for our native fauna, as well as
providing good things for humans, like shade, clean air, and
beauty. And that’s a really important research area for me –
bringing new plants into an existing system.”
Horticulturist Dr Kate Delaporte says nurturing Australia’s native biodiversity can play an important role in how
we move into the future and restore our environment. With
expertise studying eucalypts and other native cut flowers,
Kate is now on a mission to spotlight the often-overlooked
heroes of local biodiversity – Australia’s native plants.
In her research, Kate emphasises the role of plants in
reshaping our approach to environments, from expansive
agricultural fields to humble home gardens. Describing
them as “essentials for human happiness”, Kate focuses on
plants that produce food and other essentials.
As Australia faces the impending loss of its urban forest
due to climate change, Kate is researching alternative tree
species resilient to extreme temperatures. She says climate
change could potentially result in a 60 per cent loss of urban forests in the next decade, and a big part of her work
and research is trying to alert people to the legitimate concern that as the climate changes and we experience more
consecutive hot days, the trees become a risk.
Originally specialising in plant development of Australian-cut flowers, focusing on eucalypts and other small trees,
by the end of her PhD, Kate hybridised many new plants
that were ready for commercialisation. Australian plants
were in the global spotlight then, and there has been a huge
demand for amenity horticulture – such as parks, gardens,
The solution, Kate says, is to look to alternative tree species found in places like Alice Springs, Port Augusta and
the Great Victoria Desert and bring these into Adelaide
because they’re already resilient to temperature extremes.
“It’s an example of how the stuff is already there. We just
need to look at things differently,” she says.
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