Editorial

The New Zealand Journal of Botany celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Founded by Dr Eric Godley in 1958 and initially managed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (see Webb 2011), the first volume hit the shelves in 1963 with 32 articles describing a variety of research on the development, systematics and ecology of New Zealand's plants. In the intervening years, the Journal has undergone many rounds of organisational and stylistic changes, yet it has retained its original intent as a significant outlet for the promotion of southern hemisphere botany, mycology and phycology. Indicative of the Journal's continued success, in 2012 we received 121 manuscripts submitted from 19 countries, and published 36 papers following peer review. Among them was an invited revision of the taxonomy of New Zealand Plantago (Meudt 2012), a notable tour de force that provides the most comprehensive treatment of the genus to date. The material we publish in NZJB is read widely, as evidenced by the numbers of electronic downloads; in 2012, these were dominated by readers in the USA, followed by New Zealand, China, Australia and India. I am indeed honoured to play a small part in this esteemed Journal's history.

To mark the Journal's 50th anniversary, we have initiated the New Zealand Journal of Botany Prize for outstanding contributions to the flora of the southern hemisphere. The award will alternate annually between researchers who have a sustained record for excellence, and those early-career researchers who have published a significant paper in recent issues of the Journal. Sponsored by our publishing partners Taylor & Francis, the awardee will receive a monetary prize and a signed certificate presented to them by one of our editorial team.

Figure 1  Dr Peter Heenan (left) is presented with the 2012 New Zealand Journal of Botany Prize by Associate Editor Dr Julian Eaton-Rye.

It is my pleasure to announce the recipient of the inaugural New Zealand Journal of Botany Prize, Dr Peter Heenan from Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand. A well-regarded leader in flowering plant systematics, Peter has been a loyal supporter of the Journal for many years. Indeed, he has authored or co-authored an impressive tally of 113 papers in NZJB since 1994. Between 2007 and 2011, Peter published 30 papers, which, to date, have been cited a total of 114 times. His work has recognised many new plant species previously unknown to science, including two trees from the Chatham Islands, Olearia telmatica (Heenan et al. 2008) and Myoporum semotum (Heenan & de Lange 2011). His recent paper on the Cenozoic evolution of the Chatham Islands flora (Heenan et al. 2010) is especially noteworthy, both for providing a test of the geological age of the islands and for relating the origin of their flora to dispersal from the main New Zealand islands. The prize was presented to Peter at Otago University in November 2012 by Dr Julian Eaton-Rye, one of the Journal's Associate Editors, during a symposium to celebrate the life and work of John Buchanan.

There are several treats planned for this year's anniversary volume of NZJB. Among them are a special issue featuring the pollination biology of New Zealand plants, and an invited review of the major developments in ethnobotany. Please feel free to email me your suggestions of topics for future reviews and special issues; the Journal's evolution benefits greatly from ideas from its contributors. As always, I would like to acknowledge the hard work that is done by my team of Associate Editors, the publishing crew at the Royal Society, and Taylor & Francis; their dedication to NZJB maintains the high quality that would have made Eric Godley proud. Here's to the next 50 years!