Marco Duretto

He provides strategic, operational, and financial support and planning across the Science Education and Conservation Branch, Australian Institute of Botanical Science. He works across the organisation to ensure the Botanic Gardens operates in a sustainable fashion and achieves Net Zero emissions in the near future. Marco also assists the Australian Institute of Botanical Science Advisory Council. 

Marco’s current research primarily focuses on the evolution and biogeography of the Australasian flora, with a special interest in the Boronia and Orange plant family Rutaceae. He has published monographic studies, including of the large genera Boronia and Zieria, as well as identification tools, floras, and species discovery papers. With his collaborators he uses various methodologies including morphology (structure of a plant), anatomy, and phylogenetic systematics (reconstruction of evolutionary history and the study of the patterns of relationships among organisms) based largely on molecular data. Recently he has published molecular phylogenetic papers which resulted in the reassessment of generic boundaries (splitting and sinking) in the Australasian genera Boronia and Phebalium and their allies.  

In addition to his research, Marco is heavily involved in the establishment of respectful, accurate, and standardised processes for the selection, use, and display of plant names across the gardens. This covers the use of First Nations, non-First Nations colloquial, and scientific plant names. 

While Marco appreciates all plant species, he holds a particular fondness for the diverse heath and woodlands found on sandstone and granite around Australia. These plant communities are spectacular, very diverse, and as explored continue to provide species new to science, often with surprising relationships, on a regular basis. These ‘new’ species have been found from the Kimberley to central Sydney.

Marco envisions the Botanic Gardens of Sydney being fully engaged with the entire community and known as an international leader in biodiversity discovery, documentation, research, conservation, and storytelling, to safeguard the natural world.