Shirley McLaran Australian Native Plants Society Biennial Conference 2026

Shirley McLaran

Shirley has led the Australian Pea Flower Study Group since reviving the group at the Albany conference in 2019. Her love of Australian native plants began 30 years ago, after undertaking a horticultural course to learn about soils and nutrients and consequently joining Pine Rivers Branch of SGAP Queensland. She quickly became obsessed with the desire to know which family each species belongs to, and why. Shirley is intrigued by the diversity of pea-flowered plants and is especially interested in the genus Pultenaea, which has over 120 species. In 2018, Shirley graduated from the University of New England with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in botany. During her studies, she was accepted to participate in the Volunteer Botanical Training Program at the Australian National Herbarium, where she contributed to the Australian National Botanic Gardens ‘Growing Native Plants’ web page with the horticultural values of the Swan River Pea, Gastrolobium celsianum. Now permanently settled in Lake Macquarie, she is a member of both the Newcastle and Central Coast groups of APS NSW. When she is not out and about chasing pea flowers, she volunteers at Trees in Newcastle, a not-for-profit community environmental organisation. As a keen citizen scientist, Shirley contributes to the iNaturalist community with observations and identifications.