Members of the PPCT Task Team, ltr Dr Puffy Soundy, Dr Lenie Venter, Prof Elsa du Toit. Open flowers of the Eucalyptus. Mature buds of eucalyptus ready for emasculation. The pollen is also collected at this particular stage. Emasculated flowers of E. grandis.

At the SERA Natural Sciences Task Team Seminar held in September last year, Melrose Ramokonyane, an intern in the CSIR Natural Resources and Environment Unit, presented the research work she has conducted towards her MSc on the reproductive biology of Eucalyptus tree species. Melrose is also a student member of SERA's Plant Propagation and Cultivation Technologies Task Team (PPCT).

Her presentation focused on the results of the first season of her field work, which involved developing techniques for pollen storage and viability testing for various hybrids. Working with 24 different eucalypt hybrid clones across three species, she had to develop viability testing techniques for each one - a task which she readily admits was not easy.

As a registered MSc Horticulture student at the University of Pretoria, Melrose is supervised by Prof Elsa du Toit - co-leader of the PPCT Task Team with Dr Lenie Venter of the CSIR. It was through this relationship that Melrose developed an interest in the reproductive biology of Eucalyptus trees. "I'm from a background of pastoral science, so when I came here I knew nothing about eucalypts. But I am fascinated by the working being done in this field", she says.

Melrose holds the entire PPCT team in high regard, and admits that they were invaluable as sounding boards for her presentation. "These are the experts. They know what they're talking about, and you can learn a lot from them", she added. She is passionate about her chosen field of study - the rapid growth of eucalypts, their remarkable ability to sequestrate carbon, and the importance of conserving these plants to have sufficient material for future genetic improvement.

With her studies less than a year away from completion, Melrose now spends most of her time in the laboratory, comparing the seed sets from her field work with the pollen viability results. She continues to work closely with Dr Venter and others from the PPCT, and when the second eucalypt flowering season of her study comes into effect, she will be taking another MSc student - Anzell Venter - along with her.

When asked about her plans for the future, Melrose points out that her main focus at this point is her studies. She is confident that by the end of the year she will have completed her MSc thesis. It is evident that she has all the passion, dedication and support that she will need to achieve this and much more.

For more information on PPCT, contact Dr Lenie Venter on +27 12 841 4091 or Prof Elsa du Toit on +27 12 420 3227.