The 51^st Annual Conference of the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) took place in the second week of July, with the theme “Thriving with Change: Biodiversity and Resilience for Future Livelihoods and Health”. Hosted by the University of Mpumalanga, this event showed off the new campus close to the Lowveld National Botanical Garden as a major investment in higher education in Mbombela. The move to a mid-year conference date is proving popular, as it does not interfere with summer season field work. With over 190 delegates in attendance, this conference brought together the thriving botanical science community from across South Africa.

Following her recognition as the 'Best Young Botanist' at last year's conference, PhD candidate Jana Botes of the MPPI research group fulfilled SAAB tradition by delivering a plenary lecture at this year's gathering. Bridging field biology and plant biochemistry, she covered her latest project findings entitled “White-flowering Greyia radlkoferi mutant reveals functionally important second-coordination sphere histidine residue in leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase.” She introduced the topic by highlighting the vital importance of flavonoids and anthocyanins in plant molecular biology research and reviewed key historical milestones, culminating in the 2023 discovery that fully elucidated the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway. Prof. Dave Berger presented a talk in the Evolution and Systematics section on the apparent lack of post-zygotic reproductive barriers between the Greyia species.

At this year’s Conference, the SAAB Gold Medal was awarded to Prof. Jill Farrant from the University of Cape Town for her lifetime of research towards improving drought tolerance in African crops. A noteworthy keynote was from Dr Paul Hills, who made the inspiring move from academia to a local company innovating with kelp extracts as biostimulants.

The current SAAB council is represented by members from the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Venda, University of Limpopo, University of the Free State QuaQua campus, University of the Western Cape, SANBI, and the University of Pretoria. Prof. Kelsey Glennon (Wits) is the serving President, and the President-elect is Dr Nqobile Masondo (ARC). Prof. Dave Berger holds the portfolio of the SAAB constitution, which is currently being revised.

SAAB hosts the South African Journal of Botany, which is in good hands under the Editorship of Prof. Stephen Boatwright. It is published online by Elsevier, and has an impact factor of 3.1, exceeding some well-known equivalent botanical journals in the USA and UK. Corresponding authors at institutions in South Africa qualify for open access publishing through the SANLIC transformative agreement. The journal’s focus is research related to southern African flora, but this also includes locally relevant agricultural and forestry related topics.

The SAAB conferences present an environment for students and established researchers alike to share their work and connect with other South African scientists. The 52^nd conference in 2027 will be hosted by Nelson Mandela University at their George campus.