Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The flowers (not pictured) were on loan from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris

Australian biosecurity officers have destroyed historic plant specimens on loan from France after a paperwork mix-up. An “irreplaceable collection” of daisies from the 1850s on loan to Queensland’s herbarium in Brisbane was incinerated in March because the shipping documents were not filled out correctly. Michelle Waycott, professor of plant systematic at the University of Adelaide and chair of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, said the specimens were set to be used to determine whether new plant species had been discovered in Australia. France's National Museum of Natural History and New Zealand's Landcare Research Allan Herbarium had sent the samples of lichen specimens, which dated back to the 19th Century, to Australia to help research, but they were intercepted by customs officers due to inaccurate paperwork. A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said the packages did not give any indication of the intrinsic value of the samples, and the customs officers held onto them for longer than they were required before deciding they posed a potential biosecurity threat and incinerating them.
Rare specimens of daisies from the 1850s originally held in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris were reportedly destroyed by Australia in March allegedly due to incomplete paperwork.