Millennia of evolutionary ecology have seen Australia become one of the driest and flattest continents on Earth—and in the process, home to more than 700 species of Eucalyptus. Colonial scientists named them using a binomial system, thereby overwriting local vernaculars that had persisted for tens of thousands of years. This paper traces the man commemorated in the Albany Blackbutt, Eucalyptus staeri, a tree unique to the Great Southern region of Western Australia, traditionally the land of the Menang Noongar people. Using a biographical lens, the paper examines the intersection of Western science and commerce in plant collection and naming, and the ways in which these processes exclude or discount Indigenous knowledge. The paper argues that a more holistic and inclusive historical interpretation of herbarium specimens of E. staeri is achieved by correcting and re-analysing information about the German settler after whom it is named, John Staer, while at the same time acknowledging the Noongar people’s deep knowledge (kartijin) of plants that has been passed down over many thousands of years.

数千年的生态进化使澳大利亚成为地球上最干燥、最平坦的大陆之一，在此过程中，澳大利亚成为 700 多种桉树的家园。殖民科学家使用二项式系统命名它们，从而覆盖了已经存在了数万年的当地方言。本文追溯了在奥尔巴尼布莱克巴特纪念的人，Eucalyptus staeri是西澳大利亚大南部地区特有的一种树，该地区传统上是 Menang Noongar 人的土地。本文使用传记视角，探讨了西方科学与商业在植物采集和命名方面的交叉点，以及这些过程排除或贬低本土知识的方式。该论文认为，通过纠正和重新分析有关德国定居者约翰·斯塔尔（John Staer）的信息，可以对E. staeri植物标本进行更全面和更具包容性的历史解释，同时承认努加尔人对植物的深入了解（kartijin）已经传承了数千年。