Rare flowers destroyed in Australia after paperwork error

Australian biosecurity officers have destroyed historic plant specimens on loan from France after a paperwork mix-up.

A box of rare daisies from the 1850s had been sent to Brisbane from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

But the pressed plant samples were incinerated because accompanying documents were filled out incorrectly.

Australian quarantine authorities have ordered a review into the incident.

The plants were destroyed in March because of missing information such as details of the specimens, they said.

The French museum was upset that the "irreplaceable collection" had been destroyed, said Prof Michelle Waycott, chair of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria.

She said the flowers may have come from a habitat that no longer existed.