How do you help an endangered plant survive when it won’t grow its own seeds?
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That’s exactly the task network of threatened species workers has taken on, with an endangered plant found only in a small area at Bomaderry.
The answer, in the case of the Bomaderry Zieria (Zieria Baeuerlenii), is to get as much help as you can.
Dozens of specimens are being grown from cuttings in the humidity and heat of the Wollongong Botanic Gardens greenhouse.
The fact this zieria, a small shrub with clover-like leaves covered in velvety hairs, can’t reproduce on its own,
Successful species find ways to make the most of their environment, and from the Illawarra to the north, and the south, a collection of groups working on threatened species is making the most of their shared abilities.
The Illawarra, Shoalhaven and South Coast is home to a wider variety of endangered or threatened species than most people realise.
Among them are several plants that may not stand out to a casual bushwalker, but are distinct enough from its relatives as to warrant an individual species name.
The South East New South Wales Bioregion Partnership has formed from workers at the city council-run Wollongong Botanic Gardens, the Booderee Botanic Gardens at Jervis Bay, threatened species officers from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, the Australian Botanic Garden and seed bank at Mt Annan, as well as connections to the National Botanic Garden in Canberra.
Each of these groups brings their expertise to the task of conservation, and the multiple botanic gardens allow specimens to be preserved in various collections simultaneously, so a disaster at one garden does not wipe out the hard work on a threatened species.
“It’s all about insurance,” said Wollongong Botanic Garden curator Paul Tracey.
But the zieria certainly poses difficulties for those who want to conserve it. There’s no seed, for instance, that can be stored in the seed bank at Mt Annan for future generations.
“That’s essentially the challenge, because they won’t self-seed,” Mr Tracey said.
And there’s also the question of how the plan has managed to survive this long without sexual reproduction. Once established, the best it can do for breeding is to send out sucker roots that can form new plants nearby. Which is a puzzler, OEH threatened species officer David Bain said.
“There’s a few genetic questions to answer,” he said.
The Booderee group, centred on the Aboriginal-owned botanic garden near Wreck Bay, is proud of its recent contribution – a newly named species of banksia which has recently been described, after attention was drawn to its distinction by locals.
Nurtured species taking root
The Banksia vincentii may have been around for centuries but it is one of the newest additions to the threatened species work underway at the Wollongong Bontanic Gardens in Keiraville.
Other rare plants being conserved on site include Pomaderris walshii, a ridge-dwelling shrub that grows up to 3m high.
And the Illawarra Socketwood (Daphnandra johnsonii), gardens curator Paul Tracey said, is the only purely endemic tree of this region – that is, it doesn’t grow anywhere else.
For a new project, recently a collection of 22 endangered palms from around the world arrived at the gardens to begin their lives in the hands of Wollongong’s experts.
Mr Tracey said over the past 30 years, the nursery at the Gardens has distributed about two million plants into the Wollongong area.
