Living on the Edge! - Rare plant continues to hang on

28 December, 2011

A rare flowering plant that only lives on cliffs along the Snowy River has been found in record numbers in a daring expedition mounted by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE).

DSE Biodiversity Officer Lucy Clausen said: “The five person expedition in late November used white-water rafts and climbed cliffs to find what must be Victoria’s least accessible plant.”

 “The Snowy River Westringia (Westringia cremnophila) had only been found in the wild twice since its discovery and naming in the 1950’s and there had been no targetted survey to check its extent and abundance, so it was important that we got out onto the Snowy River cliffs to obtain baseline information for future management,” Ms Clausen said.

“Only four plants were seen when Westringia was last found in the wild 10 years ago so it was a real surprise for the expedition to locate more than 500 of the plants.”

“We searched unsuccessfully for the plants last year but we were joined on this year’s expedition by Neville Walsh, Senior Conservation Botanist from the Royal Botanic Gardenswho was the person who last saw the plant in the wild during a survey of the area in 2002.”

“The habitat for this plant is very localised on sheer 100 metre high cliffs along a short section of the Snowy River and that makes it a very difficult plant to locate. This year we used white-water rafts to access a section of the river cliffs we didn’t search last year and found more than 500 of these rare plants clinging to the sheer rocks.”

“It is a real boost for the conservation of this species to confirm that there are so many plants out there and to know that they have toughed out some of the worst drought conditions over the last couple of decades.”

“Neville Walsh took cuttings of the plants so they can also be raised in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne as a further insurance policy for the species.”

In East Gippsland, 52 threatened plants and four plant communities are the focus of conservation monitoring and management by DSE. This work was funded by the Natural Resources Investment Program via the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.

The Victorian Government has a responsibility under the FFG Act to protect threatened species. These animals and plants contribute significantly to the biodiversity of their ecosystems. The knowledge we acquire about these species helps us to then take the on-ground steps needed to ensure their survival.

More information about Snowy River Westringia is available at:

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/103336/236_Snowy_River_Westringia_2008.pdf