Wee Jasper Grevillea

Grevillea iaspicula

The Wee Jasper Grevillea — a critically endangered member of the Proteaceae family, flowered in the Burrinjuck Nature Reserve for the first time in two decades at the end of last month thanks to the efforts of the ‘Saving Our Species’ program, which undertook intensive feral goat controls. 

Glasshouse banksia

Banksia conferta

A budding population of glasshouse banksias, considered critically endangered, were discovered in Coorabakh National Park in New South Wales in July. The rare species of banksia was sighted while researchers conducted soil sampling and plant monitoring in the area.

Endangered eastern spider orchid

Caladenia orientalis

While the Black Saturday fires killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of properties and businesses, the flames were a lifeline for the nationally rare orchid species. The plant is normally detected in low numbers at only a few sites around Victoria.

Mellblom’s spider orchid

Caladenia hastata

The Mellblom’s spider-orchid, known for its peculiar pollination strategy, narrowly avoided extinction as a result of successful translocations. While the orchid was once abundant across Victoria and South Australia, by 2015 only 400 plants remained in the wild of south-east Victoria.

The Robust Greenwood orchid

Pterostylis valida

The Robust Greenhood, which was listed as extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), was effectively rediscovered in north-central Victoria, on a reserve at Nardoo Hills, 100km out of Bendigo in 2010. 

Buxton silver gum 

Eucalyptus crenulata

While the 2009 fires caused great destruction, the flames were a saving grace for the rare Buxton silver gum. A survey of the gums in 2005 found the species – which inhabits only two sites in Australia, both north of Melbourne – was failing to regenerate in the wild. But after the Black Saturday bushfires swept through, razing the 17-hectare Buxton Silver Gum Reserve, set up in 1978 near Marysville, the gum’s hardy secrets were revealed.