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.
Photo Credit: L. Lindsay/ Environment and Heritage NSW
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.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
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.
Photo Credit: Mike Duncan
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.
Photo Credit: Noushka Reiter
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.
Photo Credit: Jeroen van Veen
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.