General News
7 September, 2023
Eyes on endangered plant
LISMORE Land Protection Group (LLPG) recently held a working bee, monitoring the critically-endangered Spiny Rice-flower on Chatsworth Road in Derrinallum.
LISMORE Land Protection Group (LLPG) recently held a working bee, monitoring the critically-endangered Spiny Rice-flower on Chatsworth Road in Derrinallum.
The monitoring site was established in September last year as part of a project, working alongside Trust for Nature.
Spiny Rice-Flower expert, and representative for Trust for Nature, Dr Debbie Reynelds and rice flower expert Dr Meghan O’Shea joined members of the LLPG in the collection of data.
Outgoing facilitator Alicia Merriam said LLPG plans to continue to undertake projects focused on grassland conservation, and community engagement and education in grassland conservation, as well as other projects generally around environmental outcomes and sustainable agriculture in the region.
“Last year, when we were having a look, we have to determine how many plants are in the quadrat and for every single plant we put a tag on with a number,” she said.
“Then we determine the sex of a plant because it’s a dioecious plant.
“We’ll determine male or female for each of them, then we’ll measure the basal circumference.
“We’re coming back to make sure they’ve all survived, or new ones have germinated, so we come back each year to check those things out.”
The Spiny Rice-flower is adapted to fire, burning down to the ground before shooting back up, and uses fire to spread seeds.
However, the plant is also sensitive to disturbance and cannot be transplanted.
Ms Merriam said the plant is listed on the state level as critically endangered.
“It’s only really known from a few places across the Victorian Volcanic Plains grasslands,” she said.
“It is very sensitive to disturbance, so once a native grassland is ploughed up for cropping it won’t come back in that area even if cropping is removed.
“What we do see remaining is often in these quite small grassland fragments.
“It has quite a deep tap root, which is why it’s sensitive to disturbance, so if it is disturbed or dug up to try and transplant they don’t survive that.”