4 minute read
A Race Against Time
A Race Against Time
New technology, drones and a team of skilled experts are helping to save the critically endangered dwarf mountain pine, writes Marion Whitehead, Supervisor Ornamental Gardens and Nursery Mount Tomah.
The vastness of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area holds countless secrets; from its hidden gully of Wollemis to the recurrent reports of panthers concealed in its wilderness. And within its towering waterfalls lives one of the best kept secrets of mountain botany, the dwarf mountain pine Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii
This critically endangered weeping conifer can only be found in the crags and ledges of south-facing mountain waterfalls. But with only 755 individuals counted during the last survey, and a 24 per cent death rate in revisited individuals in the last two years, this hidden gem is in rapid decline.
The age of these pines is uncertain, with some individuals estimated to be hundreds of years old. We are only beginning to understand their reproductive habits, and with only 10 known locations and shrinking populations due to flooding, poor water quality, invasive weeds, and fungal pathogens, time is running out.
Saving a species on the brink
Fortunately for Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii the tides are turning, as technological advancements are making it easier to find new plants and secure their populations.
Up until now, new individuals of Pherosphaera could only be found via rope access to waterfalls, observation from long distances and occasionally, helicopter surveys, but with the advent of drones the remote and inaccessible are in our grasp. And the perfect complement to this access is the ability to undertake genetic testing of the individuals we collect – determining the breadth of genetic diversity within the species.
Over four decades, experts from the National Parks and Wildlife Service have observed, monitored, and cared for Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii, but recently this rare conifer became the focus of a conservation genomics study under the NSW Government’s Saving our Species (SoS) program.
Conducted by the Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience (ReCER) at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, which is funded by Foundations & Friends, the study examined all known populations of Pherosphaera and identified two distinct genetic groups, along with a diverse range of genetic individuals within them. Using this genomic data, an algorithm was developed to select 25 individual plants that would capture 95 per cent of the species’ genetic diversity in a single collection. Preserving this diversity is crucial, enhancing the species’ ability to adapt to future environmental changes. Over winter, a team from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Botanic Gardens of Sydney worked tirelessly to assemble this vital collection and safeguard Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii from extinction.
“Collecting Pherosphaera has felt like a grand, Indiana Jones-style botanical adventure, made up of passionate Phaerosphera advocates all with very specialised skill sets.“
MARION WHITEHEAD
Reproduction of Pherosphaera is mostly done vegetatively, as it drops small leaf tips down the water course that bed into new cracks and crevices and put down roots, resulting in a clone of the parent plant. And it’s these small branch tips that our team of experts have been collecting to build the most comprehensive collection of Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii material ever held in one place.
These cuttings have since been propagated at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden and will hopefully turn into rooted plants that can be grown around the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden and other climatically appropriate gardens.
A grand adventure
Collecting Pherosphaera has felt like a grand, Indiana Jones-style botanical adventure, made up of passionate Pherosphaera advocates with specialised skill sets. This group is comprised of rope access experts, geneticists, seed bank representatives, propagation experts and naturalists who have worked with this plant since the 1980s.
The team has been scaling waterfalls and laying on damp cliff edges to collect small bags of cuttings to be propagated in the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden nursery.
Some of these plants have only ever been touched by human hands twice; once when collecting material for the genetic study and a second time for propagation. Some of the more remotely accessible cuttings have been collected and rushed to hand over points in car parks to be brought away as quickly as possible to their place of propagation to give them the best chance of striking.
These tiny trees, clinging to life in the mist of waterfalls, are not just remnants of the past but living symbols of what can be achieved when science and passion come together. Now that the collection work has been done, the work of establishing these plants in their new collections and looking after them begins – a whole new adventure to embark on.
