THE AUSTRALIAN BOTANIC GARDEN MOUNT ANNAN
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RAINFOREST RESCUE RAINFORESTS WERE AMONG THE MOST AFFECTED AREAS IN RECENT BUSHFIRES THAT BURNT OVER FIVE MILLION HECTARES IN NEW SOUTH WALES ALONE. SCIENTISTS AT THE AUSTRALIAN BOTANIC GARDEN MOUNT ANNAN ARE USING PLANTBANKING TO SAVE VULNERABLE SPECIES IN THESE IMPORTANT ECOSYSTEMS
Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and 54 per cent of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area were recently impacted by the fires. Chief Botanist Dr Brett Summerell says rainforests are not adapted to fire and have not had evolutionary drivers to adapt to the extremely hot and dry conditions of fire. ”The trees in these forests are often thin-barked and easily killed by the heat of bushfires, and the seed is designed for dispersal by animals and not stimulation by fire,“ he says. Conserving species in the wild is critical and all our efforts are required to restore and manage their habitats.“With largescale destructive events on the rise, it has never been more important to also conserve species ex situ (away from the
site) in botanic gardens, zoos and other safe havens, returning them to the wild when it is appropriate and safe to do so,” says Dr Summerell.
THE ROLE OF SEEDBANKING Plants have been saved in cultivation and as seeds since humans first started foraging and farming. In recent years, as concerns over loss of biodiversity have increased, there has been a massive expansion in seedbanking. Most agricultural crops are held in seedbanks, such as the ‘Doomsday’ vault under the arctic ice in Norway, which houses back-up collections of many of the world’s crop species. Seedbanks for native species, such as the Australian PlantBank at the
Rainforest at Purling Brook Falls, Springbrook National Park, Queensland 34 THE GARDENS SPRING 2020
Photos: © Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust
P
erhaps as much as half of Australia’s biodiversity is found in rainforests, including plants, animals, fungi and microbes. Many food and medicinal species, and wild relatives of crops, are found in these habitats. All macadamias originated in eastern Australian rainforests and all four wild species are threatened. Australian rainforests are also home to the world’s greatest diversity of wild citrus species, including finger lime. The ‘ecosystem services’ provided by our existing rainforests are vital to the health of the planet and our survival. Over the past 200 years, Australian rainforests have been reduced from four per cent of the landmass to about 0.3 per cent. More than 80 per cent of
