June 12, 2009 11:20 by
LukeThe Forest Gallery at Melbourne Museum is now one of the only two places that the threatened shrub Shiny Nematolepis- Nematolepis wilsonii may be found. Until Black Saturday, the only known wild population of this plant, totalling about 500 plants, was found in the Yarra Ranges National Park near Marysville. As reported in The Age newspaper last Saturday, the entire population was burnt out in the Black Saturday bushfires. This event outlines the importance of having separated populations to safeguard the ongoing survival of threatened plant or animal species.
Shiny Nematolepis shrub in the Forest Gallery Photo: Andrew Kuhlmann Source: Museum Victoria
Five young individual plants, grown from cuttings in 2000 are growing on display in the Forest Gallery while seedlings propagated at both the Melbourne and Cranbourne Botanic Gardens were recently planted out nearWoori Yallock. The burnt out Nematolepis near Marysville are yet to show signs of regeneration after the fire, but the plants growing in at least two locations now make complete extinction less likely.
aff1f05a-a248-414e-82cf-dcae15772f99|1|5.0