VIC:Endangered plants emerge from ashes

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2011
VIC:Endangered plants emerge from ashes

Eds: Removes fifth par from yesterday's story, which contained incorrect information
about the orchid's location.

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - Endangered plant species are showing a burst of new life after
one of Australia's worst ever natural disasters.

While the Black Saturday fires killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of properties
and businesses, the flames have become a lifeline for the nationally endangered Eastern
Spider Orchid.

The plant is normally detected in low numbers at only a few sites around Victoria.

Scientist Mike Duncan from the Arthur Rylah Institute has found the rare native responded
to the 2009 fires by flowering at 10 times its normal rate in Wilsons Promontory National
Park.

"This is a remarkable response for a spider orchid that doesn't need fire to reproduce,
but after these devastating fires there was a mass-flowering in spring 2009 and 2010,"

Dr Duncan said.

"The research also found some species of orchids (particularly species living on trees)
were killed by the severity of these bushfires.

"Others have shown a reduction in flowering in the burnt areas, but these are likely
to return to normal in the next few years."

Four orchid species - the Lizard, Red Beaks, Hare and Austral Leek - that only bloom
in Victoria when their habitat is burnt have flowered "spectacularly" after the fires,
Dr Duncan said.

The orchids are among a line-up of rare plants to re-emerge since February 7, 2009.

Four months after the fires in June 2009, the rare Buxton Silver Gum was spotted sprouting
fresh foliage despite a 2005 survey that found the species was failing to regenerate in
the wild.

A 17-hectare reserve of gums was razed during the fires near Marysville and then was
flooded for the first time in 14 years last September, creating ideal conditions for regeneration.

Last year the obscure Shiny Nematolepis, a small shrub native to Victoria, was discovered
growing in the O'Shannassy water catchment. The only wild specimens of the shrub had been
located in the area before the fires.

AAP ees/gfr/jl/gfr

KEYWORD: ORCHID (REISSUING)

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