Orchid species back from the dead

In a time when more and more plant and animal species worldwide are added to endangered lists and when experts warn us we are approaching a “wave of extinctions” equal to the one that caused the demise of the dinosaurs, Wedderburn can call itself home to an extinct species that has come back from the dead. The Robust Greenhood Orchid (Pterostylis valida) was last seen in 1941 and had been officially declared nationally extinct in 1999. Now, a small group of this species has been found at the Nardoo Hills reserve of Bush Heritage Australia.

This reserve, to the west of the Wychitella Nature Conservation Reserve (NCR), and about 20 kilometres from Wedderburn, was purchased by Bush Heritage (BHA) in 2004 and staff and volunteers have been busy all these years to clear the hills of rabbits, goats and invasive weeds. The discovery of this orchid comes during a time when the reserve is revealing a lot of botanical treasures and more exciting news is expected in the coming years.

The orchid was photographed last year by Ian Higgins of the local Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA) on a field trip to the Nardoo Hills. When he showed his photos to Julie Whitfield and Geoff Nevill of the biodiversity unit of the DSE at Epsom, Bendigo, they knew that they were looking at something special. It has taken until last month to find the orchid again, and this time Julie and Geoff took samples to establish a definite identification. This was quite hard as the National Herbarium only had one dried sample of this species and no photographs existed.

Since 1999 the national conservation status of this plant has been “extinct”. The Department of Sustainability and the Environment (DSE) is now lodging an application to downgrade this status to “critically endangered”. Once this process is completed, research will be conducted on its relationships with pollinators and fungi in the soil and this in turn will inform the land management of the reserve.

This good-news story shows that the right management of ecologically sensitive land can result in even extinct species making a comeback. When consistently tackling weeds and rabbits, restoring our natural landscape is possible.

Jeroen van Veen (BHA), photo – the Robust Greenhood Orchid