TThe Grampians cosmopolitan pea, an endangered wiry shrub, had finished flowering and was bearing fruit when fire tore through its home in the Grampians National Park, in western Victoria. The spiny plant with vibrant orange and yellow flowers is extremely rare and restricted to a few locations, including areas within… 76 thousand hectares burned During the months of December and January.
Finding the world class pea will be a priority when a plant rescue mission led by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria heads to the Grampians to search for survivors and signs of life amid the charred landscape.
“We don’t yet know the extent of the damage,” says Chris Russell, director and CEO of RBGV, adding that work to establish reserve populations of species before they are “lost forever” is urgent and ongoing, as climate change “disrupts the whole system.”
Together with the state environment department and local community groups, the RBGV is scaling up conservation efforts in the Grampians, known as Garoeird to Aboriginal people, following recent bushfires.
When conditions improve, a team of botanists and horticulturists will assess the damage and collect seeds and cuttings from threatened species for storage in the Victorian Conservation Seed Bank, a repository for seeds and spores of native plants, and the RBGV’s living collections.
The national park is a hotspot for biodiversity, with its ancient sandstone cliffs, craggy cliffs, surrounding plains, and dense forests and forests that provide habitat for about A third of the state’s plantsincluding 49 unique plant species found nowhere else in the world, according to Parks Victoria.
“It’s a very diverse geological and ecological space,” Russell says. “There is a really high proportion of plants that are only found there, and they are endemic to the Grampian region. A whole bunch of those are rare and threatened.”
What happens next is crucial.
He says even fire-adapted species could be lost if they are “broken back” by fire the next year, or two years later, without enough time to regrow, set seed, reproduce, and reach maturity.
Dr Ella Plowmans-Boughton, who researches the impact of fires on biodiversity, including in the Grampians, says fires can be both a driver and a threat to plant diversity.
At the community level, fire shapes the structure of vegetation, she says, allowing light in and creating niches and opportunities for new species to germinate.
A “Goldilocks” scenario for many plants
Plowmans-Boughton, who is not involved in the work of the RBGV, says many factories in the Grampians have developed strategies to deal with fires. After burning, some sprout from their trunk or from underground woody tubers, while others have dormant seeds that break open and germinate under heat or smoke.
But for many species, the type and frequency of fire is a “Goldilocks” scenario, she says.
A series of major fires – in 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2024 – led to… 90% of the Grampians landscape was burnedsays Plumens Bouton. “The problem with having so many fires in such a short time frame is that the plants need enough time to be able to collect seeds again.”
She says more intense and frequent fires, along with other threats such as habitat loss, herbivores and diseases, will require new solutions, including innovative ways to protect plant populations and reduce fire risks, as well as creating insurance packages.
Plants and their environments are undergoing rapid and often unpredictable changes in response to climate change, says Professor Angela Moles, a plant ecologist who leads the University of New South Wales’ Large Ecology Laboratory.
“The federal government in Australia has committed to no new extinctions,” she says. “But we have hundreds, maybe thousands of different plant species that exist in just a few square kilometres, and if two fires happen very quickly, they will be wiped out.”
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“We don’t know how it’s going to go. So literally putting some seeds in the seed bank is really important.”
Forest and fire scientist Dr Tom Fairman of the University of Melbourne says climate change is leading to more difficult conversations about how best to conserve and protect biodiversity, and seed banks are no longer a futuristic idea, but a business-as-usual proposition.
Even relatively common, fire-adapted species can struggle to survive when fire intervals are too short. “They’re never going to be able to handle everything you put at them,” says Fairman.
According to the RBGV, the largest increase in threatened species found on the banks in a decade came in the wake of the 2019-2020 Black Summer fires. After those huge fires, RBGV staff – supported by government funding – collected 105 endangered species from the fire scar: 72 as seeds, and the rest as orchard cuttings in living collections.
Russell says the team will be working against time in the Grampians’ fire-affected landscape to find plant material, carefully collect it and then quickly deliver it to RBGV laboratories, seed banks and nurseries.
“We’re talking about plants that have very little genetic material left on the planet, which makes them an absolute treasure – what you’re dealing with is gold,” he says.
The cosmopolitan Grampians pea is one of five priority species, along with the mountain Castle grevillea, a small, low shrub with holly-like leaves and striking red flowers that is considered critically endangered in Victoria, and the vulnerable, yellow-flowered Grampians cedar. Grampians bitter peas.
The endangered Pomonal leek orchid is also a priority, since recent fires have destroyed one of only two known sites for the endangered species.
This work can be physically demanding, sometimes dangerous, and requires a huge investment of time and expertise, Russell says.
“The team loves doing this because they are all very passionate and driven by their love of plants and want to play an active role in reducing the number of these beautiful and endemic plants from extinction.”