"The discovery of new populations of an endangered native orchid, the Hindmarsh Valley Greenhood... hailed a breakthrough for its continued conservation.
Exclusive to the Hindmarsh Valley and at risk of extinction... Pterostylis bryophila was previously found in only two known locations in the area. The discovery of about 180 additional flowers was made on SA Water managed land along the Hindmarsh River on... June 5. ,,, Kieran Brewer from SA Indigenous Flora, along with Tim Jury of the Threatened Plant Action Group and the Department of Environment and Heritage's Joe Quarmby... stumble across the rare orchid. ... Mr Brewer said he hoped the discovery would provide a strong argument for the protection of both the orchid and the land on which it was found. "The area should be made a conservation reserve because there are so many biodiversity assets, threatened species and a number of plants that should be conserved... " he said. "... the discovery gives us the option to manage it, second it gives us leverage to say the area should be in a reserve and now we can also direct weed control to where we need to protect it... " With its habitat being cleared for agriculture in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges and that remaining being fragmented and often weed invaded, the Hindmarsh Valley Greenhood has become one of Australia's rarest orchids. Mr Brewer said one large and two smaller populations of the species were found within a 500-metre radius of each other on land difficult to access. He hopes the discovery will raise local awareness of surrounding native treasures in the area. "The local people need to be interested because there is a lot of unique flora only found in that area, so the more they know about it the better," Mr Brewer said." URL : http://victorharbor.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/rare-greenhood-orchid-found/787094.aspx photo : [caption : "Exclusive to the area and one of Australia's rarest orchids, new populations of the Hindmarsh Valley Greenhood were discovered... Only one in every 20-50 plants will flower."] http://victorharbor.yourguide.com.au/multimedia/images/full/175115.jpg *************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
