Spreading Threatened Wildflowers Through Innovation With Engaged Communities

The Project

Imagine patches of colourful, endangered wildflowers, re-established on threatened native grassland reserves, producing multiple new seedlings of their own accord, spreading out across the carefully tended landscape of the regional conservation park, ultimately self perpetuating and attracting the interest of local residents and school children.

This project will scale up the current small sites with highly successful outcomes already established at Iramoo Wildlife Park, to produce large patches of threatened wildflowers that will demonstrate to adjacent communities why these native grasslands are so special and enjoyable.

Our project partner Victoria University has undertaken four years of research to crack the endangered wildflower recruitment code. Now weeds are being removed in threatened Basalt Plains native grassland reserves, soil prepared appropriately and wildflower tubestock established strategically in ways that lead to the production of massive numbers of new seedlings. These in turn grow up to produce even more wildflowers that, with ongoing low level tending and weed control, spread out to produce large patches of native wildflowers.

Prior to this method, establishment of threatened wildflowers was dependent almost entirely on planting tubestock alone. The keys to success using this method are careful site preparation, shallow soil tiling, ongoing weed removal and large scales and densities of tubestock planting in the first instance.

Research and follow up pilot restoration plots have shown that shallow soil tilling not only markedly increases seedlings established, but also stimulates established wildflowers to produce more flowers, and more viable seeds per flower.

Long Term Conservation of Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

We know from research and monitoring over several years, that once wildflowers are established in these self-spreading patches, they remain intact and continue to recruit further seedlings, especially if low level ongoing weed removal and associated soil disturbance are continued.

The scaling up of this method, and its careful monitoring and recording of outcomes, will allow the method to be promoted to other groups.

The increased populations of the threatened plant species will also provide a viable, self-perpetuating seed bank which will increase the survival rate for each of the six wildflower species. This in turn will provide for collection and growth in our Indigenous Plant Nursery for application of this method to other areas.

The threatened plant species will be available to individuals and organisations directly from the indigenous plant nursery and promoted through Iramoo's water wise wildflowers and plants program.