Rare or Threatened Australian Plants

By JD Briggs and JH Leigh

The Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (ROTAP) list and associated coding system was developed and has been maintained by CSIRO since 1979, and lists taxa that are Presumed Extinct, Endangered, Vulnerable, Rare or Poorly Known at the national level. This edition provides the most up-to-date list for conservation purposes.

A significant number of endangered and Vulnerable taxa are included, which have not yet been considered for inclusion on either the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council list or the Commonwealth's Schedule 1. This is the first ROTAP publication to include subspecies and varieties, and the list now includes 5031 taxa. There have also been at least 3270 amendments to data for listed taxa. A total of 2012 additional records of regional data for tax already listed has been included.

A key factor in the development of public opinion, and the design of effective management schemes, lies in the production of accurate data to tell the story. What is threatened? Where is it found? These are two of the most fundamental questions to answer before any strategic plans can be drawn up. Obtaining such apparently simple statistics is a huge task. Rare or Threatened Australian Plants is therefore an important reference for the national status of threatened species, particularly for Rare and Poorly Known species.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Jan 1, 1996
• ISBN: 9780643105966

Book preview

J.D. BRIGGS AND J.H. LEIGH

Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research

CSIRO Divsion of Plant Industry

GPO Box 1600

Canberra ACT 2601 Australia

1995 Revised Edition

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Briggs, J.D. (John D.)

Rare or threatened Australian plants.

1995 rev. ed.

Includes index.

ISBN 0 643 05798 6

I. Rare plants - Australia. I. Leigh, John.

II. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (Australia).

III. Australian Nature Conservation Agency. IV. Title.

581.5290994

© CSIRO Australia 1996

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect those of the Commonwealth Government, the Minister for Science, the Minister for Environment, Sport and Territories, the Chief of the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry or the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Nature Conservation Agency.

Material presented in this volume may be copied for personal use or published for educational purposes, provided that any extracts are fully acknowledged.

This book is available from:

CSIRO Publishing

PO Box 1139 (150 Oxford Street)

Collingwood, VIC 3066

Australia

Tel. [phone] Int: + (613) 9662 7666

Fax [phone]

Int: + (613) 9662 7555 Email: [e-mail]

World Wide Web: http://www.publish.csiro.au

Editor: Marta Veroni

Cover design: Linda Kemp

Typesetting: Linda Kemp and Trevor Clarke

Production Manager: Jim Quinlan

FOREWORD

Monitoring the World’s wildlife - why bother?

Concern about the state of the world we live in is now widespread. Fears of permanent long term damage to health is common-place, and evidence of continual destruction of natural habitats may be found around the globe.

At the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK, which maintains extensive data on the world’s biodiversity, it is easy to become pessimistic about the threats we all face, when confronted with lists of threatened species and maps of shrinking natural vegetation cover.

Despite these gloomy figures - the current volume on Rare or Threatened Plants of Australia lists over 5000 species, including 76 species believed to be extinct, and 1009 threatened (representing 5% of the native vascular flora of Australia) - light may be seen at the end of the rather dark tunnel, with the change in tide of public opinion, such that wildlife is now cherished, and plans and schemes to safeguard threatened wildlife abound.

A key factor in the development of public opinion, and the design of effective management schemes, lies in the production of accurate data to tell the story. What is threatened? Where is it found? These are two of the most fundamental questions to answer before any strategic plans can be drawn up. At the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which collates data from around the world, we know well that obtaining such apparently simple statistics is a huge task. Australia can be proud to point to books such as this, accurately locating target species, and able to identify the fact that of the 5000+ species listed, over half (53%) are already protected to varying degrees in national parks or proclaimed reserves.

The corollary of the figure of 53% of plants currently represented to some extent within protected areas is of course the 47% known to have no safe status. Once the sigh of relief for the ‘safer’s 53% is breathed, then it is time to focus on conservation activities for those still seriously at risk. Conservation may take many guises: designation of new protected areas to protect target populations; ex situ conservation within botanical gardens, or storage of seed within gene banks; development of legislation to protect a species throughout its range; adjustments in management techniques to favour survival in critical habitats.

No matter which, or how many, strategies are adopted, the crucial first role has been fulfilled, of identifying the need for protection in the first place. This work serves such a role, and as such we wish the book success, to serve as a prototype for data management that could well be followed in other countries around the globe.

Mark Collins, Director

Harriet Gillett, Plants Database Manager

World Conservation Monitoring Centre

219 Huntingdon Rd

Cambridge CB3 0DL UK

Contents

Foreword

Tables and figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Current status of the ROTAP list at the national level

Significant changes to content and format of the 1995 ROTAP list

Inclusion of subspecies and varieties

Inclusion of an Australian Capital Territory list and distribution symbol

Inclusion of Island Territory lists

Removal of the [k] symbol used in relation to Western Australian taxa

Inclusion of CALM Priority Flora codes for taxa occurring in Western Australia

Inclusion of Western Australian conservation reserve names

Format of list and definition of conservation codes

Supplementary notes on the coding system

Taxonomic information

Distribution category

Conservation status

State and regional distribution

Examples of taxa in each conservation category

Australian Rare or Threatened plants list - Alphabetically by family, then species

Nationally Rare or Threatened plants lists by State and Territory - Alphabetically by species

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Island Territory lists of nationally Threatened plants

Christmas Island

Norfolk Island

Cocos (Keeling) Island

Statistics and conclusions

Taxonomic situation

Distribution and conservation status

Reservation of taxa in parks and reserves

Numbers of families and genera containing Rare or Threatened taxa

Taxa with extra-Australian distribution

State and regional distribution of Rare or Threatened taxa

State and Territory distribution

Extent of reservation within the States and Territories

Regional distribution

Colour plates

Australian situation in a world context

List of contributors

References and further reading

Appendix

Definitions of the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management’s Priority Flora Codes

Index of families - including numbers of genera and species in each family

Index of genera - including numbers of subspecies, varieties, described, undescribed and taxonomically doubtful species in each genus

TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1. Summary of changes to the total number of species listed in previous ROTAP publications

Table 2. Key to conservation reserve types listed in this publication

Table 3. National summary of the number of taxa in each conservation category

Table 4. National summary of number of taxa by conservation category for taxa represented within national park(s) or other proclaimed reserve(s) and the extent of reservation for each category

Table 5. National summary of number of taxa by conservation category for taxa confined entirely within national park(s) or other proclaimed reserve(s) and the extent of reservation for each category

Table 6. Summary of numbers of families and genera containing Rare or Threatened