Murrumbidgee Bossiaea (Bossiaea grayi)
Murrumbidgee Bossiaea. Photo by Luke Johnston
The Murrumbidgee Bossiaea (Bossiaea grayi) is only found in the ACT and is known at only ten sites. The shrub was declared as endangered in January 2012 because it is in danger of premature extinction due to its small number and fragmented distribution.
This rare, wiry shrub generally grows to around 1.5 metres high. It has yellow and brown pea flowers from September to October then develops long seedpods that drop off the plant in December. Flattened stems (called cladodes) function as leaves.
Murrumbidgee Bossiaea grow in sandy soil amongst rock outcrops on river banks and adjacent slopes close to rivers, usually at the top of the riparian zone (at the high flood level). Plants have only been found along the Murrumbidgee, Paddy’s and Cotter rivers. While one site has 2000 plants, others have many fewer and one site has only a single plant.
Conservation threats
The main threats to the Murrumbidgee Bossiaea include:
- reduction in population range
- further fragmentation of the existing populations
- competition from native shrubs and weeds for water, nutrients and light
- damage by human activity.
Conservation actions
The overall conservation objective is to protect the shrub by helping to maintain viable wild populations in the ACT and by managing their habitat so natural processes can continue to operate. This will give the plant the best chance of recovery.
Since being listed as a threatened native species, the ACT Government has focussed on plant surveys, identifying threats and threatening processes, monitoring and research. The majority of plants are in nature reserves of the Murrumbidgee River Corridor, which immediately gives them some protection.
Seeds have been collected and stored at the National Seed Bank through a collaboration between the Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT Government and the Australian Native Plant Society. A member of the Australian Native Plant Society has begun investigating the plant’s seed germination requirements.
The overall objective of the 2018 action plan is to maintain viable, wild populations of Murrumbidgee Bossiaea in the ACT. Specific objectives are to:
- conserve all sub-populations in the ACT
- manage habitat to conserve existing sub-populations and facilitate expansion into adjacent habitat
- arrest decline in sub-populations which have reduced in population size and increase the number of sub-populations overall.
Conservation actions:
- Manage existing populations to enhance their survival and natural recruitment, including reducing threats such as weeds, collecting and propagating material for revegetation projects, managing nearby incompatible activities, and monitoring and managing populations for threatening processes.
- Raise and maintain awareness of the presence of populations among land managers and field workers and, where necessary, physically protect the populations.
- Support research to better understand the species, including seed production and germination.
- Collaborate with non-government organisations such as Greening Australia to undertake on-ground actions.
- Engage with the community, where relevant, to help monitor and undertake other on-ground actions and to help raise community awareness of conservation issues for this species.
- Continue research to improve knowledge of the plant’s life history and ecology, determine methods for reintroducing or establishing additional populations, identify genetic diversity and investigate causes of dieback.
More information
Contact
Email environment@act.gov.au or phone Access Canberra on 13 22 81.