An endangered shrub growing only in one habitat near the Shoahaven River is being set free into the wild after careful cultivation by botanic gardeners.
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Several botanic gardens have collaborated to grow about 1000 specimens of the Bomaderry Zieria at the Wollongong garden, after the wild population declined to about 500 individuals.
On Friday thenext step was taken – a trial planting of 100 zieria at Yallah TAFE.
“It’s a terrible thing when a native plant goes extinct; this is a species that we might never get back,” Wollongong Botanic Gardens curator Paul Tracey said.
“This is one of the main objectives of our nursery staff, to ensure that we maintain viable stock of many rare and endangered species in the Illawarra.
“One of the most interesting features of this trial is that individual genes of Zieria are isolated in their wild location, so we will deliberately mix these genes to see how the plant responds to differing conditions,” he said.
“It is a remote possibility that we may trigger a seed response as part of this trial.”
