advisory list of rare or threatened plants in Victoria - 2005 www.dse.vic.gov.au 1 Advisory List of Rare Or Threatened Plants In Victoria - 2005 Prepared and published by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne 3002. © State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment 2005. This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. This document may be cited as: Department of Sustainability and Environment (2005) Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants in Victoria - 2005. Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, East Melbourne, Victoria. ISBN 1 74152 090 8 Acknowledgements This document was compiled by David Cameron, with great assistance from Neville Walsh and Jeff Jeanes of the National Herbarium of Victoria. This list was compiled by David Cameron of the Parks, Flora and Fauna Division, Department of Sustainability and Environment, in consultation with Neville Walsh (National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens). Other major contributors include Gary Backhouse, Geoff Carr, Jeff Jeanes and Kevin Rule. 2 Introduction Purpose of the List This advisory list of vascular plants (angiosperms, conifers, ferns and fern allies), bryophytes and fungi (including lichens) that are considered extinct, threatened, rare or poorly known in Victoria is maintained by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. The information in this list may be of use in a range of planning processes, such as the preparation of National Park Management Plans, Forest Management Plans, local government planning schemes, regional catchment strategies and in setting priorities for actions to conserve biodiversity. Together with the range of programs and other resources available, lists of this type serve to increase community awareness of threatened species and may encourage community members to become involved in activities to protect threatened species, thereby reducing the risk of their conservation status worsening. Relationship to statutory lists This advisory list is not the same as the statutory list of threatened taxa established under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (FFG Act). There are no legal requirements or consequences that flow from inclusion of a species in this advisory list. However, some of the species in this advisory list are also listed as threatened under the FFG Act. The FFG Act Threatened List only includes items that have been nominated, assessed by the Scientific Advisory Committee and approved for listing by the responsible Minister. There are also species on this list that are listed under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This information is included in the tables. Readers who are interested in learning more about this Act should contact the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage. Composition of the list and assessment of taxa The Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants in Victoria - 2005 updates the publication in 2003 of Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Vascular Plants in Victoria – 2003 (DSE 2003). This list includes a comprehensive list of rare or threatened bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) and a small selection of lichens and fungi. The inclusion of a preliminary list of only nine lichens and fungi is indicative of the poorly known or data deficient conservation status of the vast majority of taxa in these groups for which a definitive list of rare or threatened species must await further taxonomic investigation and the collation of reliable distribution data. The list refers to plants considered rare or threatened in Victoria only: their status elsewhere in Australia or beyond is not considered in assigning Victorian conservation status. Taxa are eligible for inclusion in the list if they are recognised as taxonomically valid by the National Herbarium of Victoria, they currently occur, or occurred, naturally in Victoria, and they are, or are highly likely to be, rare or threatened in Victoria. Where a species is represented in any given region by two or more infraspecific taxa then the species itself will usually (but not necessarily) have the same conservation status as the least threatened constituent infraspecific taxon. For clarity, the names of such species are not included in the list although their status can be confirmed in the current edition of the Victorian Flora Species Index. Where an EPBC Act or FFG Act status applies only at the species level, this status is shown in parentheses for the infraspecific taxa. Taxa which are generally recognised as naturally-occurring hybrids are included in this list only when they are listed in the current edition of A Census of the Vascular Plants of Victoria (Ross 2003). In general, such taxa are eligible for inclusion in these lists only when it is established that they are distinctive, stable and self-sustaining and supported by a published taxonomic description. The Department of Sustainability and Environment has published Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria – 2003. This list is available from the DSE web site at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au. The Department of Sustainability and Environment also publishes a list of plants periodically, based on the Department’s Flora Information System (eg. Victorian Flora Species Index 2001). 3 Arrangement of the List The list is divided into three sections representing three broad subdivisions of the plant world: vascular plants, non-vascular plants and fungi (including lichens). Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) are represented by mosses and liverworts. Nationally threatened taxa of terrestrial, freshwater or marine algae which are known to occur in Victoria (Scott et al. 1997) are not included in this list on account of the very rudimentary knowledge of the distribution and conservation status of algae at the present time. Column 1: Botanical Name The list is arranged alphabetically by botanical name. The taxonomy and botanical nomenclature used in the list is based on A Census of the Vascular Plants of Victoria (Ross & Walsh 2003) and subsequent advice from the National Herbarium of Victoria. It is current as of October 2003. Column 2: Common Name The common names listed are generally those provided in authoritative publications, including the Flora of Victoria (Walsh & Entwisle 1994, 1996, 1999), A Handbook to Plants in Victoria (Willis 1970, 1973) and other national, state and regional floras. Column 3: Conservation Status in Australia National conservation status is based on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) list of taxa considered threatened in Australia. In some instances the botanical and/or the common names of plants may have changed since the taxon was first listed under the EPBC Act. In such instances the EPBC Act status has been applied to the circumscription intended at the time of listing under the Act. This information is accurate as at December 2004. For further information regarding the EPBC Act and, in particular, for the most up-to-date listings under the Act, refer to the following web site: http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/ The categories for currently listed Victorian taxa are as follows: EX Extinct: A taxon is extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual of the taxon has died. CR Critically Endangered: A taxon is critically endangered when it is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future. EN Endangered: A taxon is endangered when it is not critically endangered but is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future. VU Vulnerable: A taxon is vulnerable when it is not critically endangered or endangered but is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future. Column 4: Conservation Status in Victoria x Presumed Extinct in Victoria: not recorded from Victoria during the past 50 years despite field searches specifically for the plant, or, alternatively, intensive field searches (since 1950) at all previously known sites have failed to record the plant. e Endangered in Victoria: at risk of disappearing from the wild state if present land use and other causal factors continue to operate. v Vulnerable in Victoria: not presently endangered but likely to become so soon due to continued depletion; occurring mainly on sites likely to experience changes in land-use which would threaten the survival of the plant in the wild; or, taxa whose total population is so small that the likelihood of recovery from disturbance, including localised natural events such as drought, fire or landslip, is doubtful. r Rare in Victoria: rare but not considered otherwise threatened - there are relatively few known populations or the taxon is restricted to a relatively small area. k Poorly Known in Victoria: poorly known and suspected, but not definitely known, to belong to one of the above categories (x, e, v or r) within Victoria. At present, accurate distribution information is inadequate. Column 5: Status under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 This column provides information on the listing status under the provisions of Part 3 of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. A taxon may be listed as threatened if it has been nominated, assessed by the Scientific Advisory Committee and approved by the Minister for Environment. Any person may make a nomination for listing. This information is accurate as at December 2004. For the most up-to-date listings under the Act, refer to the following web site: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au L Listed as threatened N Nominated for listing as threatened I Rejected for listing as threatened; taxon invalid or ineligible D Delisted as threatened under the FFG Act 4 Statistics Category Vascular plants Bryophytes Fungi (inc.