Knowing your native plants
A collaboration between farmers, scientists and government has taken the guesswork out of revegetating farmland with native plants.
The Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (CPBR) has joined forces with the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group to determine what native plants used to grow in the area. Their data base includes information on the correct micro-environments for each plant and how to propagate them.
Harden Shire is a productive agricultural region and just 2.8 per cent of the native vegetation cover remains in the area. This has made it difficult for landholders who want to revegetate an area to find out what the correct native plants were in that region.
"Planting native species has always been a challenge as there is so little information on the original species that grew around Harden," according to Ms Louise Hufton, Coordinator of the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group.
"There's been even less data on how and where to re-establish them," she said.
Records kept at the Australian National Herbarium dating back to the early explorers of the region have provided a valuable resource of what native plants used to be found in the area.
Staff from the Australian National Herbarium, which is part of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, have been working in conjunction with the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group to produce the list of original native flora.
These researchers also worked with local landholders and other experts who provided their knowledge of local plants to add to the database.
Funding for the development of the database has been provided from the Natural Heritage Trust. The database is available online.