Sydney region's first new plant find in decades

The discovery of Sydney's newest plant was not a quick or simple exercise. Andrew Robinson, a bushland officer with the Ku-ring-gai Council, was on his first visit to a nature reserve back in 2006 when his eyes fixed on a "straggly little thing" less than a metre from the track. Kneeling down, Mr Robinson examined the plant up close. Clearly a native hibbertia, it was one the then-24-year-old couldn't identify from the thousand or so plant species he'd memorised. Julian's Hibbertia in full flower in the Ku-ring-gai Council region. Julian's Hibbertia in full flower in the Ku-ring-gai Council region. Photo: Wolter Peeters "I've just been a plant nerd basically my entire life," said Mr Robinson, a keen bushwalker formerly from Narara near Gosford. "From about the age of 7or 8 ... I remember thinking how cool it would be to come across a new plant and have it named after myself." Research and further visits to the reserve failed to produce a species to match the one Mr Robinson had spotted. What he needed, though, was to catch the plant in flower, which took another three years of luck and patience. Flowers "are so crucial in ID-ing hibbertia species," Mr Robinson said. "It's how many stamens and carpels [the male and female parts of the plant] are present inside the flower, and their arrangement." Still finding no close resemblance in the plant record, Mr Robinson's confidence he was "on to something funky" grew. The soils and other vegetation in the reserve – the location of which the council wishes to keep secret – were other clues he was dealing with at least a regionally significant species. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-regions-first-new-plant-find-in-decades-20141107-11ii10.html#ixzz3ITnmyw8H