07/09/2026
🌼 Threatened Species Day | 7 September
Today, on Threatened Species Day, we recognise some of Tasmania’s remarkable plants at risk of extinction - and the work being done to secure their future.
At the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, threatened plant conservation is an important part of what we do. Through our living collections, conservation programs, propagation, research and partnerships, we help safeguard some of Tasmania’s rarest plants beyond their remaining wild populations.
Our work includes:
🌿 Determining the optimal propagation and long-term cultivation of the Critically Endangered King’s lomatia (Lomatia tasmanica), one of the world’s oldest known living plant clones.
🌿 Shy susan (Tetratheca gunnii), where we’re working with partners to establish a genetically representative ex-situ collection.
🌿 Davies’ wax flower (Phebalium daviesii), now represented in a dedicated conservation collection and seed orchard at the Gardens.
Through our Meta Collection Program, we’re also working with botanic gardens and conservation partners to share genetically representative collections across multiple sites - helping safeguard irreplaceable plant diversity and support future research, restoration and recovery.
Botanic gardens are more than beautiful places. They are living repositories of plant diversity and increasingly important refuges for species facing habitat loss, climate change, fire, disease and other threats.
This Threatened Species Day, we celebrate the people, plants and partnerships working to ensure Tasmania’s unique flora has a future. 🌱
