{"id":630946,"date":"2026-04-26T00:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630946\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T00:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:03:13","slug":"ancient-critically-endangered-sterile-plant-kings-lomatia-found-for-second-time-in-tasmanian-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630946\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient, critically endangered ‘sterile’ plant King’s lomatia found for second time in Tasmanian wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A second population of the critically endangered plant, King’s lomatia, has been discovered in south-west Tasmania.<\/p>\n

King’s lomatia \u2014 also known as Lomatia tasmanica \u2014 is a small, ancient clonal tree which previously had only ever been located in one area.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lomatia tasmanica is in the same family as the\u00a0waratah, grevillea, macadamia and protea. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

The location of the second population, and its discoverers, are being kept secret \u2014 an intentional move, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), to protect the species, which is listed as critically endangered.<\/p>\n

In a statement, NRE said the discovery was reported earlier in the year and was verified by scientists.<\/p>\n

Species more than 43,600 years old<\/p>\n

King’s lomatia was first discovered by tin miner, environmentalist, bushman and artist Charles Denison “Deny” King.<\/p>\n

In 1989, University of Tasmania plant biologist Professor Greg Jordan found fossilised King’s lomatia, which dated back more than 43,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

In 1989, Professor Greg Jordan found fossilised King’s lomatia, and published\u00a0his findings two years later. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Professor Jordan said the recent discovery was a surprise.<\/p>\n

“There’s always a feeling that there probably was another population out there, but it was going to be awfully hard to find,” Professor Jordan said.<\/p>\n

Professor Jordan told ABC Breakfast the species is especially unique because of its extra chromosome.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

“individual” plant is genetically identical, a clone originating from a single seed. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

“Like you and me, we both have two sets of chromosomes in our DNA, but this one has three,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And that means that it can’t actually reproduce sexually.”This ancient tree lives in Tasmania’s remote south west<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this the world’s oldest clone? How scientists uncovered one of nature’s great mysteries.<\/p>\n

“It has survived for thousands and thousands of years just by turning its body over and over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s just falling over and under the ground and then sprouting up again.”<\/p>\n

NRE said the species is at risk due to a soil pathogen called Phytophthora cinnamomi, also known as Phytophthora, which cannot be eradicated.<\/p>\n

Professor Jordan said Phytophthora would destroy the species’ roots by drying them out.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The plant is vulnerable to fire and disease. For this reason, scientists want to keep its locations secret. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

But the main risk, he said, is that the disease is mostly carried around by people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So if we have people cramping around in these areas, it’s just a really stupid risk of being killed by love.”<\/p>\n

Insurance population not for sale<\/p>\n

In an attempt to safeguard the species, a local Tasmanian nursery has propagated and grown King’s lomatia.<\/p>\n

But plant enthusiasts shouldn’t expect to be able to purchase a cutting.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rae Young grows the species at Plants of Tasmania Nursery. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Plants of Tasmania nursery co-owner Rae Young said the business was granted a permit from the NRE to propagate the plant, but is not allowed to sell it.<\/p>\n

“It’s very special. It’s found nowhere else in the world, it can’t produce any seed, it’s difficult to replicate in horticulture,” Ms Young said.<\/p>\n

Ms Young said the recent discovery of the second population was an exciting find and a “great privilege”, but warned people not to go looking for it.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

To ensure the plants’ safety, the wild\u00a0location is kept secret, but Rae Young has received permission to grow it. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

“It’s a good moment for all of us to reflect on how good it is not to go, and just know that we have it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s important \u2014 that responsibility that we all have \u2014 not to destroy things just because we found them.”<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Due to its rarity and vulnerable status, the plant cannot be sold. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Professor Jordan shares the same view.<\/p>\n

“It’s been kept under the veil of silence and I totally agree with that \u2014 it should be,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s very common for people to be tempted to break the rules a bit because they think they might be helping. And so I think that keeping it secret is actually a really good idea.”<\/p>\n

NRE said it would begin surveying the new population to identify whether it was genetically identical to the first population.<\/p>\n

It said Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service had also begun planned burns around the area of the first King’s lomatia population, to reduce the risk of bushfires to the species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A second population of the critically endangered plant, King’s lomatia, has been discovered in south-west Tasmania. King’s lomatia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,305719,8426,75,305717,42568,305720,29289,128,2801,305718,46370],"class_list":{"0":"post-630946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-deny-king","11":"tag-endangered","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-kings-lomatia","14":"tag-plant","15":"tag-rare-plant","16":"tag-rare-species","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-tasmania","19":"tag-triploid","20":"tag-wilderness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}