THE first Tasmanian alpine sword-sedge, a small clumping plant, has been discovered by University of New England researchers a long way from its natural home.
The sedge, Lepidosperma monticola, which is unique in that it’s only located in alpine regions of Tasmania, was identified by UNE botanist PHD student George Plunket in the herbarium at Armidale.
The NCW Beadle Herbarium houses more than 85,000 vascular plant specimens, housed in a purpose-built facility.
Mr Plunket says he made the discovery while examining seed and plant samples, which had been loaned to the herbarium.
“Discovering a new Tasmanian plant species is a rare event because the flora from that state is relatively well known,” he said.
“It was the length of the leaf compared to the stem which originally made me more interested in investigating these plant samples.”
Mr Plunket said follow-up work included examining fruit from the plant, which appeared to have a distinctive smooth surface.
He said after realising it could potentially be a previously unrecorded plant species, the next stage was trekking the high mountains of Tasmania to locate the plant in its natural surroundings.
“It took a while to actually find one, they only grow to around seven centimetres, but once I knew what to look for, then they appeared to be everywhere,” he siad.
The Lepidosperma monticola is related to the Lepidosperma family of sword sedges, which take their name from distinctive elongated and flattened leaves, shaped like a double-edged sword.
Mr Plunket said ants removed the tiny fruit after it fell from the plant, giving it a distinct place in the local ecology.
He said now that one new species had been identified, it opened to the door to finding more members of the family.
