Rare sight on side of rural Aussie road stuns: 'It's beautiful'
The native plant was once 'widespread' across the east coast but is now presumed almost extinct in NSW and Victoria.
A man was making his way back home on Thursday when a “splash of pink” tucked away on the side of a rural Aussie road caused him to suddenly stop in his tracks. While the grassy “hill” in Toowoomba, Queensland, wouldn’t look like much to many drivers passing by, Shannon — who describes himself as an ecologist and botanist — couldn’t help but take a closer look.
“Found a dozen of one of my favourite plants,” the local captioned footage of multiple Austral Cornflowers, otherwise known as rhaponticum australe, sprouting from the ground.
“There was probably about 15 in total, but there were two very big ones, about 40 to 50cm tall,” Shannon said in a video posted to his TikTok, adding that although the plant resembles a thistle, its leaves are actually smooth.
Despite the native perennials once growing “widespread from Victoria to Queensland”, they are now presumed extinct in NSW and Victoria, he added.
The Austral Cornflower, a member of the sunflower family that is only seen in Australia, is often found on roadsides, on road or rail reserves and in grasslands on clay soil, according to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, which has listed the plant as “vulnerable”.
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What caused the native plant to go extinct in NSW and Victoria?
After being inundated with questions from curious social media users, Shannon went on to explain that “woodland clearing for agriculture, urban development, as well as cattle grazing” were likely to blame for the plant’s extinction in the southern states. People agreed it was "beautiful" while one said, "fantastic find".
Other main potential threats to rhaponticum australe include invasion by weeds, roadworks and inappropriate fire regime, the Queensland Government states.
There are people currently trying to reintroduce the species in NSW and Victoria, Shannon claimed, but “it’s not working out very well”.
“The climate of Victoria and NSW is significantly different to that of Queensland, mainly to do with rain. Victoria gets quite a lot of winter rain, whereas Queensland doesn’t, and that affects the progeny of the plant,” he said.
“So you can’t really take these plants that are adapted to the tropical climate of Queensland, and then put them in the temperate forests of Victoria.”
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