Brandan Espe goes to great lengths — and occasionally puts his life at risk — to collect rare plants due to their environmental importance.
From hiking through crocodile-infested habitats to traversing mountains and flying a helicopter to the side of a cliff, it would be easy to think Brendan Espe was trying to be the next Bear Grylls.
"We had a daisy we were working with which didn't have a name and it's only found on Hinchinbrook Island at a nearby mountain," he said.More than 1,400 plants are listed as threatened or extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. But finding — and saving — these plants can also add to the pressure they face.
National Seed Bank manager Lydia Guja said it was a vital resource for the continuation of many species, as well as identifying those that could adapt to climate change."This provides a sort of insurance measure and helps prevent against extinction, but it also provides materials to research those species," she said."We use those seeds to understand through laboratory experiments how they will respond to increased temperature or increased drought.
But the Australian Network for Plant Conservation — a national not-for-profit group that promotes plant conservation — said flora often struggled to attract the same attention as their endangered animal counterparts.
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