| Remote thorny lignum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Polygonaceae |
| Genus: | Muehlenbeckia |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | M. h. subsp. abdita |
| Trinomial name | |
| Muehlenbeckia horrida subsp. abdita | |
Muehlenbeckia horrida subsp. abdita (syn. Duma horrida subsp. abdita [3] ). commonly known as remote thorny lignum, is a critically endangered shrub endemic to Western Australia.
It is an upright, spreading, leafless shrub, that grows to a height of from 60 to 120 centimetres. It has bright, light yellow clusters of flowers.
The subspecies was described in 1996 by Karen Wilson. [2] [4]
Muehlenbckia horrida subsp. abdita is known only from two populations within the Lake Bryde-East Lake Bryde wetland, in the Western Mallee subregion of the Mallee region in the South West Botanical Province of Western Australia.
It grows in waterlogged silt and sand, on the beds of Lake Bryde and East Lake Bryde. It depends for its survival upon a regular cycle of freshwater flooding followed by drying of the lake bed.
Populations of M. h. subsp. abdita have declined severely in the last thirty years, mainly because of increasing salinity. Salinity loads in the Lakes were measured at around 160 tonnes in 1985, but had increased to around 1200 tonnes in 2005. This increase is attributable to a rising water table caused by widespread clearing for agriculture. Other threats include interruption of the flooding/drying regime because of altered hydrology; and recreational activities such as water skiing. It is estimated that there are about 2000 plants left. There was previously a third population, but these were all dead in 2002, and the population is thought to be unrecoverable. [5]
It is listed as "critically endangered" under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, [1] and as "Rare" under Western Australia's Wildlife Conservation Act 1950. [6] The whole lake bed ecosystem has been classified as a critically endangered threatened ecological community under the name Bryde. [7]
Soil salinity and dryland salinity are two problems degrading the environment of Australia. Salinity is a concern in most states, but especially in the south-west of Western Australia.
The black-eared miner is an endangered honeyeater endemic to mallee woodland in south-eastern Australia.
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Western Mallee is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) subregion in southern Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated subregion with an area of about 47,000 square kilometres, roughly centred on the town of Newdegate. Largely cleared for intensive agriculture, it still retains patches of native vegetation, but these are under environmental stress from threats such as rising salinity, and are poorly managed.
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Eucalyptus crucis is a species of mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. There are three subspecies, commonly known as silver mallee or Southern Cross mallee,, narrow-leaved silver mallee, and Paynes Find mallee,. It has rough bark that is shed in curling flakes, more or less round, glaucous juvenile leaves, egg-shaped intermediate leaves and lance-shaped adult leaves. The type of bark and the proportion of juvenile, intermediate and adult leaves in the crown of mature plants varies with subspecies. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils, the flowers are whitish to pale yellow and the fruit is a conical to hemispherical capsule.
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