Reintroduction efforts are continuing for L. schwantesii subsp. gebseri

Although it was hoped that the 2018/2019 summer would be a rainy one, it was not to be and the areas where we are replanting L. schwantesii subsp. gebseri have received well below average rainfall which severely hampered reintroduction of the plants into their natural habitat for 2019. The high grass cover still present in November 2018 was all gone. Although the area is fenced and grazing stock cannot enter the area, the termites have cut and taken most of the grass underground. Small numbers of new adult plants were reintroduced into the habitat by replanting at least one new plant very close to plants that have survived since the last visit to the colony in November 2018. One of the plants first reintroduced during the first planting had formed a double head while one of the adult plants re-introduced in 2018 in the shade of a tree have flowered. Our first L. schwantesii gebseri plant to flower after being re-introduced. There are now 103 surviving plants in the area.