Scientist uncovers species not seen for 50 years in remote Queensland rainforest
- Dr Matt Renner was on an expedition to find rare ferns in Far North Queensland
- He stumbled upon Hymenophyllum whitei while en route to a mountain summit
- The Sydney botanist also found Oreogrammitis leonardii on Mt Finnigan
- Both ferns had only been seen once by botanists prior to 1948
A Sydney scientist who spent years combing through Queensland rainforest for a species not seen in more than 50 years has finally had success.
Sydney botanist Dr Matt Renner had been searching for rare ferns in the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland for decades.
While scientists had conducted repeated searches to find the ferns since the 1930s, Dr Renner finally found Hymenophyllum whitei on a boulder en route to Thornton Peak’s summit.
‘Hymenophyllum whitei is extremely hard to spot,’ Dr Renner said.
Sydney botanist Dr Matt Renner (pictured) was on an expedition to find the rare ferns in the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland when he stumbled upon Hymenophyllum whitei on a boulder while en route to Thornton Peak’s summit
‘Its fronds are only three centimetres long and when dry they actively hide by curling up and retreating into surrounding mosses and liverworts.
‘Ideally, you’d climb Thornton Peak during a spell of dry weather, but that’s when it’s hardest to find.
‘At first we struggled to convince ourselves that ‘this was it’, but upon closer examination, we knew it couldn’t be anything else, so we allowed ourselves to get completely ecstatic about it.’
The fronds on Hymenophyllum whitei (pictured) are only three centimetres long and when dry they actively hide by curling up and retreating into surrounding mosses and liverworts
The filmy fern was only collected once in 1931 by Cyril White from Thornton Peak, which rises above the Daintree Rainforest to a height of 1374 metres.
Dr Renner also found the elusive strap fern Oreogrammitis leonardii on another remote Queensland mountain, Mt Finnigan.
The fern grows to nine centimetres long and is covered in whitish to pale reddish-brown hairs, and hadn’t been seen since 1948.
Dr Renner also found the elusive strap fern Oreogrammitis leonardii (pictured) on another remote Qld mountain, Mt Finnigan. The fern grows to nine centimetres long and is covered in whitish to pale reddish-brown hairs, and hasn’t been seen since 1948
‘We made some collections of ferns from a tree trunk that fit the description,’ explained Dr Renner.
‘But it wasn’t until we were back in Cairns that Dr Barbara Parris, who described the species, confirmed we had rediscovered.
The two discoveries are among 11 ferns that have been presumed extinct or missing from the Wet Tropics, and Dr Renner will be returning to the region later this year in the hope of tracking them down.