Snowy River Westringia
Westringia cremnophila
Family Lamiaceae
EPBC Vulnerable / Vic FFG Endangered — ~60 plants after the 2019-20 fires
About
Found nowhere on Earth except the sheer cliffs of Tulloch Ard Gorge in Snowy River National Park, this small shrub is restricted to north-to-north-east-facing rock faces above the Snowy River. The 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires devastated the population, reducing it from roughly 500 plants to about 60 — the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne is now propagating it for conservation.
How to spot it
A small, densely white-haired shrub 0.1-0.5m tall with narrow leaves in whorls of three, and white flowers with a mauve tinge and yellow-brown spotted throats. Grows directly out of vertical cliff faces in Tulloch Ard Gorge — not accessible from standard walking tracks.
Found in
- Snowy River National Park