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Translocation is commonly used in the conservation of threatened species to help mitigate the risk of local extinctions. However, translocations are often limited by knowledge of the species ecological requirements that promote persistence in the landscape. Small translocation trials with a strong experimental design can help to address species knowledge gaps and identify effective strategies for the successful establishment of a threatened species prior to implementing full‐scale planting regimes. In this study, we experimentally translocated 128 plants of the endangered Persoonia hirsuta (Proteaceae) at a dry sclerophyll mining offset in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and investigated the effects of propagation type (seeds and vegetative cuttings), plant guards, and mulching on short‐term plant growth and survival. Transplants were impacted by herbivory and unprecedented extreme temperatures over summer 2019–2020 with 25 of the 128 plants surviving after 20 months of monitoring. Among the surviving individuals, all but one were seed propagated and 72% of survivors were protected by a plant guard. Short‐term survival and establishment of P. hirsuta translocants was increased by producing plants from seeds, and the use of plant guards with localized mulch. We also identified significantly greater root volume, projected area, and diameter for seedlings than cuttings grown plants. Our study successfully identified several key factors that should be considered for the ongoing management of P. hirsuta and vindicates the importance of small experimental trials when planning threatened plant translocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telopea speciosissima, the New South Wales waratah, is an Australian endemic woody shrub in the family Proteaceae. Waratahs have great potential as a model clade to better understand processes of speciation, introgression and adaptation, and are significant from a horticultural perspective. Here, we report the first chromosome‐level genome for T. speciosissima. Combining Oxford Nanopore long‐reads, 10x Genomics Chromium linked‐reads and Hi‐C data, the assembly spans 823 Mb (scaffold N50 of 69.0 Mb) with 97.8% of Embryophyta BUSCOs "Complete". We present a new method in Diploidocus (https://github.com/slimsuite/diploidocus) for classifying, curating and QC‐filtering scaffolds, which combines read depths, k‐mer frequencies and BUSCO predictions. We also present a new tool, DepthSizer (https://github.com/slimsuite/depthsizer), for genome size estimation from the read depth of single‐copy orthologues and estimate the genome size to be approximately 900 Mb. The largest 11 scaffolds contained 94.1% of the assembly, conforming to the expected number of chromosomes (2n = 22). Genome annotation predicted 40,158 protein‐coding genes, 351 rRNAs and 728 tRNAs. We investigated CYCLOIDEA (CYC) genes, which have a role in determination of floral symmetry, and confirm the presence of two copies in the genome. Read depth analysis of 180 "Duplicated" BUSCO genes using a new tool, DepthKopy (https://github.com/slimsuite/depthkopy), suggests almost all are real duplications, increasing confidence in the annotation and highlighting a possible need to revise the BUSCO set for this lineage. The chromosome‐level T. speciosissima reference genome (Tspe_v1) provides an important new genomic resource of Proteaceae to support the conservation of flora in Australia and further afield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grevillea gilmourii Olde and G. milleriana Olde, two species new to science, are described. They are putative members of the Aspleniifolia/Hookeriana Subgroup of the Grevillea Pteridifolia Group. Grevillea gilmourii is separated from G. macleayana (McGill) Olde & Marriott where it had previously been treated as the 'Deua form', a geographically disjunct, divided-leaf variant. The separate formal recognition of G. gilmourii here necessitates a revised delineation of G. macleayana to restrict it to populations with undivided leaves only, incorporating recent clarification to terminology in relation to leaf lobing. Grevillea milleriana is a recent discovery from the Maddens Plains area, south of Sydney. Known from a single plant, its recognition as a biological species rather than as a self-sown hybrid is discussed. All three species are linked morphologically and historically to the Victorian species G. barklyana F.Muell. ex Benth., which remains taxonomically unaltered from recent treatments. For the sake of convenience, all four species (G. barklyana, G. macleayana, G. gilmourii and G. milleriana) are grouped informally into an alliance, the Grevillea barklyana alliance, for which diagnostic characters are outlined and two identification keys are given. Both newly described species have divided leaves and are known from only small populations. Conservation recommendations are provided for both new species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-induced changes to fire regimes result in smaller, more patchy fires in many peri-urban areas, with a concomitant increase in potential edge effects. In sclerophyll vegetation, many structurally dominant serotinous plants rely on the immediate post-fire environment for recruitment. However, there is little information about how fire attributes affect seed predation or recruitment for these species. We examined the influence of distance to unburnt vegetation on post-dispersal seed predation for five serotinous species from sclerophyll vegetation in the Sydney region, south-eastern Australia; Banksia serrata L.f., Banksia spinulosa Sm. var. spinulosa, Hakea gibbosa (Sm.) Cav., Hakea teretifolia (Salisb.) Britten (all Proteaceae) and Allocasuarina distyla (Vent.) L. Johnson (Casuarinaceae). We used cafeteria trials and differential exclusion of vertebrates and invertebrates to test whether rates of seed removal for these five species differed among (i) unburnt, (ii) burnt-edge (approx. 10 m from unburnt vegetation) and (iii) burnt-interior (approx. 100 m from unburnt vegetation) locations. When all animals had access to seeds, seeds were removed at lower rates from burnt-interior areas than from other locations. Vertebrates (small mammals) showed this pattern markedly the first time the experiment was run, but in a repeat trial this effect disappeared. Rate of seed removal by invertebrates differed among plant species but we did not detect any such differences for removal by vertebrates. Overall rates of seed removal also differed significantly between the two fires studied. Our results indicate that small mammal seed predation can be substantial for large-seeded serotinous shrubs, and that differences in the perimeter: area ratio, severity or size of a fire are likely to affect seed predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The larval host plants for Aphanosperma orientalis Britton are recorded for the first time. Adults were reared from both Persoonia levis (Cav.) Domin and Persoonia lanceolata Andrews (Proteaceae) from several locations in southern Sydney. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant breeding systems are seldom studied across the breadth of a species' range. For many systems, this precludes an informed assessment of the evolutionary biology of a species, particularly of the factors that shape fecundity. Grevillea rhizomatosa is a threatened species of shrub known only from a 7 × 8 km area and c. 2000 plants in northern New South Wales, Australia. The species reproduces asexually from rhizomatous suckers, and fruit are only produced in a few populations. Over two flowering seasons, we investigated the extent of sexual reproduction and the mechanisms of infertility in five populations that span the range of the species. Seed were produced in three of the five populations. The breeding system varied among populations from obligate outcrossing to facultative outcrossing to fully sterile. Fruit to flower ratios were below 0.13 in the fertile populations but within the range found in other species of Grevillea. Pollinator limitation was not linked to infertility. Stigmatic opening and receptivity were functional in all populations. Interpopulation crosses using fertile pollen failed to recover fertility in an infertile population. A breakdown in female and male fertility mechanisms was found including a fault in the mechanical release of pollen from anthers, <10% viable pollen, and a post-pollen-deposition event that prevents fertile pollen from effecting seed-set. In the infertile populations pollen was not released from anthers, resulting in flowers projecting barren pollen-presenters. Sexually reproducing populations are threatened by the incursion of asexual forms that may be favored by frequent disturbance from wild-fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grevillea beadleana (Proteaceae) is an endangered species known from five populations in northern New South Wales, Australia. The reproductive ecology of G. beadleana was compared in two populations with a ten‐fold difference in the number of plants. Grevillea beadleana was found to be self‐compatible in both populations and an examination of pollen viability and stigma maturation revealed that the species is protandrous. Flowering within inflorescences is acropetallous. In the first season plants in the largest population produced approx. ten‐fold more inflorescences than those in the smaller population and, although the number of flowers per inflorescence did not vary significantly between populations the first season, the larger population produced more fruit per inflorescence than the smaller population. However, fruit to flower ratios were less than 0·2 in both seasons and populations. In both populations the number of fruit was significantly greater at the proximal end of the inflorescence, where flowers open first, compared with medial and distal positions. Several bird species were observed visiting flowers, although few birds were recorded foraging at plants in the smaller population. Within both populations, birds tended to make more within‐ than between‐plant visits. Self‐compatibility, acropetally and proximal fruit‐set, combined with the predominantly within‐plant movement of honeyeaters, suggests inbreeding may be common within both populations of G. beadleana. Pollination and fruiting success are discussed for G. beadleana and breeding systems among rare and common taxa in Grevillea are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity is a critical determinant of plant species capacity to cope with climate change. A long-standing hypothesis states that greater levels of environmental variability will select for genotypes with greater phenotypic plasticity. However, few studies have examined how genotypes of woody species originating from contrasting environments respond to multiple climate change factors. Here, we investigated the main and interactive effects of elevated [CO2 ] (CE ) and elevated temperature (TE ) on growth and physiology of Coastal (warmer, less variable temperature environment) and Upland (cooler, more variable temperature environment) genotypes of an Australian woody species Telopea speciosissima. Both genotypes were positively responsive to CE (35% and 29% increase in whole-plant dry mass and leaf area, respectively), but only the Coastal genotype exhibited positive growth responses to TE . We found that the Coastal genotype exhibited greater growth response to TE (47% and 85% increase in whole-plant dry mass and leaf area, respectively) when compared with the Upland genotype (no change in dry mass or leaf area). No intraspecific variation in physiological plasticity was detected under CE or TE , and the interactive effects of CE and TE on intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity were also largely absent. Overall, TE was a more effective climate factor than CE in exposing genotypic variation in our woody species. Our results contradict the paradigm that genotypes from more variable climates will exhibit greater phenotypic plasticity in future climate regimes., (© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background and Aims: When species cohesion is maintained despite ongoing natural hybridization, many questions are raised about the evolutionary processes operating in the species complex. This study examined the extensive natural hybridization between the Australian native shrubs Lomatia myricoides and L. silaifolia (Proteaceae). These species exhibit striking differences in morphology and ecological preferences, exceeding those found in most studies of hybridization to date., Methods: Nuclear microsatellite markers (nSSRs), genotyping methods and morphometric analyses were used to uncover patterns of hybridization and the role of gene flow in morphological differentiation between sympatric species., Key Results: The complexity of hybridization patterns differed markedly between sites, however, signals of introgression were present at all sites. One site provided evidence of a large hybrid swarm and the likely presence of multiple hybrid generations and backcrosses, another site a handful of early generational hybrids and a third site only traces of admixture from a past hybridization event. The presence of cryptic hybrids and a pattern of morphological bimodality amongst hybrids often disguised the extent of underlying genetic admixture., Conclusions: Distinct parental habitats and phenotypes are expected to form barriers that contribute to the rapid reversion of hybrid populations to their parental character state, due to limited opportunities for hybrid/intermediate advantage. Furthermore, strong genomic filters may facilitate continued gene flow between species without the danger of assimilation. Stochastic fire events facilitate temporal phenological isolation between species and may partly explain the bi-directional and site-specific patterns of hybridization observed. Furthermore, the findings suggest that F1 hybrids are rare, and backcrosses may occur rapidly following these initial hybridization events.