Brachyscome muelleri

Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.

Least concern

Near threatened

Rare

Vulnerable

Endangered

Critically endangered

Extinct

Data deficient

Adelaide

Arkaroola

Ceduna

Coober Pedy

Hawker

Innamincka

Marla

Marree

Mount Gambier

Oodnadatta

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Keith

Yunta

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Brachyscome from the Greek 'brachys' meaning short and 'kome 'meaning hair, referring to the tuft of short bristles or hairs of the pappus. Muelleri named in honour of Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-1896), botanist, plant collector and Government Botanist of Victoria.

Endemic to South Australia and known from only one location at Baxter Hills near Iron Knob, growing in loam on moist, shaded cliff slopes. The type specimen was collected by Ferdinand Mueller in 1851 near the Para River in the vicinity of Gawler with another collection gathered from Paskeville by Ernest Beythein. Native. Very rare in South Australia.
Herbarium region: Eyre Peninsula
NRM region: South Australian Arid Lands
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

An annual herb to 20 cm high with hair-less flowering stems arising from a basal rosette of leaves. Basal leaves are deeply serrated. Flowers are white daisies appearing between August and September. Fruits are small brown-black daisy heads with numerous exposed seeds. Seeds are small black convex seed to 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide. Seed embryo type is spatulate fully developed.

Collect seeds between September and December. Pick mature seed-heads by hand, when seeds have turned black. Place the heads in a tray and leave to dry for a week. Then rub the heads gently with your hands to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. Seed viability is high for this species. This species has physiological dormancy that needs to be overcome for the seed to germinate.

In 2020-2021 this species was assessed post-fire in 1 year old fire scars. A total of 45,000 seeds have been collected from seed orcharding & banked in 2020. Germination screening testing the response to fire cues will be undertaken in 2021.This project was supported by the World Wildlife Fund program.

Location	No. of seeds (weight grams)	Number of plants	Date collected	Collection number Collection location	Date stored	% Viability	Storage temperature
BGA MSB	14,800 (2 g) 3,600 (0.55 g)		16-Sep-2006	PJA99 Eyre Peninsula	1-Aug-2007	95%	+5°C, -18°C
BGA	13,200 (1.78 g)	200+	28-Sep-2010	PJA203 Eyre Peninsula	1-Jan-2012	95%	+5°C, -18°C
BGA	200 (0.03 g)		22-Sep-2009	Corunna Eyre Peninsula	1-Jan-2012	90%	-18°C
BGA	1,400 (0.19 g)	179	1-Dec-2004	PJA83 Eyre Peninsula	2-May-2017	75%	-18°C
BGA	5,900 (0.91 g)	50	10-Jan-2019	TST1409 Eyre Peninsula	24-Apr-2019	100%	-18°C
BGA	3,500 (0.43 g)		20-Jan-2009	Glasshouse Eyre Peninsula	1-May-2019		-18°C
BGA	450,000 (70.28 g)	150	14-Oct-2019	TST1409 Eyre Peninsula	24-Jun-2020	85%	-18°C, -80°C

Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.

Date	Result	T0	T50	Pre-treatment \| Germination medium \| Incubator: Photoperiod / Thermoperiod
Aug-10	41%	14	NA	1% agar with 10% smoke water; Incubated under winter conditions
Aug-10	40%	14	NA	1% agar; Incubated under winter conditions
Aug-10	38%	14	NA	1% agar with 100 mg/L potassium nitrate; Incubated under winter conditions
Aug-10	33%	7	NA	1% agar with 250 mg/L gibberellic acid; Incubated under spring/autumn conditions
Aug-10	33%	7	NA	1% agar with 250 mg/L gibberellic acid; Incubated under summer conditions
Aug-10	30%	7	NA	1% agar with 250 mg/L gibberellic acid; Incubated under winter conditions
Aug-10	26%	7	NA	1% agar with 100 mg/L potassium nitrate; Incubated under spring/autumn conditions
Aug-10	22%	7	NA	1% agar with 10% smoke water; Incubated under spring/autumn conditions
Aug-10	18%	7	NA	1% agar; Incubated under spring/autumn conditions
Aug-10	14%	7	NA	1% agar with 100 mg/L potassium nitrate; Incubated under summer conditions
Jan-09	7%	35	NA	1% agar with 250 mg/L gibberellic acid; Incubated under winter conditions
Jan-09	7%	14	NA	1% agar; Incubated under winter conditions
Aug-10	6%	7	NA	1% agar; Incubated under summer conditions
Aug-10	2%	7	NA	1% agar with 10% smoke water; Incubated under summer conditions

Result: Maximum percentage of germination observed.
T0: Number of days before first germinant observed.
T50: Number of days to achieve 50% germination.
Pre-treatment: The initial treatment that the seeds received prior to placement on germination media.
Germination medium: The substrate that seeds were placed on for the duration of the germination experiment.
Incubator conditions:
Photoperiod: The duration of light exposure that the seeds were subject to during a 24 hour period.
Thermoperiod: The constant or diurnal temperatures that seeds were subject to during a 24 hour period.
Winter conditions: 15°C 20 h (3am→11pm); 5°C 4 h (11pm→3am) / 10 h light (8am→6pm); 14 h dark (6pm→8am)
Spring/Autumn conditions: 22°C 12 h (8am→8pm); 10°C 12 h (8pm→8am) / 12 h light (8am→8pm); 12 h dark (8pm→8am)
Summer conditions: 30°C 14 h (6am→8pm); 15°C 10 h (8pm→6am) / 14 h light (6am→8pm); 10 h dark (8pm→6am)

Myall Plains (GAW01)	Gawler	Critically Endangered (IUCN: CR C1+2a(i,ii)) (Definite Decline) [needs winter rainfall]
Gawler Volcanics (GAW02)		Critically Endangered (IUCN: CR C1+2a(i,ii)) (Definite Decline) [needs winter rainfall]