2004-10-21
James Cook

A long hunt located a plant thought extinct, writes Stephen Cauchi.

Ashley Field had been hunting for two years without any luck. But in January, while tramping through rainforest in pouring rain and waist-deep in water, he looked up into the rainforest canopy and almost fell over in amazement. There it was: a blue tassel fern, last seen 26 years ago and feared extinct. No longer.

"I knew what it was straight away," he told The Age. "I was ecstatic. I was wobbly at the knees, we had just about lost heart when we came across it."

The blue tassel fern (Huperzia dalhousieana), which could help cure Alzheimer's patients, was thought to be a victim of rainforest clearing. Mr Field, a James Cook University PhD student, had made it his mission to find it.

Mr Field, 22, was walking with his wife at the time. "We'd just about given up hope of finding it because the leads that we'd followed until that date had proved to be other species of tassel ferns," he said.

Mr Field said there were nine species of tassel ferns in north Queensland, all of which were threatened, and hundreds throughout the world. But the blue tassel fern was a favourite among plant enthusiasts. For that reason, he had kept quiet about the discovery in case others found the site and removed them.

"It is an iconic species for plant enthusiasts in north Queensland . . . many people know about it, it's quite famous," he said. "But very few people have seen it either in the wild or in cultivation... part of the reason is that it is quite distinct and a much larger plant than some of the other tassel ferns, which are already grown as ornamental plants." He said the fern had not been recorded for a quarter of a century.

"Having said that, there are people who probably knew where it was in that time but had the foresight to keep its whereabouts a secret."

He said that in China, other tassel fern species were cultivated to extract the compound huperzine, which is used to treat Alzheimer's disease. Pharmaceutical companies had contacted him about producing the drug from Queensland tassel ferns. "There's potential that all of them could produce huperzine of some sort but it just has not been investigated," he said.

Mr Field said cultivating the fern in the wild and possibly in nurseries was the focus of his research. Its location remains a secret. He said he also planned to study the DNA of Queensland's tassel ferns to determine their varieties and links with species overseas.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/20/1097951768172.html?from=storylhs#