A new population of a critically endangered aquatic carnivorous plants has been found in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region after a long search, with the ecstatic researchers calling it a dream come true.
Curtin University research fellow Adam Cross and honours student Thilo Krueger have combed swamps and billabongs throughout northern Australia for rare species like Aldrovanda vesiculosa for almost a decade.
When they recently discovered thousands of the plants on Theda pastoral station east of the Mitchell Plateau, Dr Cross said he couldn't believe his eyes.
It is the first time the species, which captures and digests small insect prey using snapping traps, has been found in the Kimberley for more than 20 years.
The only other known population in WA is more than 2000 kilometres away near Esperance, where a population of only a few dozen plants was found in 2007.
"This discovery gives us hope that northern Australia is still a stronghold for the species in the face of its continuing global decline," Dr Cross said.
The species was once widespread around the world, but habitat loss and water quality changes have led to it becoming extinct in up to 30 countries, Mr Krueger said.
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