Senecio megaglossus - superb groundsel

It's the late 90s, and after centuries of colonising most of the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges, the last few remaining plants of this golden native daisy are hanging on to life in a conservation area far out beyond Port Augusta.  No records exist of them surviving elsewhere.

It's 2023, and explorers from South Australian Seed Conservation Centre lace up their boots and follow a meagre forty-year-old scientific footnote to a remote site one hundred kilometres south, where another thirty-four plants are discovered on a rocky sunbacked cliffside.

These plants are so rare, every single one is counted.
Seeds are harvested - carefully - and propagated at Adelaide Botanic Garden, into one hundred healthy plants.

It's 2025, and rain has finally fallen in the parched Marne River valley. One hundred superb groundsels are planted in their new home, into rich loamy soil and under the watchful eye of local river red gums.

There's now over six thousand plants at the original location.

And new plants are grown, so this rare and lovely golden daisy can thrive for future generations to protect and enjoy.