Strategic Management Prospects v4.0 Species Forecast Report created on 05 February, 2024

A Species Forecast Report is a summary of currently available information, the predicted 50-year outlook for the species, and potential pathways to recovery through species-specific and landscape-scale actions.

The report collates data from a range of sources including the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, Strategic Management Prospects (SMP), Specific Needs Assessments, Threatened Species Action Statements, the Genetic Risk Index, and the IUCN Common Assessment Method.

Species Forecast Reports are intended to be used in conjunction with SMP and other spatial outputs in NatureKit, and Action Statements where relevant.

For more information on Species Forecast Reports, SMP and other biodiversity decision support tools, including user guides, visit Choosing actions for nature webpage on the DEECA website.


Species Overview

Taxon ID 503572
Scientific name Westringia senifolia
Common name Alpine Westringia
Group Dicotyledons
FFG status Endangered
EPBC status
Alpine Westringia (Image Source: Atlas of Living Australia)

Alpine Westringia (Image Source: Atlas of Living Australia)


Species description

Description and life history

Compact to spreading shrub, 0.3-1.3 m high, up to c. 1 m diam.; branches stiff, densely covered with white, spreading hairs; internodes short. Leaves in whorls of 5 or 6, sessile, narrowly elliptic to c. linear, usually with a pointed, upswept apex, 5-10 (-14) mm long, 1-2 mm wide, length-to-width ratio at least 5, surfaces scabrous, margin entire and mostly strongly revolute (such that abaxial surface concealed and lamina appearing almost terete). Flowers densely clustered in distal axils; bracteoles 3.5-4 mm long, almost as long as calyx. Calyx green, often with maroon margin, outer surface densely hairy, tube 2-4 mm long, lobes triangular, 2-4 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, lobe-to-tube ratio c. 1; corolla 8-11 mm long, white, with dull orange spots in throat. Flowers summer (Conn 1999). Lamiaceae taxa are known to be visited by insects (Armstrong 1979). No information was found about bird pollination in this taxon, and it does not appear to have any mechanisms for long-distance dispersal.

Distribution

The taxon is endemic in Victoria. It is locally common on high rocky mountains (e.g. Mt Buffalo, The Razor, Mt Wellington), with a disjunct occurrence at low altitude (c. 800 m) on western slopes of Mt Donna Buang.

Habitat

The taxon usually occurs on shallow soils amongst rock in exposed shrubland communities or in Eucalyptus pauciflora woodlands (Conn 1999). Vegetation of this rocky habitat is assumed to be drought-tolerant (McDougall and Walsh 2007).

Genetic Risk Index

No genetic risk information is currently available.


Species maps

Habitat Distribution Model

The Habitat Distribution Model (HDM) layer shows the modelled distribution of habitat for Alpine Westringia in Victoria. Red shading indicates areas of habitat with relatively higher suitability, compared with yellow shaded areas. HDMs are developed by combining Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA) occurrence records for the species with a range of environmental variables to predict where the most suitable habitat for the species is in Victoria. Species may not always occupy areas of suitable habitat. Threatening processes (prior or ongoing) and disturbance regimes (e.g. fire, timber harvesting) may stop species from occupying otherwise suitable habitat for periods of time. Management actions often focus on currently occupied areas, however management of unoccupied areas can also be important to allow populations to re-establish.

No Habitat Distrabution Model is currently available.


Species Forecast

No Species Forecast data is available because Alpine Westringia is not yet included in our decision-support tools.

About Species Forecast

A Species Forecast is the estimated likelihood of a species being present in 50 years time. The data for Species Forecasts is drawn from DEECA’s decision support tools, Strategic Management Prospects and Specific Needs Assessments.

Many species benefit from the management of widespread threats, such as weeds and pests, and the benefit of these landscape-scale actions to ~4,200 species is modelled in Strategic Management Prospects. In addition to landscape-scale actions, some species also need actions that improve or protect habitat at certain sites, such as nest boxes or hollow logs, or actions to improve certain populations, such as gene mixing or translocation.

As part of a continuous improvement program for our decision-support tools, we are working to expand the scope of actions modelled in Strategic Management Prospects, and to build the dataset of species benefits from location-specific and population-specific actions.

We can use this data to consider how different actions may benefit a species and examine how different types of on-ground management may contribute to a species’ recovery in 50 years, to develop a Species Forecast.


Potential actions for species recovery

No Species Forecast data is available because Alpine Westringia is not yet included in our decision-support tools.


Species prospects in SMP

The benefit data in SMP can be used to consider what the Alpine Westringia’s prospects are if the landscape scale management actions in SMP are implemented.

No Species Prospects figure is available becuase Alpine Westringia is not yet included in SMP.


How to get further information and provide feedback

For more information on the decision support tools, products and underlying data used in this report, and how the data is collected and developed into products, please visit the following links:

These links include information on how to provide data and feedback into these products.

The Species Forecast Reports will be updated periodically to reflect changes and improvements in the products and tools that inform them (e.g., following updates to SMP).

As the data contained in Species Forecast Reports is drawn from multi-species datasets, it is not currently possible to incorporate species-specific information or feedback directly.

For help or further information get in touch by visiting Choosing actions for nature webpage on the DEECA website.


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