Species profile—Sophora fraseri (brush sophora)
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Sophora fraseri (brush sophora)
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Sophora fraseri Benth.
- Common name
- brush sophora
- WildNet taxon ID
- 10791
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Sophora fraseri is a softly pubescent, sparsely branched leguminous shrub, growing 1 to 2 m high. The leaves are pinnate and are 6 to 15 cm long with a petiole 10 to 20mm long. The leaves have 21 to 35 oblong to ovate leaflets 5 to 25 mm long by 3 to 10 mm wide, with entire margins, petiolules 1 to 2 mm long, with an obtuse or retuse apex. The flowers occur in terminal racemes, 5 to 13 cm long, with 5 to 10 mm long pedicels. The calyx is 4 to 6 mm long, the corolla is pale yellow and 9 to 15mm long. The pod is moniliform, indehiscent, 3 to 10 cm long, up to 8 mm in diameter, sparsely hairy, irregularly constricted between the seeds. There are 2 to 7 seeds, approximately 6mm long (Stanley and Ross, 1983; Harden, 2002).
Sophora fraseri is a fairly distinctive species with its pinnate leaves with numerous leaflets, yellow flowers, plump seeds and pods which are very constricted between the seeds, giving the appearance of a string of beads (QCRA/RFA, 2008). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Sophora fraseri is restricted to south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales where it occurs from the Casino area north to near Miriam Vale. Most collections are from the Conondale, D'Aguilar and Taylor Ranges, and the Great Dividing Range south of Toowoomba in southeast Queensland. Sophora fraseri is conserved in Lamington National Park (NP), Mount Mistake NP, D'Aguilar Range NP, Toonumbar NP and Conondale NP. The species is also located in Moggill State Forest, Degalgil SF and Dundas SF (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -24.4234203, 151.1916233
-28.2929723, 153.2747092 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Sophora fraseri is a subtropical shrub, that normally grows in wet sclerophyll forest and a range of rainforest types. It has been reported growing in hilly terrain on hillslopes at altitudes at altitudes from 60 to 660m, mostly shallow stony to shaly soils, of loam to clay texture derived from sandstone or basalt rocks. Associated species include: Corymbia citriodora, Eucalyptus carnea, E. microcorys, E. acmenoides, E. propinqua and Lophostemon confertus. The shrub appears to prefer growing along rainforest margins, in eucalypt forests in the vicinity of rainforests or in large canopy gaps in closed forest communities (Barker and Borsboom, 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Behaviour
- Appear to survive fire and regenerate from seed after fire.
- Reproduction
- Flowering of Sophora fraseri has been recorded in April and from late August to mid November. Fruiting has been recorded in January, April, July-August and November (Barker and Borsboom, 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- The main identified threats to Sophora fraseri are loss of habitat through clearing for agriculture and development; timber harvesting activities; weed infestation, such as Lantana (Lantana camara); grazing by livestock; inappropriate fire regimes as too frequent fire depletes the soil seed banks; and localised extinction of small populations (Forster et al. 1991; Barker and Borsboom, 1997).
- Status notes
- Sophora fraseri is listed as Vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and the Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 2006
- Management documents
- Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (2012). Sophora fraseri in Species Profile and Threats Database,
Biosecurity Queensland on behalf of the National Lantana Management Group (2010). Plan to Protect Environmental Assets from lantana. Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, Yeerongpilly, Queensland. - Management recommendations
- Management recommendations for the protection of S. fraseri and its habitat include: support local Landcare groups and bush regeneration teams, protect areas of habitat from frequent fire, protect areas of habitat during timber harvesting activities, control weeds in and near habitat, protect known and potential habitat from clearing and development and report new records of the species to the DEC (QCRA/RFA, 1998; DECC, 2005).
Other management recommendations include: the establishment of a protective buffer (0.25 ha) that excludes clearing with all S. fraseri at least 25 m inside; the control or eradication of Lantana camara on sites where S. fraseri occurs; evaluate the impact of timber harvesting and other operations; on non-rainforest sites where this species occurs, the interval between prescribed burns is to be variable and of at least 8 years (Barker and Borsboom, 1997; DSEWPC, 2012). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Burnett, Darling Downs, Moreton, Port Curtis, Wide Bay. Also occurs in the following regions: New South Wales.
- References
- Barker, M. and Borsboom, A. (1997). Sophora fraseri Species Management Profile. Department of Environment and Resource Management:.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Sophora fraseri in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 22/02/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Forster, P.I., Bostock, P.D., Bird, L.H. and Bean, A.R. (1991). Vineforest Plant Atlas for South-East Queensland, p. A375. Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage.
Harden, G.J. (ed.) (2002). Flora of New South Wales Volume 2 Revised Edition. UNSW, Sydney.
NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) (2005). Brush Sophora - Profile. Accessed 23/02/2012. http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10764.
Queensland CRA/RFA Steering Committee (QCRA/FRA) (1998). Survey of Threatened Plant Species in South East Queensland Biogeographical Region. Queensland Government and Commonwealth of Australia. [Online]. http://www.daff.gov.au/rfa/regions/qld/environment/threatened-plant.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 11/01/2012.
Stanley, T.D. and Ross, E.M. (1983). Flora of south-eastern Queensland, vol. 1, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (21/02/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=10791.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
