Fire to help save endangered WA wattle

Burn offs have been used in Western Australia to encourage dormant seeds of the critically endangered spiral-fruited wattle to germinate and grow new plants.

Scientist Leonie Monks said a translocation program for the plant, which has golden flowers in June and July and grows in a dense mat up to 4.5 metres in diameter, has been underway since 1998.

Before that, there were only 51 plants in the wild.

But there are now three new populations of spiral-fruited wattle, with a total of 830 seedlings in two reserves 200km north of Perth.

"For the translocations to be considered successful, the plants have to reproduce and create a stable, viable population. Fire is a key factor in breaking seed dormancy of wattles," Ms Monks said.