2012
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Summary
Small purple-pea is a slender, rigidly erect sparsely hairy perennial forb in the family Fabaceae. It was relatively widespread in south-eastern Australia with a range extending from north-eastern Victoria northwards along the western slopes of New South Wales to near Gulgargambone. Currently there are about 9,500 plants remaining across a total of 26 sites in NSW, the ACT and Victoria.
The first recovery plan for this species was produced in 1995 although it was not formally adopted as a national plan or in any of the range jurisdictions. At that time a total of about 1600 plants were known from nine sites. Over the 15 years that plan has been implemented the total population known in 1995 has increased to approximately 3,490 naturally occurring plants. This increase has occurred in both NSW and the ACT. However, most of the increase is attributable to a post burn flowering response in the Tralee-Williamsdale railway easement population which enabled the detection of many plants that were previously existing in a suppressed state. Many of the smaller populations have actually decreased in size and two have become extinct since 1995. Eighteen additional sites totalling 6,015 plants have been discovered since 1995, taking the total current population to about 9,500 plants.
This current edition of the Recovery Plan includes an updated set of recovery actions that have been identified through a review of the current priority needs for the species.