When Gerard Nicol took his dog for a walk one winter afternoon, he didn't expect to stumble upon a plant that would have horticulturists across the country giddy with excitement.
Key points:
- A new colour variant of the plant Banksia spinulosa has been found near Braidwood, NSW
- There is a theory the purple colour may have been caused by conditions during Black Summer
- Horticulturalists are waiting to see if cuttings of the plant will produce purple flowers
His Bombay property outside Braidwood in southern NSW is covered with thousands of Banksia spinulosa, commonly known as hairpin banksia, all orange, yellow or red.
But just a few steps off the dirt trail, Mr Nicol saw a small shrub covered in flowers with bright purple flowers.
"When you saw it amongst all the other Banksia spinulosa, you knew it was different," Mr Nicol said.
"I knew it was something special.
"No one's ever seen the purple before. Within a species which has a huge amount of variance, this is probably the most extreme variant."
He posted a photo of the specimen in an online horticultural forum and was amazed at the response.
"It kind of went viral for a banksia," he said.
A game of patience
Jay Cook is nursery manager at IndigiGrow — a Sydney-based social enterprise encouraging the propagation and uptake of native species.
When the Bidjigal man stumbled upon Mr Nicol's online post about the plant, his first thought was, "When are we going to go get it?".
"To be able to see a purple one of this magnitude is actually amazing," he said.
"It's one in a billion. I've never seen anything like it.
"No one else has this banksia, only Gerard."
Mr Cook travelled with a team of six IndigiGrow staff to Mr Nicol's property and collected 21 cuttings of the rare plant. He said having 10 take root in the next month would be a success.
Even then, there is no guarantee the flowers on the cuttings will be the same rich purple colour as Mr Nicol's plant.
"It's a massive patience game," Mr Cook said.
"We have to wait for it to flower. That's probably a year down the track after they take root. It could even be two years. It's quite tricky. It gets you quite antsy, but it's also exciting to see.
"If they come out purple like we hope they do, it'll be a game changer."
Potential link to Black Summer
Registered and accredited specialist horticulturalist Brent Whiter was excited when he first saw photos of Mr Nicol's plant.
"It's an incredible looking flower. I've not seen it before," he said.
"This is distinctly different … it's very unusual.
"I don't know whether this is the only one out there."
Mr Whiter said the cause for the variant was hard to define, but it could have been the smoke, heat or altered chemical composition of the soil after the Black Summer bushfires, or even the sun's radiation.
He said the identification of a new plant "definitely doesn't happen every day".
"This will be very popular among horticulturalists," he said.