Arundinella thwaitesii

The main threats to the native flora in this ecoregion are from land clearing for plantations, agriculture, and illegal logging, even within protected areas. Most of the natural habitat has already been cleared for large-scale tea plantations, but the few remaining patches are still being cleared for other agricultural crops. Mining for precious stones has devastated large areas of forests (Wikramanayake and Gunatilleke 2001). However, it is not known whether these threats are affecting this species' population. Because many of the endemic species have specialized habitat needs and small spatial needs, even small habitat fragments can provide viable habitat (Wikramanayake and Gunatilleke 2001).

This species has been collected within Peak Wilderness Sanctuary and Forest Reserve. Field surveys should be conducted in historical sites of collection and potentially suitable habitats to determine the current range and population size of this grass and clarify its conservation status. The annual habit may partially explain why this species is known from so few collections. Seeds from different subpopulations (if found) should be collected for germplasm conservation. Species in the genus are reported to be very variable, depending upon the habitats in which they are found. Species have been established when they were actually only habitat forms (Bor 1955). In 1955, Bor, the last to revise the genus noted that more material from South India and Sri Lanka was needed to confirm the status of some species. The entire genus should be critically revised at the species level in spite of the great improvements in understandings due to Keng and Bor (Phipps 1967).