Freycinetia baueriana

When Europeans first discovered Norfolk Island in 1774, the entire island was covered in subtropical rainforest (Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg 1998). By the mid 19th century most of the vegetation on the island had been cleared for agriculture (Mills 2009) and today less than 10% of the original forest remains, mainly in the Mount Pitt section of the Norfolk Island National Park (DNP 2008). Most of the land outside the park is now residential or agricultural, particularly as cattle pasture (Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg 1998), with only a few small nature reserves (DNP 2010). Some areas of the native forest within the national park contain invasive introduced weeds, for example Red Guava Psidium cattleianum and African Olive Olea europaea (Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg 1998, DNP 2010) but there has been some weed removal (Mills 2009). Norfolk Islands is an Important Bird Area (IBA) and in 2014 Birdlife International assessed the IBA as "in danger" due to the very high threat of invasive flora and fauna (BirdLife International 2016). Extreme weather events like cyclones are a potential threat and could result in damage to the native forests (DNP 2010).

The flowers and fruits of the Mountain Rush are eaten by introduced rats which were widespread in the national park area (Turner et al. 1968). Rat control now takes place in the park but there are still some present and although the Mountain Rush flowers are reported to be "readily seen" (Coyne 2011), flowers and fruits continue to be eaten by rats (K.Mills pers. comm. 2016). Studies in New Zealand islands have shown than rats can reduce tree recruitment rates (Campbell and Atkinson 2002) and is suspected that the rats in the Norfolk Islands have a similar effect on the recruitment of the Mountain Rush. The leaves of this species are used by local people for weaving but it is not known in what quantities leaves are used and if this has an impact on the population, therefore monitoring of harvesting is required.

The Mountain Rush is mainly found within the Mount Pitts section of the Norfolk Island National Park which was established in 1986 and covers 460 hectares (DNP 2008). The park has an active management plan for 2008–2018 outlining key activities including natural heritage and visitor management (DNP 2008). The species is also found in the Ball Bay public reserve, but there is very little native vegetation remaining and problems with introduced woody weeds and rats (NIPFS 2003). There are no known ex situ collections of the Mountain Rush (BGCI 2016) and ex situ conservation is recommended.

The Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 lists 46 Norfolk Island plant species as threatened and there is a threatened species recovery plan with management actions outlined for all threatened flora and fauna from the island (DNP 2010). The Mountain Rush is listed in the recovery plan as not threatened (DNP 2010), although it is suggested that this should be reviewed (Mills 2016). The Norfolk Island Administration are actively working to protect threatened species alongside local local people and landowners with activities including weed control, propagation and planting of native trees (Mills 2009, DNP 2010). Extra funding has been provided by the Australian government in 2014 to enhance the rat baiting program in the national park to help threatened parrot species (DE 2014) but this could also benefit plant species like the Mountain Rush. Further research is required to study the population size and the effect of rats on the recruitment of this species.