Conservation
Branchlet tip, the leaves reduced to scale like structures
When first described, the single known population of Carmichaelia muritai consisted of 28 plants growing on an unstable cliff. It was initially assessed as Endangered (Cameron et al, 1993).
The population has been augmented by nursery-grown plants, but by 1998 only 12 plants were said to be extant and its IUCN threat category was up-rated to critically endangered (CR) (Oates and de Lange, 1998).
The 2006 IUCN red-list maintains this category, but suggests the record needs updating.
The site has been gazetted as a Scientific Reserve with restricted public access.
Active conservation management is now considered essential for the species long-term survival.
Options include removal of introduced grasses from the site. Given the species restriction to one small (albeit protected) site, the likelihood of stochastic factors (for example landslips or fire) causing the species extinction is high and the creation of novel populations in the Marlborough area should be considered.
