Primary Industries and Rural Communities Minister of Queensland Australia, Henry Palaszczuk today inspected five new rainforest species being developed as new cut foliage products at the Department of Primary Industries in far northern tropical town of Mareeba.

The species are being investigated as part of a project, `Development of North Queensland Foliage Species and Industry’, which began in 2000.

“Queensland’s lifestyle horticulture industry is now worth over $1 billion a year to the Queensland economy and cut flowers form a vital component of the industry,” Mr Palaszczuk said.

“The five new rainforest species have widespread appeal both here at home and possibly overseas.  Most particularly these species are ideal as greenery in floral arrangements,” Mr Palaszczuk said.

The project to develop the new species was conducted jointly by the Department of Primary Industries in conjunction with a commercial partner, Yuruga Nurseries, based on the Atherton Tablelands, and the Australian Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

Mr Palaszczuk commended researchers at the DPI Mareeba for their achievements in developing the new species, which includes three species native to north Queensland: Athertonia diversifolia; Grevillea baileyana; and Lomatia fraxinifolia.

The remaining two rainforest varieties have been developed by Yuruga Nursery and are hybrid plants: Stenocarpus Forest Gem and Stenocarpus Forest Lace.

“Using feedback from domestic and export agents, field trial and vase life results, five rainforest species were chosen for further development and potential commercialisation,” Mr Palaszczuk said.

“Now that the species have been subject to preliminary evaluation, the DPI is focussing on the commercialisation and marketing of these species.”

The Queensland Government allocated $250,000 in the 2003-04 State Budget to support the establishment of the Tropical Biosciences Centre at Mareeba.