Nanaimo’s MP is speaking up amid concerns that the habitat of the city’s official flower is at risk.

There’s a an application to build a subdivision on land in Harewood Plains, a site that the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust describes as home to critically imperiled ecological communities including Garry Oak woodlands and vernal Pools.

The area is also where you’ll find most of the Hosackia pinnata that exists in Canada.

Also known as bog bird’s foot trefoil, and formerly Lotus pinnatus, it’s been Nanaimo’s official flower since 2010.

It’s also endangered under the federal species at risk act.

The development application was submitted in June and is currently under review by the city of Nanaimo.

Recently MP Lisa Marie Barron wrote a letter to Canada’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, supporting the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust’s request for an emergency order to defer development on the site until instruments are in place to protect the at risk species.