Remember we are always finding new things, rediscovery is discovery, never feel bored looking the same habitat over again and again, it’s possible to miss something.
Localized extirpation, full extinction, extinction in the wild, and potential rediscovery and discovery... Shorts goldenrod redescovered juxtaposed with Ohio River Scurfpea, Kankakee globe flower rediscovered in two populations that both were caused by accidental fire, Utah astragalis growing in a small pit of desert rediscovered after developement abandoned, genetic work to re-invigorate Franklandia tree and Kentucky clover being done by Smithsonian and CREW.
We can look at potential future extinctions and try to preserve what may be inevitable through exsitu conservation. Paxistima canbyi is a plant I want to study before this happens. It would be nice to try to preserve it.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/08/20/save-rare-plant-species-extinction
We here a lot of stories about rediscovery and preservation, genetic modification, and even just plain discovery and it never stops amazing me.
Chestnut trees are being modified by a single gene from one species in poaceae and are almost back on the market.
We forget that Ginkgo was thought to be extinct in the wild in previous history only preserved along temples and royal palace roadways until rediscovery.
i’ve been still talking about ragweed thickets and specifically riparian broom rape and forms of local ecosystem adaptation.
just got off of a pleasant instagram call with my friend Bonnie talking about ecotones and talking about thicket forbes and grasses and how much leaf litter can be produced and species that co evolve to parasitize or become mycoheterotrophic species; With the idea of riparian broom rape we can talk about the potential of what has been lost from development and what had no chance to be studied.
No one studies canebrakes, no one looks deep in them; but they are full of mice and canebrake rattlesnakes, snake diversity in general, and probably had unique beetles and millipedes that were adapted to them. We don’t have many river side canebrakes left and might really only have canebrakes that are inland to the extent we need. There is always potential to find unique fungus and plants that coevolved in these habitats too.
One thing led to another and we started talking about one plant that I had never heard of and was sent a small blog blerb from someone who used to post on here a lot in the later days in between his masters and starting his PHD. Also check out his podcasts and youtube channel too if you can.
@indefenseofplants Matt made a post about a wet prairie species that went unnoticed, then noticed, and became a transient memory in a few herbariums in a brief amount of time. He talks briefly about what is known of original site history, and gives a bit of note to the possibility of sites still having it; just it not being seen.
Probably one of the coolest plants that I wish we could rediscover:
https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/3/12/an-extinction-in-chicago
