- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
A plant that went extinct in the wild has been re-introduced to the UK mainland. We can’t tell you the exact location - it’s a secret, to keep it safe. It’s just one small plant but with one in six species in the UK endangered, you’ve got to start somewhere. We were there the moment pioneering horticulturist Robbie Blackhall-Miles returned it to its native soil.
I first met Robbie at his nursery for threatened plants - tucked away in a quiet part of North Wales.
What he keeps there is so valuable, he can’t even get it insured.
He asks me to be careful how much we reveal - there is still a lucrative market for rare and special plants, often picked illegally, often fetching thousands of pounds.
“There’s only 30 of those trees left in the world,” he says, pointing at a pot.
Meaning all currently known rosy saxifrage is genetically identical to that tiny plant that Dick fellow found by chance.
If he hadn’t, it would be completely extinct. Though it is always possible more still exist in the wild, and we just haven’t found any.