Plants rediscovered

Let's now take a look at several plant species that were considered extinct until recently. Undoubtedly, the most famous rediscovered plant is the Chinese redwood (Metasequoia glyptostoboides ). Until recently, this plant was thought to have died out around 20 million years ago. The plant was discovered, quite by accident, in 1944 by Chinese forester Tsang Wang while hiking in Sichuan Province, China. Intrigued by the discovery of an unfamiliar plant, Tsang took several twigs to the Chinese Department of Forestry in the Ministry of Agriculture in Nanjing. The samples were then given to Professor Wan Chun Cheng of National Central University. The plant was soon identified as the Chinese redwood and officially removed from the list of extinct species.

A miraculous resurrection can also be said to have occurred in the case of the silver fir ( Cathaya argyrophylla ). Professor Zhong Jixin, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangxi, learned of this plant in the 1950s from an old man from the remote village of Wantian in Guizhou Province. He revealed to the scientist that in the mountains, about 50 kilometers away, there was a peak covered with ancient trees. During the expedition, one of Professor Zhong's colleagues unearthed a young tree, which he "eyeballed" as a specimen of Keteleeria fortunei . Upon examination, however, it turned out that the tree was very different from that species, and botanists were unable to identify it. In May 1955, Professor Zhong collected further samples from the southern slope of Mount Hongya. This time, botanists had a basis for recognizing this species as a distinct species. Shortly thereafter, a Russian botanist named Sugatchey visited China. Upon examining the samples, he concluded that they bore a strong resemblance to a tree thought to have died out 10 million years ago, whose fossils have been found in several locations in Europe. The tree growing on Mount Hongya was soon identified as the Cathayan silver fir, and it was removed from the list of species considered extinct.

In March 1996, two palm experts, Tobias Spanner and Martin Gibbons, announced the rediscovery of a palm, the Medemia (Hyphaene) argun , thought to be extinct and traditionally placed in tombs in ancient Egypt. The researchers found the plant thanks to an old man they met in Khartoum, who led them to an ancient, abandoned city called Murrat Wells. Seeds of the precious tree were donated to several botanical centers around the world in hopes of reviving the species.

An even more famous discovery was made in 1994 by forest ranger David Noble in a remote valley of Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. He came across a grove of trees of a previously unknown species. The pines growing there had dense, waxy needles and rough, chocolate-colored bark. They reached heights of approximately 40 meters. Access to these pines in the valley is extremely difficult, which is why they remained undiscovered for a long time. Botanists called to the site were astonished – it turned out that the pines were closely related to a tree called Dilwynites , which became extinct 150 million years ago. The pines found in the grove are now known as Wollemia noble.

Man-eating tree. Source: Wikimedia, public domain