Extinct 'mountain jewel' plant returned to wild - in secret location
A plant that went extinct in the wild has been re-introduced to the UK mainland. We were there the moment pioneering horticulturist Robbie Blackhall-Miles returned it to its native soil.
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I first met Robbie at his nursery for threatened plants - tucked away in a quiet part of North Wales.
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.
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The last time the rosy saxifrage was seen in the wild in the UK was in 1962, somewhere in the Cwm Idwal nature reserve in Eryri.
It is part of a family of mountain plants that thrived when northern Britain was frozen over during the Ice Age. When the glaciers melted, the saxifrages stayed, thriving in the mountain environment.
But their delicate appearance and beautiful flowers eventually made them a magnet for plant collectors - particularly Victorians who picked them for private collections.
The next part of the story has the quality of folklore - in 1962 a teacher and conservationist called Dick Roberts was in Cwm Idawl on a school trip.
He picked up a piece of a plant that had washed down a path, and put it in his pocket. Unsure of what it was, he took it home and grew it in his garden.
...
Some scientists talk about "plant blindness" - the idea that people don't see plants around them as important living things - instead, they're more like wallpaper in our natural environment, despite everything they do for our eco-systems and their role in producing medicine.
...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjkkm4re518o
A plant that went extinct in the wild has been re-introduced to the UK mainland. 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.
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.
...
The last time the rosy saxifrage was seen in the wild in the UK was in 1962, somewhere in the Cwm Idwal nature reserve in Eryri.
It is part of a family of mountain plants that thrived when northern Britain was frozen over during the Ice Age. When the glaciers melted, the saxifrages stayed, thriving in the mountain environment.
But their delicate appearance and beautiful flowers eventually made them a magnet for plant collectors - particularly Victorians who picked them for private collections.
The next part of the story has the quality of folklore - in 1962 a teacher and conservationist called Dick Roberts was in Cwm Idawl on a school trip.
He picked up a piece of a plant that had washed down a path, and put it in his pocket. Unsure of what it was, he took it home and grew it in his garden.
...
Some scientists talk about "plant blindness" - the idea that people don't see plants around them as important living things - instead, they're more like wallpaper in our natural environment, despite everything they do for our eco-systems and their role in producing medicine.
...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjkkm4re518o