Tuesday, March 30, 2010

'Extinct' plant flowers, in Dublin’s National Botanical Gardens

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This is a story I have just come across, posted on the RHS website. Apparently just a few minutes drive from where I am sitting, in the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin, an abutilon thought extinct until just a few years ago has produced multiple flowers for the first time.


Abutilon pitcairnense, found only on the small island of Pitcairn near French Polynesia in the South Pacific, was presumed extinct until 2002, when the chance discovery of a single remaining plant by local nursery-owner Carol Warren led to intensive efforts to save it.

The first cuttings, brought back to Ireland by botanist Dr Noeleen Smyth, rooted and produced a single flower in 2005 but were unable to set seed. Now, after several years of bulking up from further cuttings, more than 20 of the plants have burst into flower simultaneously.
"We want to build the most genetically diverse population possible," said Noeleen. "All we have at the moment are clones but we want to see what's happening at a genetic level and get as many individuals as possible."

The original plant has since been destroyed by a landslide, so more cuttings are being distributed to other botanic gardens such as Kew to ensure their long-term survival. It's hoped that within a year or two the plants can be returned to Pitcairn to re-establish a population in the wild.



Original post can be found here http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/News/Botanist-preserves-rare-abutilon

12 comments:

  1. How exciting to have so many in bloom all at once! I loved visiting these gardens a couple of years ago - nice to hear about the exciting work going on there.

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  2. Hi SA, thanks for this good news story. Seed saving is like Noahs Ark. Cheers, catmint

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  3. What a great effort ... it's a beautiful flower and well worth saving.

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  4. Botanical gardens do such important work, I am sure a lot of people forget that, they just think of them as a "nice garden".

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  5. Truly gorgeous..beautiful!
    Kiki~

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  6. Interesting article, and a lovely flower. Hopefully with so many blooming at once, there may be a chance for propagation from seed too.

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  7. I love stories like this one. Against all odds, this little plant is struggling to exist with the help of others. I do hope it can soon be re-introduced into the wild.

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  8. There's a metaphor in there, somewhere

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  9. I love the serendipity that this little plant - the last one - was discovered by just the right person. Yay!

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  10. Great News - so many precious plants have been grown and cherished in Irish nurseries and the Botanics. My grandad used to source alot of his plants from Daisy Hill Nurseries in Newry in its former days when it was reputed all around the world for its collections of special plants.

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  11. Apart from the excitement of it surviving, what an exquisite flower!

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