A plant picked for its beautiful flowers then wiped out in the UK mainland makes a dramatic return.

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.

  • TyodaEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    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.

    Bot removed the interesting part:

    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.

    All the rosy saxifrage now in the UK mainland goes back to that tiny plant - it saved the plant for future generations. About a decade ago Robbie was given a cutting to care for.

    • TyodaEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      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.