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As in past years, I'm limiting this list to northern North America for two reasons:
In 2020, this paper:
Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada
caused me to expand my list from 6 to 59 species, including 7 extinct in the wild. The summary is terse, and grim:
As in past years, I'm limiting this list to northern North America for two reasons:
Last year, this paper:
Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada
caused me to expand my list from 6 to 59 species, including 7 extinct in the wild. The summary is terse, and grim:
As in past years, I'm limiting this list to northern North America for two reasons:
In past years, I've only been able to find records for 6 plant species that have gone extinct. This year's list is a major update: 59 extinctions, and 7 extinct in the wild. This is largely due to the research presented in this August 2020 paper:
Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada
The summary is terse, and grim:
At least 50 varieties of native plants are locally extinct or nearing elimination, say project scientists. Nuttall’s mudflower (Micranthemum micranthemoides), last collected from the region in 1918, is likely extinct throughout its former range. Scarlet Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea), pennywort (Obolaria virginica), sidebells wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), and sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis) are among the wildflower species to have seriously declined in the region. Black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) is locally extinct, without a trace of a population remaining today in the New York City metropolitan area.The story has been widely covered in blogs and other media, including New York Times Science. I've included the complete press release below for reference.
- Some Plants Native to NYC Area Have Become Locally Extinct As New Flora Has Moved In, Finds Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Press Release, 2010-04-05
The Monarch is the Giant Panda of invertebrates. It has a lobby built of organizations that stand to lose money unless they can manufacture repeated crises. Well-intentioned as they are, they are siphoning funding away from efforts to conserve other invertebrate species that are at far greater risk. The Monarch is not going extinct.
- Bug Eric: Stop Saying the Monarch is a "Gateway Species" for an Appreciation of Other Insects
Gland, Switzerland, 12 September, 2007, World Conservation Union (IUCN) – Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken, according to the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy.
- IUCN Press Release, September 12: Extinction Crisis Escalates
There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation.o The number of threatened species is increasing across almost all the major taxonomic groups.
There are now 12,043 plants on the IUCN Red List, with 8,447 listed as threatened. The Woolly-stalked Begonia (Begonia eiromischa) is the only species to have been declared extinct this year. This Malaysian herb is only known from collections made in 1886 and 1898 on Penang Island. Extensive searches of nearby forests have failed to reveal any specimens in the last 100 years.
The Wild Apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris), from central Asia, has been assessed and added to the IUCN Red List for the first time, classified as Endangered. The species is a direct ancestor of plants that are widely cultivated in many countries around the world, but its population is dwindling as it loses habitat to tourist developments and is exploited for wood, food and genetic material.
Most species of aphids overwinter in the egg stage. The eggs hatch in the spring to produce a generation of females. These female aphids give birth to living young. Generally the first young aphids are wingless and when a colony becomes too crowded winged forms may be produced. The winged forms migrate to new host plants and begin colonies. Enormous populations are built up from these overlapping generations all summer long.So, to sum up:
- Aphids Factsheet, Insect Diagnostic Laboratory, Cornell University
What makes [your pest here] so difficult to control?I chose aphids because a neighbor wrote recently about her problem with aphids on her cilantro and an encounter with a vicious ladybug. She complained that her ladybugs always flew away. I suggested lacewings as an alternative predator, and additional plantings to attract, and keep, "beneficial" insects.
Learn to recognize and conserve insects that prey on or parasitize pests. Small wasps, for example, parasitize aphids, leaving bloated gold to bronze "mummies." Immature lady beetles and lacewings, which look like tiny alligators, also frequent gardens. Other "beneficials" include spiders, predatory mites, predatory bugs, predatory flies, and ground beetles.Biological controls are not a panacea. For example, most of the commercially available ladybugs are species not native to North America. They are commercially available because they are amenable to raising in the large numbers needed for economic viability, not necessarily because they are the best choices. These can become pests in their own right when they swarm and overwinter in homes to emerge in the Spring.
- Managing Insect Pests in Vegetable Gardens, Home Gardening Resources, Cornell Univers
The New York State insect is essentially no more. Once among the most common ladybugs in the eastern United States, the nine-spotted lady beetle has not been seen since 1984. This comely reddish-orange beetle with four spots on each wing and a shared one in the middle has been displaced by a voracious cousin with seven spots, imported by the millions from Europe in the 1970s as a biological control agent.So how can we take advantage of naturally occurring species? Plant a diverse garden, and plant for beneficial insects. For example, clovers are attractive to several kinds of insects which prey on aphids, including, wasps, pirate bugs, aphid midges, and of course, ladybugs. Buckwheat attracts lacewings, in addition to wasps and ladybugs. Plants in the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) and Asteraceae (Compositae) support a wide range of insect species.
The idea made sense at the time. Entomologists had observed that lady beetles eat aphids, so thought that a more aggressive species would be only that much more effective in controlling these common crop pests. They were, so much so it turned out, that the imported beetles monopolized the food source and apparently starved the natives out.
- Invaasion of the Species Snatchers, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Cornell University
Magicicada is the genus of the 13- and 17- year periodical cicadas of eastern North America. These insects display a unique combination of long life cycles, periodicity, and mass emergences. They are sometimes called "seventeen-year locust"s, but they are not locusts.13 and 17 are prime numbers. Evolution "discovered" prime numbers.
- Magicicada, Wikipedia
In any given area, adult periodical cicadas emerge only once every 13 or 17 years, they are consistent in their life cycles, and populations (or "broods") in different regions are not synchronized. Currently there are 7 recognized species, 12 distinct 17-year broods, and 3 distinct 13-year broods, along with 2 known extinct broods, found east of the Great Plains and south of the Great Lakes, to the Florida Panhandle.Brooklyn is part of Brood XIV (Brood 14), one of the 17-year broods. We can expect to see (and hear) any or all of the three 17-year species in Brood XIV:
- Magicicada Mapping Project
Three 17-year cicada species exist, each with distinctive morphology (shape and color), behavior, and calling signals:All three species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as low risk, but near threatened, ie: close to being "promoted" to vulnerable species. Because they spend most of their lives underground, periodical cicadas are at risk from development which covers their routes to emergence at the surface. When they emerge, without sufficient woody plants - trees and shrubs - upon which to feed and lay their eggs, that generation will be irreversibly reduced for at least another 17 (or 13) years. Some broods are already extinct. Consider, for example, this observation from an unidentified entomologist:
- Magicicada species, Magicicada Mapping Project
- Magicicada septendecim (L. 1758)
- Magicicada cassini (Fisher 1851)
- Magicicada septendecula Alexander and Moore 1962
Have you an ideal of the absolute in hopelessness? Well, let it be said that the house in which you live is comparatively new - built within 17 years. The ground on which ti stands was originally woodland. In the Summer of 1902 all the tree thereabouts were full of seventeen-year locusts. Eggs were deposited in the branches, the larvae came out, dropped lightly to the ground, and dug in. The long period of subterranean existence is almost ended. In the summer of this year the insects will start toward the light and air - and will come in contact with the concrete floor of your cellar! There may be another situation as hopeless, but certainly none more so.
- New York Times, June 23, 1919
"I’m told it is illegal to propagate and sell this tree because the National Geographic Society (NGS) has exclusive rights to it in the United States, but would I be unethical to do so?"The tree in question, Wollemia nobilis, the Wollemi™ Pine (and note the trademark), is critically endangered in the wild:
- Pine Away, The Ethicist, NY Times, April 20, 2008
The pine was known solely from fossil records and presumed extinct until it was discovered in 1994 in the Wollemi National Park, just outside Sydney, Australia. Dubbed the botanical find of the century, the Wollemi pine is now the focus of extensive research to conserve this ancient species.The trademarked name situation arises - ironically, to my mind - from efforts to protect and conserve the species:
Fewer than 100 mature trees are known exist, growing in small groves on moist ledges in a deep rainforest gorge surrounded by rugged mountains and undisturbed forest.
- Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Through National Geographic's licensing partnership with Floragem, a portion of the sales will go directly to Wollemi Pine International Pty. Ltd., whose mission is to conserve the Wollemi Pine for future generations and to raise awareness of conservation internationally. Through public participation, Wollemi Pine International will repopulate the Wollemi Pine and return royalties to fund conservation of these trees and other threatened and endangered species.The Ethicist, Randy Cohen, responded:
- Press Release, National Geographic Society, September 19, 2006
Liz Nickless, a spokeswoman for the society, says that “there are no exclusive agreements for the distribution of the Wollemi pine.” There is a U.S. trademark, she adds, “so anyone wanting to use the name will need permission.” That is, you may become a Johnny Wollemi Seed, disseminating this fine fir under its scientific name, Wollemia nobilis, or for that matter as Sexy Slender Tree or Pinetacular, but not (without consent) as a Wollemi Pine.While trademarks govern the use of the name, plant patents proscribe unlicensed propagation:
A plant patent is granted by the Government to an inventor (or the inventor's heirs or assigns) who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced a distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. The grant, which lasts for 20 years from the date of filing the application, protects the inventor's right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling, or using the plant so reproduced.This example comes from the U.S. Patent Office; similar laws and regulations govern in other countries.
[emphasis added]- What is a plant patent?, Overview of Plant Patents, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Asexual reproduction is the propagation of a plant to multiply the plant without the use of genetic seeds to assure an exact genetic copy of the plant being reproduced. ... asexual reproduction would include but may not be limited to:When I divide my patented perennial - or god forbid, share it with a neighbor - I'm breaking the law. I could choose to disregard it, or I could choose not to support this system and boycott patented plants altogether.- Asexual reproduction, Overview of Plant Patents
- Rooting Cuttings
- Grafting and Budding
- Apomictic Seeds
- Bulbs
- Division
- Slips
- Layering
- Rhizomes
- Runners
- Corms
- Tissue Culture
- Nucellar Embryos
