A plant that has been extinct for more than 30 years has finally reappeared, resurrected by French botanists

Botanists have succeeded in reintroducing a plant that had disappeared for years using a very particular technique.

It’s a small miracle produced by French botanists. They brought back to life a plant that had disappeared since the 1990s. The last specimen was observed in 1973 but the species was not considered extinct in the wild until the mid-1990s. Deforestation and colonization of its habitat by invasive plant species, such as the Chinese guava tree, have destroyed its existence.

Fortunately, a few seeds were collected and preserved before this disappearance by Jean-Yves Lesouëf, founder of the National Botanical Conservatory (CNB) of Brest. As seeds did not germinate naturally, botanists decided to resort to in vitro culture of a viable part of the seed embryo, a technique aimed at regenerating an entire plant using cells. Specimens were then born in a greenhouse and survived until 2008. The scientists recovered buds at the last minute which could be multiplied, allowing the creation of 300 mini-plants in a test tube. They thus succeeded in producing enough individuals to consider its return to the natural state.

This species has been reintroduced to Mauritius, its original habitat. This initiative was important, since this environment is home to very particular fauna and flora where each individual has a role to play. The absence of one member can weaken the balance of the entire ecosystem. This reintroduced plant is Cylindrocline lorencei. It is a shrub of the family of the asteraceae, which measures between two to three meters in height and which thrived in the heart of the Plaine Champagne site in the Rivière Noire National Park. It has purple flowers.

Experts, however, feared that the species would have difficulty reintroducing itself into its degraded natural space. This turned out to be possible “provided we have properly assessed the causes of this degradation and provided ourselves with the means to enable the environment to be rehabilitated”, explained Stéphane Buord, scientific director at the CNB. National Geographic. It was therefore necessary to place them in a site protected from invasive plants. Having come to observe them last July, botanists noted that the Cylindrocline lorencei already reach one meter in height. They are now monitored and their growth stages recorded. This technology, which made it possible to save them, could be reused for the Hyophorbe amaricaulis, a palm from Mauritius which only has one representative left.