Two wild plant species are now extinct!

Tags: Science and Technology

According to the Journal of Threatened Taxa two species of plants first collected by botanists more than 125 years ago from Meghalaya and the Andaman Islands are now extinct in the wild.

Highlights:

  • Study blames climate change, human interference and over-exploitation, or natural calamities for disappearance.
  • Classified under the genus Boesenbergia, the species belongs to the family Zingiberaceae, the ginger family of flowering plants.
  • Boesenbergia rubrolutea was first collected from the Khasi Hills, Thera, in Meghalaya on October 10, 1886. Specimens of Boesenbergia albolutea were collected from the Andamans and sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, in 1889.
  • The authors have recommended listing them as ‘Extinct in the Wild (EW) (IUCN 2019)’ under the IUCN Red List category.

IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

●       IUCN is a membership union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations

●       Created in 1948, it is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

●       It is headquartered in Gland,  Switzerland.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.

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