“This is surely the world’s loneliest creature,” writes paleontologist Richard Forty. In his book About the evolution of life.
He was talking Encephalartos woodii (E. Woody), a plant native to South Africa. E. Woody A member of the Cycad family, it is a heavy plant with a thick trunk and large, tough leaves that form a majestic crown. This tough survivor outlived the dinosaurs, Multiple mass extinctionsOnce widespread, it is now one of the most endangered species on Earth.
The only known wild E. Woody It was discovered in 1895 by botanist John Medley Wood during a botanical expedition in the Ngoie Forest in South Africa. He searched for other plants in the area, Could not be locatedOver the next few decades, botanists took cuttings of stems and branches and cultivated them in their gardens.
Fearing that the last trunk would be destroyed, the Forest Service removed it from the wild for storage in a conservation enclosure in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1916. Extinct in the wildThe plant has since spread throughout the world. E. Woody It faces an existential crisis. All the plants are clones from Ngoyé specimens. They are all male, and without the females they cannot reproduce naturally. E. Woody This story is one of both survival and loneliness.
My team’s research Inspired by the dilemma of the solitary plant and the possibility that females may still be out there somewhere, our research uses remote sensing techniques and artificial intelligence to help locate females in Ngoyé forest.
The evolutionary journey of cycads
Cycads are the oldest living plant group, with an evolutionary history stretching back to the Carboniferous period, and are often referred to as “living fossils” or “dinosaur plants.” 300 million years agoDuring the Mesozoic Era (250 to 66 million years ago), also known as the Age of Cycads, these plants were ubiquitous, thriving in the warm, wet climate that characterized that era.
Cycads resemble ferns and palms but are not related to either. They are gymnosperms, a group that also includes conifers and ginkgo trees. Unlike angiosperms (flowering plants), cycads reproduce using cones. It is impossible to tell males from females until they reach maturity and produce their spectacular cones.
The female cones are usually broad and round, while the male cones are elongated and narrow. The male cones produce pollen and are carried by insects (weevils). On the female panicleThis ancient method of reproduction has remained largely unchanged for millions of years.
Despite their longevity, cycads today rank as some of the most endangered organisms on Earth, with the majority of their species considered critically endangered. EndangeredThis is due to the cycad’s slow growth and reproductive cycle – it usually takes 10 to 20 years to reach maturity – and habitat loss due to deforestation, grazing and over-harvesting, making it a symbol of plant rarity.
Their striking appearance and ancient lineage have led to their popularity as ornamental garden plants, leading to illegal trade. Exorbitant prices from $620 (£495) per cm Some specimens are for sale Millions of pounds eachPoaching of cycads is a threat to their survival.
Among the most valuable species E. WoodyThe animals are protected in the botanical gardens with security measures such as alarm-equipped cages. Stopping poachers.
AI in the Sky
To find a woman E. Wood We used innovative techniques to explore forest areas from a vertical perspective. 2022 and 2024In 2015, our drone surveys covered 195 acres, an area the size of 148 football fields, and we created a detailed map from thousands of drone photos, but this still only covers a small part of the 10,000-acre Ngoyé Forest.
Our AI systems have improved the efficiency and accuracy of these searches. E. Woody Because they are believed to be extinct in the wild, the AI model is trained using synthetic images, which are then used to identify them through image recognition algorithms. Identifying Cycads by Shape in a variety of ecological contexts.
Plant species of the world Vanishing At an astonishing speed. E. Woody Because the specimens are clonal, the potential for genetic variation in response to environmental changes and disease is limited.
Notable examples include the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, where the uniformity of clonal potatoes exacerbated the crisis, and the vulnerability of clonal Cavendish bananas to Panama disease. Threatening production As was the case with the Gros Michel bananas in the 1950s.
Finding a woman is E. Woody The species is no longer at risk of extinction and there is potential to revive it: the presence of females would allow sexual reproduction, providing genetic diversity and representing a conservation breakthrough.
E. Woody It is a reminder of the fragility of life on Earth. E. Woody It shows that there is hope for even the most endangered species if we act fast enough.
Laura SintyBioart and Plant Behavior Researcher, University of Southampton. This article is reprinted from conversation Published under a Creative Commons license. Original Article.
