This is the only succulent found in the Gobi Steppe near Choyr, Mongolia- should we be concerned about its survival?
I was brain-storming ideas for blog topics and I thought it had been a while since talking about terrestrial plant conservation issues- given the importance of these primary producers in sustaining so many of the environments we depend upon, we should probably be paying attention to their conservation. But every plant issue I could think of at first was about invasive species, which lead me to wonder if there are endangered plant species. Since there are a variety of strategies that plants use to reproduce, including cloning and seed production, and some seeds can sit in the soil for years waiting for the right conditions to germinate, it seems like we should be able to maintain adequate populations of the plant species that make up different habitats.
Then I took a look at the USDA’s threatened and endangered plant database– I didn’t even make it to the Ds in the alphabetical list of perennial shrubs before realizing that there are much bigger problems in the plant world than I had expected. While many of the species on the list were from the Hawaiian Islands and Puerto Rico, suggesting that plant species confined to islands are particularly vulnerable, quite a few were from the continental US. This leads me to believe that there are many more plant species around the world whose populations are in trouble than we might think.
This month I’ll take a look at some of the plant species threatened with extinction around the world- my guess is that this a much bigger issue than can really be covered in a month’s posts, but at least it will get us started. And for those of you with green thumbs, this may give you ideas for working with plants outside of your gardens.