I have been following this story over the last couple days and don't understand why if this plant is so rare, it hasn't been propagated to produce more. We have the technology to make millions and millions of any plant on the planet in a very short amount of time. I see this as a big problem also if it is growing in or around a drainage ditch. That should set the lights off that this plant should have been better protected, or at least distributed or housed in a few, better places.
Oops, There Goes Another Baker's Delphinium Plant
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Road workers trimming weeds by a roadside north of San Francisco inadvertently cleared away some of the world's last wild examples of a rare plant, a botany expert said on Thursday.
Doreen Smith of the Marin Native Plant Society said public works officials in Marin County cleared away 95 out of 100 of a plant that grows as tall as three feet (one meter) high and has purple flowers known as Baker's Delphinium.
"It is a rare plant that grew only in one or two places in Northern California," Smith said, expressing emotion as she spoke of the plant. "They had been warned that it was there... but the road people didn't do it on purpose."
She said the extent of the damage became clear only in recent days when spring budding of new plants began, revealing only five Baker's Delphinium still growing in perhaps the last place in the wild worldwide.
Smith said that some gardeners in Britain may grow the plant, however, and said California researchers had several seeds of the plant as well.
The director Marin County department of public works, Farhad Mansourian, responded by issuing a new directive to his workers, dated Feb. 2, ordering workers to show more sensitivity to endangered plants.
"Should any situation arise with the potential to disturb a sensitive plant site, including an emergency situation, no action shall be taken without first personally consulting with me or the chief assistant director," he wrote.
Oops, There Goes Another Baker's Delphinium Plant
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Road workers trimming weeds by a roadside north of San Francisco inadvertently cleared away some of the world's last wild examples of a rare plant, a botany expert said on Thursday.
Doreen Smith of the Marin Native Plant Society said public works officials in Marin County cleared away 95 out of 100 of a plant that grows as tall as three feet (one meter) high and has purple flowers known as Baker's Delphinium.
"It is a rare plant that grew only in one or two places in Northern California," Smith said, expressing emotion as she spoke of the plant. "They had been warned that it was there... but the road people didn't do it on purpose."
She said the extent of the damage became clear only in recent days when spring budding of new plants began, revealing only five Baker's Delphinium still growing in perhaps the last place in the wild worldwide.
Smith said that some gardeners in Britain may grow the plant, however, and said California researchers had several seeds of the plant as well.
The director Marin County department of public works, Farhad Mansourian, responded by issuing a new directive to his workers, dated Feb. 2, ordering workers to show more sensitivity to endangered plants.
"Should any situation arise with the potential to disturb a sensitive plant site, including an emergency situation, no action shall be taken without first personally consulting with me or the chief assistant director," he wrote.
