Wildflower feared extinct discovered in California state park

[Kadie]

Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005


Wildflower feared extinct discovered in California state park

JUSTIN M. NORTON

Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO - A flower called the Mount Diablo buckwheat long thought to be extinct has been rediscovered in a California state park more than six decades after it was last seen.

The pink wildflower Eriogonom truncatum - which resembles baby's breath used in floral arrangements - was last seen 69 years ago. It was found in a remote section of a Contra Costa County park that is popular among hikers, scientists said Wednesday.

Botanists have searched in vain for the plant for decades. The find immediately drew comparisons to the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas, a bird long presumed extinct.

"We've been calling the Mount Diablo buckwheat the holy grail for botanists (in the region)," said Barbara Ertter, Curator of Western North American Flora at the University of California, Berkeley's Jepson Herbarium.


http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/11736763.htm



Dainty pink Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovered

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 24 May 2005

BERKELEY – A petite pink flower that hasn't been seen in 70 years has been rediscovered on the flanks of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County by a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/24_buckwheat.shtml


How cool is this?

[CottonBear]

1. That is way cool!

First the Ivorybill and now the Eriogonom truncatum! :) :woohoo:

Edit: That grad student now has a great thesis topic or doctoral topic!

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Well, Bush better start drilling for oil there, then.

No Pristine Wilderness Left Behind. Also, forget the "behind."

[Lisa]

3. cool! And note that it was found on ...

"a section that had been acquired and donated to the park by the organization Save Mount Diablo". This confirms the importance of what NGOs like the Land Conservancy, which try to preserve habitat by acquiring new land for parks, are doing.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Mount Diablo is cool

Most of the mountain is protected as a state park and on several flanks there are adjacent regional parks or open space. There are at least a half dozen plants that live there and nowhere else.

It is the biggest peak in the East Bay and from the summit on a clear day you can see for many miles in every direction. If you travel on BART's Pittsburg line or on Highway 24 it dominates the landscape.

Fun note: there's a local guy who thinks the mountain should be renamed because it isn't right to name things for the devil. Now like most local landmarks, its name has been adopted for a lot of other things: Mt. Diablo school district, the Diablo Valley, Diablo streets. The poor man sees the devil reference everywhere he goes.

[Jamastiene]

5. Maybe Mother Nature is joining us in a resounding

"Up Yours Bush". This reminds me of the newly built post office here years ago. I noticed a dandelion growing right by itself in between the building and the sidewalk. It looked to me like a middle finger to their attempts to concrete all of Mother Nature in that area. I loved it. This story makes me think maybe some species on the planet can survive this atrocity called "the Bush Administration".