Two plant species now extinct in wild

Two plant species now extinct in wild

Subject – Environment

Context – ‘Two plant species now extinct in the wild’

Concept –

• 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.
• Classified under the genus Boesenbergia, the species belong to the family of Zingiberaceae, the ginger family of flowering plants. Boesenbergiarubrolutea was first collected from the Khasi Hills, Thera, in Meghalaya on October 10, 1886. Specimens of Boesenbergiaalbolutea were collected from the Andamans and sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, in 1889.
• Possible reasons for their disappearance include climate change, human interference and overexploitation or natural calamities.
• Endemic to the locations of their discovery, Boesenbergiaalbolutea and Boesenbergiarubrolutea are also among the least explored species of the genus Boesenbergia.
• The authors have recommended listing them as ‘Extinct in the Wild (EW) (IUCN 2019)’ under the IUCN Red List category on the basis of field visits, examination of databases of various herbaria, and available literature.