A Gardener’s Diary

Don’t panic about plant extinction

Our most popular ornamentals, fruit and vegetables are changing, or are being changed almost beyond recognition since they were brought in from their wild state. Believe it or not, plant collectors are still collecting in remote areas of China and South America and are still discovering new species to introduce to us. Make no error, gardening is big business in today’s world. Meanwhile the conservation of existing plants and other forms of wildlife is very big business, and I have had a great deal to do with it in my time. Many people, running into hundreds of thousands, make their daily bread gathering information about the state of nature, engaging in talks about it with fellow professionals and politicians at jamborees like the Rio Conference (now widely regarded as having been a complete waste of time) and unfortunately giving a one-dimensional cataclysmic picture of the world. The Washington DC conference is another example.

In the world news section of the Stabroek News some years ago (April 9, 1998) it was reported that scientists were now “guesstimating” that one in eight plants on the planet were on the verge of extinction. Absolute twaddle of course. Scientists actually have no idea at all but would like the money to be able to look into it further. What a surprise! I read that urgent action is required to protect the food and medical building blocks (more money to allow science to continue its work). I read that we need to have more reserves like botanical gardens and national parks as well as public education and private action (more money to allow science to continue its work).

Deborah Jensen of the Nature Conservancy said then that plants are the genetic building blocks of our food (true). Brian Boom of the New York Botanical Gardens reckons one fourth of all medicines come from plants (possibly true).

According to the latest (in my view highly suspect) figures some 40,000 plant species are considered to be endangered, threatened or rare. That is over 12% of the 270,000 known species. The news is likely to get worse, for the statistics issued by the World Conservation Union do not apparently take into account a very large part of the planet. Robert Fri of the Smithsonian says we should all be very distressed. Scientists regard the results as startling! (SN, 1998).

However, before you all start breaking out into a sweat and reach for the tranquillisers I would ask you to read on. The large print stated that one in eight plants is threatened globally (discounting that they say a large part of the planet is not taken into account). It should have stated that one in eight plant species is threatened, which is a very different kettle of fish. It doesn’t actually mean that one in eight of all the plants you see are suddenly going to keel over and die, although I have come across some gardeners whose sole aim in life seem to be to make the statistics come true!

(Again in 1998 if you read the small print you would have seen that 91% of the 33,798 threatened species are in one country, and 676 in the rest of the world. Many of the most endangered species are to be found on small and fairly insignificant islands like St Helena, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Jamaica, French Polynesia, Pitcairn, Reunion and Madagascar, and they’re not under threat from anything but goats. A serious enough threat when you remember that they eat almost anything.

Only a minuscule number of plants are threatened because of collectors. Quite a few plants are rare because of their inability to reproduce themselves effectively enough for their survival even if they are undisturbed. In some cases it is the disappearance of the insects and animals that pollinate them that takes them to the verge of extinction. Quite a few plants are rare in the wild but are a common as dishwater in cultivation and in no danger of extinction. So on this lovely Sunday morning just enjoy your breakfast, don’t worry and may your God go with you.