Wollemi Pine, (Wollemia nobilis) Beverly Allen, Australia
"Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants here and Around the World," an exhibition at the NY Botanical Garden, opens on May 6th and runs through July 25th of this year. If you're anywhere near NY city, it's well worth a trip to see this important show. Three years in the making, the exhibition features some of the world's best-known botanical artists, as well as some newcomers who have documented at-risk plants from all six of the world's habitable continents.
Green Ixia, (Ixia viridiflora), Jean Emmons, US
Jeff Downing, the garden's VP for Education, says the exhibition "provides viewers with a glimpse of some of the world's most endangered specimens and will help inform the public about plants that are disappearing every day."
According to the garden, about 20 percent of the world's flora is in danger of extinction, and scientists around the world are making efforts to document some 50 thousand species yet to be scientifically described.
The Wollemi pine, pictured at the top, was thought to be extinct for about two million years, but it was found in a remote canyon in Australia is 1994.
Some of the rare American plants in this exhibition include the Midwestern lakeside daisy, with only two colonies remaining in the country; the "ghost orchid" from Florida's Everglades; a white poppy from the Mojave Desert of Utah; and the Santa Cruz cypress of the California coast.
There will also be many special classses offered in association with the exhibition.
(images: NY Botanical Garden)
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