Zombie trees

In?1868, an endemic plant called the crudia zeylanica was discovered in Sri Lanka. In?1911, it was spotted somewhere else. And then there were no more sightings.

*Waggles fingers while making a wooooo noise*?

Source: Govindoo?-?Beddome, R.H. (1869-1873)?The Flora Sylvatica for southern India. Volume 1

That is, until?December 2019, when plant taxonomist Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe found crudia zeylanica growing in the?path?of the planned Central expressway project, in Daraluwa (an initial Environmental Impact Assessment had?failed?to detect it). Further investigation revealed?the plant was also growing in other areas of Sri Lanka,?including?in areas surrounding the Kelani river. The discovery was significant because the plant had been believed extinct since?2006. But as soon as the discovery was made, the fight began to save the tree. Since February this year, environmentalists worked to prevent the tree from being relocated, as the Road Development Authority?wanted. Those who came forward in support included?Forest Officer Devanee Jayathilaka, who in 2020?stood up to an MP?about encroachment in Negombo’s mangroves.

Jayathilaka?intervened?just in time to stop the crudia zeylanica?tree from being destroyed. A group of Buddhist monks (of course) from the National Bhikku Front?ordained?the tree to prevent it being cut down. In the ensuing outcry, plans to relocate or cut down the tree were?abandoned?(at least temporarily) with an agreement reached to divert the expressway instead.?

Crudia zeylanica wasn’t the only plant to be brought back from extinction. Jayasinghe also?found?the rinorea decora plant (not seen since 1888 and also on the red list) while chasing down a rare butterfly called the small leopard in the Knuckles forest range. And he?found?the third ‘extinct’ plant, rinorea bengalensis, while conducting a survey for yet another expressway - growing in a stream in the Ratnapura district. This meant three of the five flowering plants declared extinct in 2012 were?rediscovered?(although many, including crudia zeylanica, remained critically endangered).?

The history of the red list

The first international ‘red list’ for threatened plants was published by the IUCN in?1964. Sri Lanka published its first national red list only in?1999, with 809 plant species being assessed. The 2007 red list saw?1099?plants being evaluated, and the 2012 list included?3100?flowering plants. Sri Lanka just recently published its?2020 national red list, which is what brought renewed attention to the rediscovered trees.?

?As Jayasinghe told?Mongabay, the discoveries of crudia zeylanica and others underscored that botanical surveys were too often restricted to protected areas, missing plants which might be surviving even in populated areas. But they also highlight the important contribution of young field botanists, who?often?use social media to identify plants with the help of expert researchers. Thanks to this collaboration, more critically endangered plants that were believed as being ‘possibly extinct’ were also discovered, including?shorea ovalifolia?(known as pini beraliya in Sinhalese), last seen in 1911 and believed extinct in the wild. In the same way, the ‘possibly extinct’ list in the recently released IUCN 2020 red list?named?128 plants, down from 170 in 2012, thanks to more sightings.?

But despite this good news, Sri Lanka’s plant life remains under threat, as the 2020 red list highlighted - especially it’s flowering plants and ferns.?

Threatened species

Source?

*Two species of the seed producing plant maha madu were categorised as critically endangered

Source

Almost?half?of 3087 flowering plants and close to 60% of 350 ferns were categorised as threatened species. Endemic flowering plants were particularly vulnerable, with over 72% of them categorised as threatened. 128 species of flowering plants (54 of them endemic species) and 25 species of ferns (including 4 endemic species) were?categorised?as possibly extinct as they haven’t been seen in the past century.?

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