working with the specimens of extinct plants
While the extinction of animal species is known to most people, only very few would know what Acanea exigua, Hopea Shingkeng or Galipea ossana were. 126 plant species have officially been declared extinct worldwide, 44 are extinct in the wild, 375 more are possibly extinct and 5370 critically endangered. main cause for this loss of biodiversity is the human and yet most of us have never heard the names of these extinct species, let alone seen an image of them, while their number rises exponentially.
With the help of the VBG (Verband Botanischer Gärten), i reached out to several european herbaria who provided me with scans of specimens of extinct species from their collections or gave me further contacts to continue my search.
following botanic institutions have supported the project so far:
Botanical Collection and Herbarium
of the National Museum Prague
Botanischer Garten der Universität Bern
Botanischer Garten der Universität Wien
The Harvard University Herbaria
Herbario Nacional de Costa Rica
Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de Genève
KEW Royal Gardens
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris
National Herbarium of Rwanda
New York Botanical Garden
credits specimens shown here:
Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de Genève