by “This is certainly the most solitary organism on earth,” wrote paleontologist Richard Fortey in his book on the evolution of life.
He was talking about it Encephalartos woodii (E. woodii), a plant from South Africa. E. woodii a member of the cycad family, heavy plants with thick trunks and large stiff leaves that form a majestic crown. These resilient survivors outnumber dinosaurs and have faced many extinctions. Once widespread, they are today one of the most threatened species on the planet.
The only known wild E. Woodii Botanist John Medley Wood discovered it in 1895 while on a botanical expedition in the Ngoye Forest in South Africa. He searched the neighborhood for others, but found none. Over the next few years, botanists harvested stems and thistles and cultivated them in the gardens.
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Fearing that the last stem would be destroyed, the Department of Forestry removed it from the wild in 1916 to keep it safe in a protective enclosure in Pretoria, South Africa, leaving it extinct in the wild. The plant has since spread throughout the world. However, the E. woodii facing an existential crisis. All plants are clones from the Ngoye specimen. They are all male, and without a female, natural reproduction is impossible. E. woodii’s the story is one of survival and loneliness.
My team’s research was motivated by the dilemma of the lonely plant and the possibility that a female might still be out there. Our research involves the use of remote sensing technologies and artificial intelligence to assist our search for women in Ngoye Forest.
The evolutionary journey of the cycads
Cycads are the oldest group of plants still alive today and are often called “living fossils” or “dinosaur plants” because of their evolutionary history dating back to the Carboniferous period, around 300 million years ago. During the Mesozoic era (250-66,000,000 years ago), also known as the Age of Cycads, the plants were ubiquitous, successful in hot, humid climates that characterize that period.
Although they resemble ferns or palms, cicadas are not related to either. Cycads are gymnosperms, a group that includes conifers and ginkgos. Unlike flowering plants (angiosperms), cycads reproduce using cones. Males and females cannot be told apart until they mature and produce their magnificent cones.
Female cones tend to be broad and round, while male cones appear longer and narrower. The male cones produce pollen, which is carried by insects (weevils) to the female cones. This ancient method of reproduction has remained largely unchanged for millions of years.
Despite their longevity, today cicadas are classified as the most endangered living organisms in the world and most species are considered threatened with extinction. This is due to their slow growth and reproductive cycles, typically taking 10 to 20 years to reach maturity, and habitat loss due to deforestation, grazing and over-collection. The cicadas have become symbols of botanical rarities.
They are popular in exotic ornamental horticulture due to their striking appearance and ancient lineage, which resulted from illegal trade. Rare cycads can fetch exorbitant prices from US$620 (£495) per cm with some specimens selling for millions of pounds each. Poaching of tickets is a threat to their survival.
Among the most valuable species is the E. woodii. It is protected in botanic gardens with security measures such as scare cages designed to deter poachers.
AI in the sky
In our search to find a female E. woodii we used innovative technologies to explore areas of the forest vertically. In 2022 and 2024, our drone surveys covered an area of 195 acres or 148 football fields, creating detailed maps from thousands of photos taken by the drones. It is still a small part of the Ngoye Forest, which covers 10,000 acres.
Our AI system has improved the efficiency and accuracy of these searches. As E. woodii considered extinct, synthetic images were used in the training of the AI model to improve its ability, through an image recognition algorithm, to recognize cicadas by shape in different ecological contexts.
Plant species around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since all that is already there E. woodii the specimens are clones, their potential for genetic variation is limited in the face of environmental changes and disease.
Notable examples include the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, where the uniformity of cloned potatoes exacerbated the crisis, and the vulnerability of clonal Cavendish bananas to Panama disease, which jeopardized their production as it did the Gros banana. Michel in the 1950s.
This would mean looking for a female E. woodii that it is no longer on the verge of extinction and could revive the species. A female would allow sexual reproduction, introduce genetic diversity, and spearhead conservation efforts.
E. woodii it is a poignant reminder of the fragility of life on Earth. But our quest to find out female E. woodii This shows that there is hope even for the most endangered species if we act fast enough.
This article from The Conversation is republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Laura Cinti does not work for, consult with, hold shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and does not she disclosed any relevant affiliations after her academic appointment.
