Botanists have officially updated the status of the plant species Ptilotus senarius. Although this species had been considered extinct since 1967, a chance discovery has proven that it still survives today.
This breakthrough might never have happened without the citizen science platform iNaturalist. A user of the service photographed an unfamiliar flower and uploaded the image to the app.
The post caught the eye of Anthony Bean, a botanist at the Queensland Herbarium. In a remarkable coincidence, Bean himself had described the species a decade before it was officially declared extinct. The scientist immediately recognized the plant while scrolling through the photo feed.
The species managed to survive because it grew in total isolation. Its range is restricted exclusively to the rugged and remote terrain of northern Australia. Due to the challenging landscape, researchers simply could not reach these locations earlier.
Following the confirmation of the find, the status of Ptilotus senarius was promptly updated. This change grants the plant official legal protection and allows conservationists to launch population preservation programs.
