Conservation

A wildlflower long thought to be extinct has been found in a state park in California. The Mount Diablo buckwheat, Eriogonum truncatum, had not been seen in sixty nine years. A stand of the little pink buckwheat was found in a state park east of San Francisco in Contra Costa County on or near Mount Diablo. The location is being kept secret.

The discovery was made by a graduate student, Michael Park, who brought other botanists to the site to confirm the identification. Imagine the thrill for a young graduate student to find a species long thought to have vanished.

The find is being compared to the siting of the ivory billed woodpecker in Arkansas last year. While the ivory billed woodpecker was found deep in a remote swamp, the rediscovery of Mount Diablo buckwheat took place in a heavily used park within easy reach of millions of people.

Picture of an herbarium specimen (there don't seem to be any images of live plants available).

Update: Thanks to Chris at Organic matter (in comments) for providing a link to the UC Berkeley press release, which includes nice pictures of this beautiful little flower.