An extinct ‘mountain jewel’ plant has returned to the wild – in a secret location

A plant that became extinct in the wild has been reintroduced to the British mainland. We can’t tell you the exact location – it’s a secret to keep it safe. It’s just one little plant, but with one in six species in the UK under threat, you have to start somewhere. We were there when pioneer gardener Robbie Blackhall-Miles returned it to its original soil.

I first met Robbie at his nursery for endangered plants – tucked away in a quiet part of North Wales.

What he keeps there is so valuable that he can’t even insure it.

It asks me to be careful how much we reveal – there is still a lucrative market for rare and special plants, often collected illegally, often for thousands of pounds.

“There are only 30 of those trees left in the world,” he says, pointing to a flower pot.

Around us are trays with seedlings, bags of soil on the floor, plants growing and blooming. Thermometers hang from the roof to check if the plants are too hot, too cold or too dry.

Robbie is tall and athletic, talking excitedly. When I started researching this story, Robbie’s name kept popping up in the records of botanical societies – there are few people in Britain who know so much about plants.

He got into botany after wanting to rescue animals as a child and do a brief spell as a model. He now works for Plantlife, a conservation charity.

“If you think of Britain’s biodiversity as a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces are really important, but some are missing,” he says.

His aim, in partnership with the National Trust and Natural Resource Wales, is to restore some of this biodiversity by reintroducing the extinct rose sedge – a plant he calls the jewel of the mountains – to Eryri or Snowdonia.

The last sighting of the pink warbler in the wild in the UK was in 1962, somewhere in the Cwm Idwal nature reserve in Eryri.

I wanted to see the place – so Robbie and National Trust ranger Rhys Weldon-Roberts took me and my colleague to Cwm Idawl.

We followed the winding path around the lake to a place called Tyll Du or, in ominous English, Devil’s Kitchen.

Robbie stopped every few steps to point out the rare plants that had managed to survive.

I happened to go this way before. I tried to climb through the gap between the mountains and did not notice the rare species living under the boulders.

The pink rocker is listed as extinct, but Robbie, a skilled climber, still double-checked. “I was up there on the ropes looking for it for six years, just in case we got it wrong,” he says, pointing to the sheer cliffs.

“The pink rock is about as indigenous as you can get in the UK,” says Robbie, perched on a rock and calmly looking out over the dramatic landscape.

It is part of a family of mountain plants that thrived when northern Britain froze during the Ice Age. When the glaciers melted, the stilts remained and thrived in the mountain environment.

But their delicate appearance and beautiful flowers eventually made them a magnet for plant collectors – especially the Victorians who collected them for private collections.

Habitat loss and poorly managed grazing in Eryri was the last death knell for the plant.

Numbers dropped dramatically until it was gone from the UK mainland.

Another part of the story has a folklore quality – in 1962 a teacher and conservationist named Dick Roberts was in Cwm Idawl on a school trip.

He picked up a piece of the plant that had washed down the road and put it in his pocket. Unsure of what it was, he took it home and grew it in his garden.

All the pink clematis now on the British mainland goes back to this little plant – saving the plant for future generations. About ten years ago, Robbie got a haircut that he had to take care of.

“I feel quite humbled to be working with part of Dick Roberts’ legacy,” he says.

It is very unusual to be able to reintroduce a species with a genetic descendant of the original species.

Often related species are used, for example the European beaver was used to reintroduce beavers to the UK.

But Robbie says, holding it in his hands, “This is from scraps of scraps or scraps of that original Welsh material.”

During the decade Dick Roberts was in Eryri, nature in the UK changed dramatically.

One in six species is threatened with extinction. In the last 30-40 years, we have lost 19% of the species being monitored, turning the UK into one of the most naturally depleted countries on Earth.

I invited Julia Jones, Professor of Conservation at Bangor University, to Cwm Idwal to ask her how much of a difference the return of this one little plant could make.

The truth is that on its own it won’t change the nature of the UK – conservation is hugely complicated and requires lots of different work, including protecting habitats from climate change, pollution and intensive land use.

But Professor Jones says the reintroduction acts as a flagship and “a reminder of how much we’ve lost”.

High profile plant reintroductions are rare – most of the work goes into bringing animals back. The most famous in the UK is probably the beaver or sea eagle – charismatic species that generally excite people more than plants.

Some scientists talk about “plant blindness” – the idea that people don’t see the plants around them as important living beings – instead they are more like wallpaper in our natural environment, despite all they do for our ecosystems and their role. in the production of medicines.

A few days ago, the moment that was ten years in the making finally arrived.

A number of people, including ranger Rhys Weldon-Roberts, gathered in the rain at a secret location in Eryri. He will keep a close eye on the plant, watch out for collectors.

“I hope the day will come when it will no longer be rare and everyone who visits will appreciate it,” he says.

It’s a big moment for Robbie Blackhall-Miles, who will continue to watch the sidelines.

Will it survive after 60 years of outdoor cultivation?

He carries plant boxes from the car.

It had changed since the last time I saw it – long stems protruding from thick leaves leading to a white flower with five petals.

“I love these flowers – they glow on you,” says Robbie.

After crossing the river, Robbie crouches down and peels the springy grass and soil. He kicks and hits a rock, “It’s okay – saxifrage is Latin for rock ripper.”

A few minutes later, the little mountain gems are back in their original soil.

Robbie is visibly emotional. The highlight of his career is to reintroduce something to his own country, to the landscape he loves.

“We have a great word in Welsh adferiad, which means restitution or restoration,” he continues. “I am absolutely over the moon.

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