A team of Brazilian scientists, with the support of the NGO Re:wild — whose founding members are actor Leonardo DiCaprio — identified four holly trees, the last observation of which was 185 years old.
The bushes, of the species Ilex sapiiformis, were found in the municipality of Igarassu, in the metropolitan region of Recife, in Pernambuco. Previously, the site was dense Atlantic rainforest, but is now mostly urban areas and sugarcane plantations.
The expedition team, led by ecologist Gustavo Martinelli, from Navia Biodiversity Ltd., spent six days researching in different areas of Recife. The discovery took place on March 22 and was recently announced.
“Pernambuco holly is in an emergency situation right now,” said Martinelli. “It may be on the verge of extinction because, as far as we know, there are only four individuals of the species. And these individuals are in an area of degraded riparian forest, despite being protected by law.”
According to the researchers involved, identifying the shrub is complex and, until then, there was little material that could help them understand its characteristics. The discovery was made possible thanks to the tiny green flowers typical of the species.
“The moment we found Ilex sapiiformisit seemed like the world had stopped spinning,” said researcher Juliana Alencar, expedition project assistant.
Nature surprises us. Finding a species that hasn’t been heard of for almost two centuries doesn’t happen every day. It was an incredible moment, and the emotion was felt by the entire team. When I looked at Professor Milton Groppo, I saw that he had tears in his eyes.
Juliana Alencar
Now, in addition to continuing the search for more Pernambuco hollies, scientists also hope to be able to collect seeds from the tree and germinate them, in an attempt to prevent its extinction.
To this end, a team from the Recife Botanical Garden is monitoring the four bushes found and returning to the site weekly to check whether the trees are bearing fruit.
As soon as they are collected, “the Center for Strategic Technologies of the Northeast (Cetene) must begin the germination stage for attempts to reproduce the material”, as released by the Botanical Garden in a statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
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