Researchers and horticulturalists are looking for ways to help these lonely, rare plants to reproduce and save the species. Drones, AI and test-tube germination all come into play. Will we ever see them flourish?
5 of the loneliest plants in the world
Wood’s cycad (Encephalartos woodii)
Only one male specimen of wood's cycad (pictured above) has ever been found in the wild, and that was in 1895 in South Africa. The male plant has been cloned, but it is dioecious and needs a female plant to naturally pollinate and reproduce.
A team of researchers is on a mission to find one, using drones and AI.
A research project, led by the University of Southampton, is scouring thousands of acres of forest in South Africa. Drone imaging is then analysed by AI.
Pygmy Rwandan waterlily (Nymphaea thermarum)
The smallest waterlily in the wild, with pads as small as 1cm in diameter, was thought to be extinct in 2008.
Kew Garden horticulturists set to work propagating one of the last few salvaged plants, but had trouble germinating the seeds. Meanwhile, the parent plant was eaten by a rat.
Thankfully, increasing the seeds' access to C02 by germinating them in very shallow water proved successful. Since then, previously unknown wild populations have been recorded in Rwanda in 2023 and 2024.
The Loneliest Palm (Hyophorbe amaricaulis)
The palm tree Hyophorbe amaricaulis is a tragic case. Endemic to Mauritius, it was thought extinct until 1942, when a plant turned up in a botanic garden.
Efforts to fertilise it by hand have so far been unsuccessful. There has been successful germination, but the young green seedlings grew for about three months and later died.
Ghost orchid (Epipogium aphyllum)
In September 2024, the second sighting since the 1980s in Britain of the ghost orchid was recorded. It had actually been declared extinct in 2009 by experts, before being spotted just a few weeks later.
It is an unusual plant in that it grows no leaves nor produces chlorophyll. Instead, it sources its nutrients from underground fungi.
The site was kept secret to protect the rare plant and the habitat.
Three Kings kaikōmako (Pennantia baylisiana)
This species, endemic to New Zealand's Three Kings Islands had been reduced to a single individual, when it discovered in 1945. Happily, after seven decades of failings, the Three Kings kaikōmako has been revived through cuttings.
Main image: Getty Images