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Victorian plant thought to be extinct for almost a century rediscovered

Ross and Russel
Article image for Victorian plant thought to be extinct for almost a century rediscovered

A small lemon-scented orchid thought to be extinct for almost a century has been found hiding in plain sight.

Botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne examined dried samples of the mignonette leek orchid, which was collected in a sub-alpine region of Victoria in 1929, and hadn’t been seen since 1933, and discovered it’s the same as another species which was unearthed in 2000.

The Kiandra leek orchid, found in Kosciuszko National Park, is the same species as the mignonette leek orchid.

“They’ve been examining the collections in our state botanical collection, these are the dried plants … and found they’re the exact same,” director and chief executive at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Tim Entwisle, told Ross and Russel.

“So in fact this thing is not only not extinct but there are more of it growing in NSW and Victoria.”

Press PLAY below to hear how the discovery was made

Image: Jeanes, Jeff, © 2022 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Ross and Russel
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