The 9 rarest plants in the world (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Presented by
Shreya Dasgupta

We've all heard about the most endangered animals. Creatures like the critically endangered black rhinoceros are famous, and in some cases have been reduced to just a handful of individuals.

But what are the most endangered plants? They might not be as exciting or loveable as animals, but they are just as important to the ecosystem – and humanity relies on that ecosystem.

Here are nine of the most threatened plants today. They are almost all classed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These plants occupy some of the most inaccessible, remote parts of our planet. They are threatened by habitat destruction, illegal collection, poaching, and competition with invading species.



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http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141121-the-rarest-plants-in-the-world




WARNING: This page really slowed Firefox down. Caveat browsor. There seems to be a *huge* amount of code behind some of those images ...

[hunter]

1. More likely it's Adobe Flash ads slowing things down.

I don't have Flash installed and the page loaded fine.

That Western underground orchid is fascinating. The fungus is probably grabbing soil nutrients and water for the bottle brush plant in exchange for energy. I'm curious how the orchid inserts itself into that relationship.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Reminds me of Indian pipe plant ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora