Grief and Gardening: Extinct Plants of northern North America 2022

A Single Candle

As in past years, I’m limiting this list to northern North America for two reasons:

  1. Restricting this list geographically is in keeping with my specialization in plants native to northeastern North America.
  2. There are many more tropical plants, and plant extinctions, than I can manage.

In 2020, this paper:

Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada

caused me to expand my list from 6 to 59 species, including 7 extinct in the wild. The summary is terse, and grim:

Given the paucity of plant surveys in many areas, particularly prior to European settlement, the actual extinction rate of vascular plants is undoubtedly much higher than indicated here.

Note that they only examined vascular plants. So their list excludes Neomacounia nitida, Macoun’s shining moss. It remains on my full list, below.
I’ve highlighted those which appeared prior to 2020 with an asterisk *. Everything else was added in 2020. If you have additions or corrections to this list, please let me know, and provide a link which I can research.

Extinct

Extinct in the wild (IUCN Red List code EW)

  • Arctostaphylos franciscana, Central Coast, San Francisco County, California. Last observed in the wild 2009
  • Crataegus delawarensis, Delaware, 1903
  • Crataegus fecunda, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, 1930s
  • Crataegus lanuginosa, Webb City, Jasper County, Missouri, 1957
  • Euonymous atropurpurea var. cheatumii, Dallas County, Texas, 1944
  • Franklinia alatamaha, Franklin Tree
  • Prunus maritima var. gravesii, beach plum, groton, New London County, Connecticut, 2000

Related Content

Links

Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada, 2020-08-20, Authors: Wesley M. Knapp, Anne Frances, Reed Noss, Robert F. C. Naczi, Alan Weakley, George D. Gann, Bruce G. Baldwin, James Miller, Patrick McIntyre, Brent D. Mishler, Gerry Moore, Richard G. Olmstead, Anna Strong, Kathryn Kennedy, Bonnie Heidel, Daniel Gluesenkamp

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