Plant believed extinct for 60 years suddenly reappears

A plant believed to have vanished decades ago has been rediscovered in remote northern Australia, thanks to a chance observation uploaded to the citizen science platform iNaturalist. Scientists say the remarkable find highlights how everyday people are becoming increasingly important to modern biodiversity research and conservation. The discovery began when Aaron Bean, a professional horticulturalist who was helping band birds on a large outback property in Queensland, noticed an unusual plant g

He photographed it and later uploaded the images to iNaturalist after regaining phone service. That simple upload set off an extraordinary chain of events. Among the millions of observations shared on the platform, the photos eventually caught the attention of botanist Anthony Bean from the Queensland Herbarium. He immediately recognized the species as Ptilotus senarius , a rare plant that had not been documented since 1967 and was widely considered extinct in the wild. Anthony Bean had actually described the species himself a decade earlier. "It was very serendipitous," said Thomas Mesaglio from the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who documented the rediscovery for the Australian Journal of Botany . "Aaron Bean is an avid iNaturalist user who opportunistically took some photos of a few plants that were interesting on the property." Ptilotus senarius is a delicate shrub with purple pink flowers that resemble small feathered fireworks. The species grows only in rugged terrain near the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. Before this rediscovery, no confirmed sightings had occurred for nearly 60 years. Scientists believed it may have joined the roughly 900 plant species that have disappeared from the wild globally since the 1750s. With Aaron Bean's photographs, Anthony Bean's expertise, and help from the property owner in collecting a specimen, researchers were finally able to confirm that the species still survives. Rather than being classified as extinct, the plant has now been moved to the critically endangered list, allowing scientists and conservation groups to focus on protecting it.

Key points

• He photographed it and later uploaded the images to iNaturalist after regaining phone service.
• That simple upload set off an extraordinary chain of events.
• Among the millions of observations shared on the platform, the photos eventually caught the attention of botanist Anthony Bean from the Queensland Herbarium.
• He immediately recognized the species as Ptilotus senarius , a rare plant that had not been documented since 1967 and was widely considered extinct in the wild.
• Anthony Bean had actually described the species himself a decade earlier.