THE PLANT MESSIAH HELPS SAVE US
CARLOS MAGDALENA
Like a modern botanical version of Noah, Carlos Magdalena is working to save every species of plant on the planet.
Over one fifth of all the world’s plants are in danger of extinction. Magdalena, a senior botanical horticulturist at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, travels far and wide to find the world’s endangered species and find out how to cultivate them before they disappear from the face of the earth forever.
Known as the “Plant Messiah,” Magdalena has worked wonders to successfully resurrect numerous near-extinct species and to discover new species. His newly published memoir, The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World’s Rarest Species, tells the story of his journey and raises awareness about the critical importance of biodiversity as a key to our own survival.
While there has been a lot of focus on the importance of animal conservation, for example with Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark project, most people don’t realize that endangered plants are a far bigger concern. That’s because the issue has been largely underreported -- until now.
Some plants have been here for 100 million years, yet there are 80,000 types of plants that are endangered, primarily due to habitat destruction, excessive extraction of natural resources, and climate change.
Why should we care? Many reasons. Saving plants represents part of a greater mission to extend planetary survival. The crash of plant diversity has been called “6th mass extinction event.” The 5th happened 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the earth.
To put the urgency into perspective, consider one fact: 60% of our calorie intake comes from just 3 species of plants: rice, maize and wheat. If that crop production were to collapse, humans would starve to death.
There are over 50,000 species that could feed us, if they are kept alive, they could keep us alive. Additionally, there are more than 28,000 species that have recorded medicinal uses. “So with the extinction of each species, our food palette and our pharmacy become poorer and smaller,” Magdalena explains.
If we lose too many plant species the whole global ecosystem could crash, which would have devastating repercussions for life as we know it.
The only way to save endangered plants is to cultivate them. And that is no easy feat.
Each plant has its own unique requirements in order for it to grow, bloom pollinate, germinate, and thrive. Magdalena must conduct numerous experiments to find out what each species needs to reproduce and survive. He likens the effort to code-breaking.
Magdalena needs to try a lot of different things to figure out how to save each species. For example, he found that some seeds from South Africa need to be exposed to chemicals present in smoke to germinate. Some seeds need to be kept constantly moist -- never allowed to dry out or they will die. There can be as many as 2,000 possible variables. And very small changes can mean big differences. He never knows which particulars are necessary until he observes positive results.
One plant Magdalena saved from extinction was the café marron (Ramosmania rodriguesi), a gorgeous shrub that never stops blooming, with dark green leaves and snow-white jasmine-like flowers. It was the last of its kind. And while it was being kept alive “artificially,” propagated by cuttings, neither the original nor the cuttings could ever set seed. Technically, it was already extinct because it could not reproduce. Magdalena figured out out to solve the problem with artificial insemination, inserting pollen in scalpel cuts of the female flower. It took hundreds of attempts before victory.
In another important rescue, Magdalena revived the world’s smallest water lily (Nymphaea thermarum), saving it from impending extinction. After tirelessly experimenting with temperature, pH, the concentration of salts, light, soil mixes and more, he stumbled upon the magic bullet.
“One evening, I was at home cooking tortellini. As I stirred and the water bubbled, it came to me: CO2.,” he explains. Since carbon dioxide dissolves poorly in water, Magdalena guessed that the lilliputian lily was being starved of the gas it needed to survive.
He began experimenting with water levels, allowing the plant’s leaves to peek out above just half a centimeter of soil from a shallow tray rather than submerging it fully, so it could be exposed to the high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air from its first moments. He had been playing with the last seedlings on the planet, but fortunately, he won the game.
New technology is taking these efforts beyond the horticultural methods normally used to propagate, including in vitro tissue culture and clonal micropropagation.
But even with these advances in technology, plants can fail for any number of reasons. “In my experience, the best tool in a horticulturist’s toolbox is determination,” Magdalena says. “Sometimes it is only when a plant consumes all your waking thought that you find a breakthrough.”
In addition to saving near extinct species, new plant species are constantly being discovered. Kew’s “State of the World’s Plants” reports on thousands of new species that have been recently discovered. It is estimated that there are 60,000 more species yet to be discovered. Magdalena has done his share to help discover the newbies too. He is credited with recently discovering a new species of water lily.
The new water lily was found on a plant-hunting expedition in remote crocodile-infested waters spot in Kimberley, in Western Australia.
Once this discovery has been backed up with DNA analysis, the next step will be to officially name the water lily.
If successfully grown at Kew, their DNA will be available for international researchers to study, and will produce seeds that will be stored at the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst. And of course, they will be put on display for visitors to admire.
Want to learn more? Check out Magdalena’s new book, The Plant Messiah, in which he takes readers on his various missions, from the Amazon to the jungles of Mauritius to deep within the Australian Outback in search of the rarest most endanged plants. The Wall Street Journal calls it "A thrilling and inspirational account of adventures in the botanical world."
The book tells fascinating stories about plant “behavior.” It also gives us insights into Magdalena’s work in the lab, as he develops groundbreaking unusual techniques for encouraging endangered species to propagate and thrive once again.
“A book that will inspire wonder, even hope.”
—Booklist
“Botany, on its face, doesn't sound particularly thrilling. This book will change your mind.”
—Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author, environmentalist & founder of 350.org.
“Carlos is an inspiration to me. He's the perfect spokesperson for the plants of the world.”
—Jane Goodall, primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace
What can we do to help protect our precious biodiversity against further loss?
If you have a garden, grow local wild plants species. Grow Wild offers easy wildflower seed kits.
Contribute to the Kew Foundation to support scientific research into plants and the annual landmark study on The State of the World’s Plants. You can donate here.
Contribute to organizations that crowdsource investment to protect wild spaces such as Healthy Planet and Cuipo.
“Plants truly have the power to save us: They produce energy, raw materials, fibers, food and medicine, and they gobble up the carbon dioxide our modern lives force into the air. We have no choice but to try to save them, if we are going to save ourselves, too.”
-- Carlos Magdalena
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