The loneliest plant in the world (2011) | Hacker News Reader

The loneliest plant in the world (2011)

npr.org

102 pointswhyenot19 comments

L'Arbre du Ténéré was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth, the only one for over 400 kilometres ... it was killed in 1973 by a drunk truck driver:

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

http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/30/a-drunk-driver-killed-th...

How the hell do you not avoid a single object in the middle of nowhere?

It's the only thing to look at - and you tend to steer in the direction you're looking...

Drunk doesn't necessarily mean you accidentally hit it but maybe that you stupidly decide it's a good idea to hit it?

Metaphorical of humanity.

This is also why we can't have old trees in the cities. During the many human generations, there will always be someone who will destroy them - and it will only take one.

Subtracting out the genetic information being lost due to extinctions and lost diversity, I wonder if the current "information revolution" is actually a period marked by an overall destruction of information?

London manages surprisingly well on that score, including a yew estimated at 2000 years old. https://foursquare.com/kevan/list/the-great-trees-of-london

That gives a good civilized image of the city.

I can't imagine it was dumb luck that the drunk driver hit that tree, I'm guessing there was a bet/challenge involved.

Allegedly drunk.

This is such a pregnant story .. its a chapter in human management of the ecological treasures of our planet that is waiting to be written. I hope I live to see the day another cycad is found, and the species returns to flourish on the Earth .. what an enlightening circumstance that would be.

I don't think they're going to flourish - they seems to have a evolutionary disadvantage.

However we can devise and island or two for such fauna exclusively. Maybe some day we even get hold on some dinosaurs.

Well, given its - at the moment - the absolute last survivor of its species, were a suitable mate to be discovered I think I'd be happy thinking of the result as a flourish upon the Earth.. but I'm willing to admit that's just me. ;)

If you liked that, you might want to listen to the Radiolab on Lonesome George. (I think it's the middle one but it's worth listening to all three for context)

http://www.radiolab.org/story/galapagos/

if it's a male dioecious plant, then it has X & Y chromosomes (like dates), so you could theoretically clone a female friend for him :)

There are more sex chromosomes in the world than just X and Y. It may not be so simple.

Very true sir in a small fraction of cases, see http://www.umsl.edu/~renners/Ming_etal_Sex_chromosomes_2011.... (well, if you wanted to be precise, you could have said "there are more sex determination systems in the world than just XX/XY", since these letters only make sense when it comes to comparing different systems, sex loci relate to one chromosome within the same species)

In this particular case however, it's not true, Cycads are in the XY/XX system, see http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/2/261

So we may proceed and clone those females :)

There is actually a project to do something similar using conventional breeding. E. woodsii hybridizes with E. natalensis. If you back-cross hybrid offspring with E. woodsii again and again, with each generation you will have plants that are genetically closer and closer to the E. woodsii parent while still having female plants.

A sad fate known to many woodiis

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