Once the earth looked more green than blue and was known as a green planet than now ever a blue planet, even the planet was fulfilled with ever-green plant species and trees. But that was the time before the name has gone. Plants have done everything for us from adding to the beauty of nature, contributing to biological evolution, and playing an important role in the life cycle of living beings on earth. Unfortunately, in present days, half of the Plant’s population is killed due to human activities and other climatic conditions and some have already disappeared before even existence of the human.
But let’s talk about Did you know that there are some extinct plant species in India that are so rare that there are claims of having only a couple of them existing? There are approximately 1100 plant species that are endangered today and there are hundreds of extinct plants with names that no longer exist between us. Here is a list of some extinct species.
Calamites– Calamites were medium-sized trees that are now extinct for millions of years and you can’t find them anywhere on the Earth. They used to grow to a height of above 30 meters and were spore-bearing plants that lived during the Carboniferous and Permian periods which was about 360 to 250 million years ago. Well, scientists study the structure of such plants from the fossils that they have found in different areas of Earth.
Cooksonia– this is one of the oldest primitive extinct plants in the history of planet Earth is the Cooksonia plant. This plant is said to have existed on Earth about 433 million years ago. To find the fossils of Cooksonia is very difficult because only a few incidents were reported. The Cooksonia plant only had slender stalks and it is said to have possessed small and lacked leaves, flowers, and roots.
Lepidodendron– Lepidodendron plants were commonly known as scale trees. They were an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, tree-like plants related to the lycopsids, and Isoetes. Their trunks are believed to be 1 meter long in diameter and they used to reach up to a height of 30 meters and even more than that. They were part of the coal forest flora and They became extinct when these swamps disappeared.
Rhynia– Rhynia was a bisexual sporophyte generation of a vascular plant that had anatomical features which had more advanced than other of the bryophytes. This plant existed hundreds of years ago from now on the planet Earth where it grew in the vicinity of a silica-rich hot spring. Well, they were bisexual plants in nature they used to grow close to the other vascular plants.
Silphium– This plant was a major addition during the Greek and Egyptian dynasties and it played a very important role at that time. This plant was mainly used for medical purposes in treating many of the diseases and problems faced by patients. It also was used as a contraceptive medicine by ancient Greeks and Romans.
Saint Helena Olive– Saint Helena Olive was an island endemic native plant to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Besides its name, this plant did not belong to the family of olives. Instead of this, it was a tough plant with pale pink flowers that bloomed on the small island of Tristan da Cunha. Their population was very few at that time, and later it completely disappeared.
Sigillaria– this plant species was considered one of the most extinct plants to have ever existed on the planet Earth, it evolved during the Late Carboniferous period. It is to believed that Sigillaria had scales, not bark and it was a very tall plant that used to grow around 100 feet tall in height, it was one of the fastest-growing plants and it had grass-like leaves that grew from a fork of the tree. Additionally, the interesting thing is, instead of producing seeds, Sigillaria reproduced by creating spores.
Franklinia– One of the most beautiful flowering trees which is commonly known as the Franklin tree was native to the Altamaha River valley in Georgia, USA. This plant is mysteriously extinct in the wild and since then no trace of this plant has been found. This flower was very fragrant and white in color with yellow pollination buds in between to help in reproducing more. The specialty of this plant was its leaves which used to turn red in autumn. Season.
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