At 03:46 AM 9/4/2011, you wrote:

First, as I mentioned in an earlier post, at least two native
populations have been discovered recently in the wild. The exact
locations are not being disclosed by the botanists who found them,
for obvious reasons..

Second, although it is true that some Tecophilaea cyanocrocus were
taken to Europe, John Watson (as always) had something memorable to
say about that, to the effect that the apparent extinction of the
species was more likely caused by overgrazing than by "spade-wielding
peasants in the pay of villainous Dutchmen." If you have been to the
former habitat of this species, you will know that much of the land
is now covered mostly by vegetation that is either thorny or
poisonous or both, almost everything else having been devoured by the
thousands of goats kept there by rural people who maintain them
largely for cheese production. (Fortunately for our interests, the
showy amaryllids of the area are poisonous.)

The introduction of Old World livestock into the Americas is surely
the cause of a large proportion of the plant extinctions that have
occurred there, not to mention violent and rapid changes in plant
communities and subsequent effects on the fauna. Something similar
happened in the Old World millennia ago when pastoralism took hold.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

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