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Interesting question. In the U.S. an extensive biodiversity of
species are used for food and medicine, both commercial and
noncommercial. While I don't know of any that have become extinct,
what is apparent is that our natural resource agencies have rarely
managed for them. Consequently many foods and medicines are
adversely impacted by other dominant management activities like logging,
grazing, mountaintop removal, roadbuilding, and development. For
example, until recently Pacific Yew (<i>Taxus brevifolia</i>) which is
used for treating ovarian cancer was considered a trash tree by managers
and logging companies. After clearcutting the forest for the fir
trees, yew was scooped up into slash piles (along with the Devil's Club,
mushrooms, ferns, maples, etc. etc.) and burned. It is interesting
to note that many local people in the northwest have long valued
<i>brevifolia</i> for a range of purposes including fine furniture
making, beads, floral decorations, etc. These are often the same
people vilified in the environmental community as the ones who will
overharvest and degrade the resource. It's only too bad they
couldn't go in and at least salvage some of the resources before they
were put into the slash pile and burned, don't you think?<br><br>
My organization maintains an extensive species database for U.S.
nontimber forest product species at
<a href="http://www.ifcae.org/ntfp/" eudora="autourl">www.ifcae.org/ntfp/</a>
. To my knowledge none of the over 1,300 species listed in the database are extinct but we would be very interested in learning of any that are. We also maintain links to a variety of other databases where you can pinpoint information on threatened and endangered status, cultural info, and other.<br><br>
Eric T. Jones, Ph.D.<br>
Institute for Culture and Ecology<br>
PO Box 6688<br>
Portland, OR 97228-6688<br>
<a href="http://www.ifcae.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ifcae.org<br><br>
<br><br>
</a>At 11/14/2003, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>We are working with a reporter who has asked the question: Are there any examples of food or medicien that has been lost because a plant species has become extinct? While I think I can talk about plants with medicinal or food value that are currently threatened or endangered, I can't come up with any that have actually gone extinct. Any ideas or thoughts?<br><br>
Thanks for your help on this!<br><br>
Flo Oxley<br>
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center<br>
4801 La Crosse Avenue<br>
Austin, TX 78739<br>
(512) 292-4200 ext. 160<br>
oxley@wildflower.org<br><br>
Educating North America about the environmental necessity, economic value, and natural beauty of native plants.<br><br>
<br>
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