Extinction threat to ancient plant group
The oldest seed plants known, the cycads, are now among the most threatened on Earth, scientists say. One of the worst threats comes from the trade in wild plants for the horticultural trade.
A botanist once showed me a cycad in the Australian rain forest. He claimed that the species in question grew one centimetre per century. The specimen in question was at least two metres high—that's over 2,000 years old.