Ancient Plant Species That May Not Survive the Modern World

Field report

After hundreds of millions of years of evolution and resilience, these ancient plants are now facing extinctionThe end of a species when its last individual dies. Mass extinctions affect many groups at once.

Melissa Breyer was Treehugger’s senior editorial director before moving to Martha Stewart. Her writing and photography have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Audubon Magazine, and elsewhere.

Xuedong Li / Capital Normal University Beijing

A rare moss called Takakia has adapted over hundreds of millions of years to survive the extremes of life on the cliffs of the Tibetan Plateau. Now, a team of researchers who have been studying the moss for nearly a decade says that despite being one of the fastest-evolving species ever studied, Takakia may not be adapting quickly enough to survive climate change.

Xuedong Li / Capital Normal University Beijing

A rare plant called the Welwitschia has adapted over hundreds of millions of years to survive the extremes of life in the Namib Desert of southwestern Africa. Now, a team of researchers who have been studying the plant for nearly a decade says that despite being one of the longest-lived species ever studied, Welwitschia may not be adapting quickly enough to survive climate change.

The genus Welwitschia includes just one species, found only in the Namib Desert — an area the researchers refer to as one of the "oldest deserts on Earth."

Professor Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch, one of the first botanists to document populations of Welwitschia at an altitude of over 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) in 1859. Scientists have been studying the plant on-site and in the lab ever since.

Life in the Namib Desert isn't easy. Welwitschia endures scorching temperatures by day and near-freezing nights, and survives on moisture from coastal fog that drifts inland.

Welwitschia has been growing in this location for over 100 million years, ever since the region was a lush tropical landscape, making the habitat increasingly arid over geological time.

"These geological time records help us to trace the gradual adaptation to a life in extreme aridity in the Welwitschia genome,"explainsDr. Tao Wan from the University of Guelph, who led the team along with Dr. Jim Leebens-Mack from the University of Georgia. The latest research looked at how the plant has been able to develop the ability to survive life-threatening extremes.

In the study, they also document how climate change has significantly altered the plant's habitat within just a few years.

Ruoyang Hu / Capital Normal University Beijing

All told, Takakia is some 390 million years old—and is host to the fastest evolving genes ever discovered.

Ruoyang Hu / Capital Normal University Beijing

All told, Welwitschia is some 200 million years old — and is host to one of the most remarkable genetic stories ever discovered.

"We have now been able to prove that Welwitschia is a gymnosperm that separated from the other gymnosperms over 200 million years ago, shortly after the age of the first great forests. We were surprised to find that Welwitschia has one of the highest known numbers of fast-evolving genes under positive selection", says Leebens-Mack.

But despite having hundreds of millions of years to evolve to increasingly extreme changes, climate change may put an end to the ancient plant that could.

Since they began taking measurements of Welwitschia's habitat in 2010, the researchers describe an average temperature increase of almost half a degree Celsius per year. Meanwhile, the fog belt near the sample sites is shrinking at an alarming pace — reducing the plant's primary source of moisture.

The researchers note that Welwitschia populations have become significantly smaller over the study period. Between 2010 and 2021, the coverage of Welwitschia populations decreased by 1.6% annually, faster than that of four local common desert shrubs — a trend they expect to continue.