PALE BUGSEED I
photography, edition of six

100 x 56 cm

2025

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"In Washington state, the team found two confirmed extinctions: the thistle milk-vetch, or Astragalus kentrophyta var. douglasii, and the pale bugseed, or Corispermum pallidum. While neither of these Eastern Washington species were ever abundant, their disappearance is likely due to the human impact of changing land use. This has also dramatically reduced the populations of countless other species, many of which are likely to follow these into extinction, unless efforts to protect what remains of native habitat are stepped up. [...]

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'Preventing extinction is the lowest bar for conservation success we can set, yet we are not always successful,' said [Wesley] Knapp. 'This study started as an academic question but later developed into an opportunity to learn from what we have lost. By studying the trends and patterns of plants that have already gone extinct, hopefully we can learn how to prevent plant extinction going forward.' [...]

Of the 65 documented extinctions in the report, 64% were known only from a single location. While conservation often focuses on protecting entire landscapes, this finding points to the importance of small-scale site protection to prevent extinctions. Extinct species are still being described from old herbarium specimens, underscoring the importance of continued documentation of the flora and supporting museum collections like the Burke Herbarium." (source: Washington.edu)