In 2023, a botanist discovered a tree in the Nguru Mountains of eastern Tanzania that was previously thought to have been extinct, Mongabay reported. The tree — Millettia sacleuxii — is so rare that it does not even have a common English name.
The Millettia sacleuxii was known to have existed in three forest reserves in the Nguru and Usambara Mountains. However, two of those reserves were cleared decades ago and replaced with timber and sugar plantations, and the other one had been reduced in size as rice and sugar fields around it expanded.
Andrea Bianchi, the botanist who spotted the surviving trees, had been "worried about this species and fearing it may have gone extinct," he said. While both of the trees he found had been unable to grow to their full size, they still offered him the chance to use their seeds to help save the species.
"The very broad pods on both trees presented him with a unique opportunity to cultivate more," Mongabay wrote.
From those pods, Bianchi and conservation group the PAMS Foundation were able to germinate 5,500 seedlings. Those seedlings are now being planted in a wildlife corridor in the Nguru Mountains — part of a larger project that the PAMS Foundation is spearheading to regrow parts of Nguru's rainforests that have been lost to agricultural development.
According to Our World in Data, every year our planet loses over 12 million acres of forest, with at least three-quarters of that loss being driven by agriculture.
Once any species, plant or animal, goes extinct, it is likely lost forever — a tragedy on its own, and also a detriment to the biodiversity of the region where it is endemic. That's why conservation efforts are so important and why it's not too late to save so many species that are under threat.
Though the Millettia sacleuxii tree was given a 50-50 chance of being totally extinct by a veteran Tanzanian botanist back in 2004, it could now thrive in what remains of its former home, thanks to the efforts of Bianchi and the PAMS Foundation.
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