February 14th, 2026Beetham’s Botanicals

Well here I am again writing an article for you, the reader, to enjoy.
This time I’ll be entering the world of endangered flora around the world.
Simply, the term endangered relates to any plant that lives in a threatened natural habitat that is still needing preservation or has indeed been lost.
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has established a public access database that lists not only plant species but animals as well, with categories that range (in the case of this article) from endangered to critically endangered to extinct in the wild.

So buckle up and travel around the globe with four trees and one shrub that I have selected for you.

1. Acer griseum (paperbark maple), a member of the Sapindaceae family, is one of the finest medium-sized maples to add to your garden with its extraordinary peeling bark (see image top right) and stunning autumnal foliage. Native to parts of China it has been declared endangered due to heavy deforestation – worth seeking out from rare plant nurseries.
2. Clianthus puniceus (New Zealand glory pea or kaka beak), a member of the Fabaceae family, is a small, wide-spreading shrub (see image middle right) endemic to New Zealand’s North Island where it is now extinct in the wild. However there are now efforts to reintroduce this species back into the wild after a chance discovery of a pack of seeds in a garden shed that were found to have origins back to a recognised habitat before the species was overrun by rabbits, goats, deer and snails. They were germinated successfully and subsequent plants produced more viable seed and so hundreds of plants will be let loose to form new populations.
3. Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant redwood), a member of the cupressaceae family, is represented most famously in the wild by the specimen (the largest of any known tree species by volume) with the name of the General Sherman Tree (see image lower right) whose dimensions are dazzling – a height of 84m, average canopy width of 31m, a circumference of 31m at the base and a diameter of 5.3m at 18.3m above the base. Declared as endangered, this remarkable species can live for over 3000 years and can only be found in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California USA. There are many registered significant giant redwoods in Victoria including a ripper down at the Spa Reserve in Hepburn Springs.
4. Sophora toromiro (toromiro), another member of the fabaceae family, is a small tree that has also been listed as extinct in the wild. Once common on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) its population was lost due to heavy deforestation. When Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed to Rapa Nui in 1955-56 he collected seed from the last existing tree that was then cut down in 1960, took the seed back to Europe and now plants can be found growing in gardens around the world. The National Arboretum in Canberra has a dedicated forest – #77.
5. Wollemia nobilis (wollemi pine) another member of the araucariaceae family that is critically endangered, is last but not least, as its botanical history is almost unimaginable in this day and age. Back in the early 1990s a NSW park ranger (David Noble) came across a hidden canyon in Wollemi National Park that contained a forest of these living fossils and so the process of identification and naming began. Propagation was successful and there are now specimens to be found all over the globe all with the same DNA.
I hope you, the reader, have been entertained by these anecdotal notes on a small selection of plants that have struggled to survive in their native habitats around the world.

Cheers John Beetham (Trees in Australia)

Next time: Creating micro-climates in the garden