Botanists rediscover rare Hawaiian flower thought extinct, thanks to a drone

That’s how Hibiscadelphus woodii, a relative of the hibiscus flower, wound up on the extinct species list in just shy of two decades after it was first discovered by botanist Ken Wood in 1991, in the Kalalau Valley on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Wood has spent his career at the National Tropical Botanical Garden pushing the limits of anti-extinction botany, often rappelling down cliffs on Kauai and hanging out of helicopters to find and rescue precarious species with fewer than 50 individuals left—many of them with far fewer, perhaps just five or 10. In 2016, Ben Nyberg, a drone specialist, began working with the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai to scope out extreme spots in the verdant valleys of the island.

Source: qz.com