A scientist who discovered an extremely rare plant in Lithuania half a century later: I did not believe it with my own eyes

“How does it feel to find an extremely rare or extinct plant? Does the hunter’s hunt cover? —I ask Kęstutis. And he laughs, “Oh yeah, I really do!”

The beginning was still while studying at the university: in his hometown, the Kaukinė forest, together with his brother (naturalist, teacher Sigutis Obelevičius) I had to discover many rare plants, so even thirteen of them were carefully described by Kęstutis in your studio work.

“Of course, then the teachers didn’t want to believe me. The supervisor of the final work, Professor Domas Smaliukas, came with two other fellow doctors of science to check if he had not tried things. In the end, they all confirmed that I really managed to find and accurately identify the thirteen rare plants, ”says Kęstutis at the beginning of his passion for botany. And right here remember an unforgettable story with a swamp.

Discovered half a century later

Typically, to understand when you discover a rare plant, you need to be able to accurately identify it. But sometimes, even for an experienced connoisseur, this can be quite tricky, especially if you see a plant in front of you that you are only familiar with from literature.

“It just came to my knowledge then. This plant, found and described somewhere around Tytuvėnai in 1956, later, after draining the swamp and exploiting the area, it disappeared in that habitat. Even half a century ago, no one could find it. So when in 2004 I discovered a large area of ​​wetlands near Kaunas, in the Pravieniškės forest near Kaunas, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Fortunately, I had a Polish book, an atlas of plants, rocks and minerals, which I drew and described identically to the plant I discovered, which I bought during my studies for half the scholarship, ”says Kęstutis.

Even when he was happy to announce the discovery to the then director of the Institute of Botany, Valerijus Rašomavičius, he simply shook his hand: You were probably wrong, you confessed. “Invited to see for himself, he arrived the next day, especially since he had seen grapes grow. in the Swedish meadows. And when he saw it, he confirmed: yes, indeed it is a plant that has been considered extinct in Lithuania for half a century!

Not always and not necessarily the culprit

It is in this place that the swamp photographed by Kęstutis is adorned with the pages of the Red Book. It is true that it is interesting that it was not possible to find more of their habitats; it is still the only known growing site in the wetland in Lithuania.

“It is a plant from northern countries, so as the climate warms, it becomes less and less attractive to live with us,” says Kęstutis, emphasizing that the plants do not always become rare or disappear due to activities human.

Here is a photo of him.

I don’t know if he grew it himself or someone else planted it. The problem with this plant is that it is tiny, the smallest of all squirrels, and is crossed by a much larger common squirrel. Even the ones that grow along the way: a few years ago there were intermediate squares, there was only one ordinary one. And now most are hybrids. This also explains the extinction of this plant: if another species of garden grows nearby, the intermediate garden begins to interbreed with them and disappear ”.

And sometimes human intervention even helps to restore the population of endangered plants: this is the case, for example, of lemon balm, which was discovered in the forest by the head of the Department of Exhibitions and Collections of the Botanical Garden of the Vytautas Magnus University, dr. Arūnas Balsevičius.

It was the only known habitat for that plant in Lithuania. After some time, it was noticed that the plants began to disappear, as it turned out, for natural reasons: the densely forested forest overshadowed the honeycombs, they began to be poorer without the sun, so that in a single year only a few dozen survived. plants were counted. Then the people intervened: they cleared the brush,

cut bushes, diluted hazelnuts. And in a couple of years the plants have fully recovered, they have grown abundantly again.
“So sometimes the forest plants need human help,” smiles Kęstutis.

Got lost to drive away

Not only was the middle plaza conveniently waiting for the photographer right here in Kaunas, located next to the Botanical Garden slopes. Many of the photos of Kęstutis included in the Lithuanian Red Data Book were taken at the Rare Plants Exhibition of the Vytautas Magnus University Botanical Garden, which was successfully installed and maintained a few years ago.

In specially selected places and on soil duly prepared for rare and protected plants, 10 territories with different habitats were created and presented to the visitors: 7 open places and 3 forest grasslands. Rare plants of dry and wet meadows, steppe and sloping meadows, heaths, wet meadows, intermediate wetlands, water bodies, wetland forests, broadleaf forests, pine forests and spruce forests are planted and protected here according to need ecological.

One of those immortalized exhibits is a Lapland willow. “In our garden, this plant has taken root and is growing successfully. In nature, Lapland willows tend to grow in places that are difficult to access. Once we found it in a swamp, but there was a ditch of beavers around it that we couldn’t even take a picture properly, ”says Kęstutis, who does not let go of the camera.

Two more immortalized inhabitants of the same exhibition are ornate, hairy carnations.

“I’ve also photographed hairy carnations in the backyard in the Juniper Valley – it’s true that I don’t know how long that habitat will survive because the trimerists diligently cut it down, so the hairy carnations probably won’t stay there in time.

And when it comes to ornate carnations, no matter how much you don’t want to grow, the ones that grow in our Botanical Garden are likely to be the last in Lithuania as well – they may no longer be in the wild. In the swamp, where ornate carnations grew 15 years ago, we crawled along the paths for two days looking for them with colleagues, but found nothing. And here are the ones we arranged in Kaunas, in our collection, it fits well here, apparently the ground and the place fit perfectly. Who knows, maybe one day it will be possible to return the decorated carnation to nature from the collected seeds ”, Kęstutis considers.

Other Red Book plants photographed here at the exhibition in Kaunas are forest grasslands, pea leaf wikis (sourced from Bukta forest), woodpecker from the forest, narrow-leaved swamp.

“The last time the roe deer was installed in the garden several times last year, it grew all the time and successfully flowered. It is an ornamental plant, it is true that it is often a rare plant for rare plants: last year I found three narrow-leaved lungs in Trudai, Rūdiškės forest. I was glad that this habitat was not known until then. A day later, I returned to that location to remove the coordinates and found … only three holes. These rare and endangered plants extinction have already been unearthed and carried away by someone.

Will these looted plants grace someone’s flower beds for long? It’s hard to tell, but the lungs are perhaps even tougher compared to blackberries, which have been abducted from the wild and spread to human flower beds by 99.9 percent. dies due to the special conditions that are required for these plants. “