Artificial intelligence is being deployed in an ambitious project to locate a female partner for the world's loneliest plant, an endangered male Encephalartos woodii (E. woodii). This effort, spearheaded by the University of Southampton, aims to scour thousands of acres of South African forest where the only known specimen of E. woodii was discovered.
All existing E. woodii plants are male clones of this single known plant and cannot naturally reproduce. The species, which predates the dinosaurs, is considered one of the planet's most endangered organisms.
Dr Laura Cinti examines an E. woodii specimen at the University of Southampton.
Dr. Laura Cinti, a research fellow at the University of Southampton, leads the groundbreaking project employing drones and AI technology to identify a female E. woodii. "I was very inspired by the story of the E. woodii, it mirrors a classic tale of unrequited love," she remarked. "I’m hopeful there is a female out there somewhere. It would be amazing to bring this plant back from the brink of extinction through natural reproduction."
The species Encephalartos woodii predates the dinosaurs.
Discovered in the Ngoye Forest in 1895, the only known E. woodii has led to all propagated samples being male, hindering natural reproduction. The project utilizes drone imaging analyzed by AI, with less than 2% of the forest's 10,000 acres explored so far.
The only known specimen was discovered in Ngoye Forest in 1895.
Dr. Cinti explained, "With AI, we are using an image recognition algorithm to identify plants by shape. We generated images of plants and placed them in various ecological settings to train the model to recognize them."
Drones are capturing images of the 10,000-acre forest area.
This comprehensive exploration of the forest aims to uncover a female E. woodii, a task that has never been fully undertaken before. Meanwhile, the species is still propagated at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London, where it is known as the "world's loneliest plant."
This initiative represents a significant step in leveraging technology for conservation, offering hope that one of the world's rarest plants may yet find a mate and continue its ancient lineage.
