‘Inestimable importance’: 500-year-old cache of pressed flowers reveals new secrets (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz

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A collection of pressed flowers taken from the hillsides of Bologna 500 years ago is unlocking knowledge about how the climate ccrisis and human migration is changing landscapes in northern Italy.

Picked between 1551 and 1586 by the Renaissance naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the 5,000 delicately cut and dried plants form one of the richest collections of its time.

Aldrovandi’s original purpose was to identify plant species and understand which could be used for pharmaceutical purposes. Nearly half a millennia later, his carefully pressed specimens are helping botanists document the enormous changes that have taken place in the surrounding landscapes, according to new research published by the Royal Society.

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[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A collection of pressed flowers taken from the hillsides of Bologna 500 years ago is unlocking knowledge about how the climate crisis and human migration is changing landscapes in northern Italy.

Picked between 1551 and 1586 by the Renaissance naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the 5,000 delicately cut and dried plants form one of the richest collections of its time.

Nearly half a millennia later, his carefully pressed specimens are helping botanists document the enormous changes that have taken place in the surrounding landscapes, according to new research published by the Royal Society.

During Aldrovandi’s time, Bologna’s hills were rich in species that are threatened or have even disappeared today, such as motherwort, which was used for medicinal purposes and is now likely extinct in the region.

“A recent scientific trend is to dismiss these collections, which are regarded as dusty, cumbersome, unnecessary burdens – very expensive to stock and maintain and practically of no use for modern research.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all the latest news and features

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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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