thanks to a secret planting operation run by naturalists at Chester Zoo
(Phil Esseen / Curator of Botany and Horticulture, Chester Zoo)
"Welsh Cotoneaster. There's only a very small number of them left in the wild. And I think it's really important that we conserve local species, that we don't just think about more exotic ones, but we think about the ones that are closest to home as well."
Welsh Cotoneaster only grows on wild and windy cliffs in North Wales
By the 1960s, overcollection and grazing by animals had reduced the number in the wild to just six
Decades of conservation efforts have boosted the number of plants from six to around 110
"It's an ongoing process. This isn't the end of it. You know, there's still lots of people growing the species. And you know, there's still only a handful left, or surviving in Wales, so it's going to be a long process to actually get that into a situation where it becomes less than critically endangered."
