Middlemist’s Red
Introducing the rarest flower on Earth. The Middlemist Red was native to China. Today, however, only two specimens of the species exist. One is located in New Zealand, and the other in England. The flower is named after John Middlemist, who brought the flower to England from China in 1804.
A Mass Extinction?
All of the flowers mentioned above are extremely rare. For the most part, it is because their habitats have been destroyed by human activity. A study published in 2019 found that since the year 1750, 571 distinct plant species have been rendered extinct, and this number is thought to be an underestimate. Scientists are now saying that humans are contributing to the sixth mass extinction on Earth, in which an estimated one million plant and animal species are at risk of disappearing from the face of the planet foreover.
