Maine conservationists just rediscovered a plant life that has n’t been seen in the state for more than a century , according to theBangor Daily News . The rarified unicorn tooth root , also known as the white colic - root or colicroot , was last document in 1887 .
This summer , the Maine Natural Areas Program — part of the Department of State ’s Department of Agriculture , Conservation and Forestry — located and document example of the industrial plant near the town of Bowdoin . The flora were produce in a damp field on private property .
While rare to spy , Aletris farinosais nativeto much of the southern and easterly U.S. and Ontario , Canada , and often grows in moist prairie and hayfield . ( Some of its close-fitting relative grow elsewhere in the world , too . There are a number of species in the genusAletriathat grow in Asia.)Historically , it was used as a medicative plant to treat digestive issues , among otherailments .
Only three specimens of unicorn root have antecedently been collected and officially document in Maine in the last 145 age : one in 1874 near the town of Brunswick , one in 1879 near the townspeople of Wells , and one in 1887 near the metropolis of Lewiston .
It ’s not quite clear how the lately spotted specimen popped up in Bowdoin after years of no sightings . The seeds may have been sink underground for years and only of late change state up due to bulldozer or a fire change the soil around , as botanist Don Cameron of the Maine Natural Areas Program recount theBangor Daily News . It ’s unclear what will happen to these special plants now , since the field of honor they are growing in is on private property , but Cameron observe that the property owner seems amenable to protecting the plant .
[ h / tBangor Daily News ]
