Using AI to find 'girlfriends' for the world's loneliest tree

E. woodii belongs to the order Cycadales. The only tree of this species was discovered in 1895 in Ngoye forest.

Scientists are using drones and artificial intelligence (AI) to scan dozens of square kilometers of forest in South Africa to find a "girlfriend" for this male tree, which has been described as the loneliest tree in the world.

According to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), E. woodii belongs to a group of plants that are extinct in the wild. All current members of E. woodii are male clones of the only plant ever found and cannot reproduce naturally.

The ancestors of this plant existed 300 million years ago, before the age of dinosaurs. This ancient plant is now one of the most endangered creatures on the planet. Currently, scientists are growing and propagating this plant at Kew Botanical Garden in London, England.

Dr Laura Cinti, a researcher at the University of Southampton who is leading the project, said she hopes that there is a female tree somewhere out there that can restore this almost extinct species through reproduction. nature.

To date, only about 2% of the total area of ​​40.5 million square kilometers of forest has been analyzed by AI. AI will use image recognition algorithms to identify plants by shape.

In case the project fails, scientists have another option: to research the possibility of chemical or physiological effects to change the sex of E. woodii, allowing it to reproduce naturally.