Iconic Florida plant proposed to be added to Endangered Species list
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the ghost orchid, considered to be Florida's most famous flower, under the Endangered Species Act.
The announcement came on Wednesday, more than three years after three environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, The Institute for Regional Conservation and the National Parks Conservation Association— filed a petition requesting that the ghost orchid be listed under the law as a threatened species.
The ghost orchid is endemic to southwestern Florida and western Cuba. It is estimated that its population has declined by more than 90% around the world, and by up to 50% in Florida.
There are only an estimated 1,500 ghost orchids remaining in Florida, and less than half are known to be mature enough to reproduce. They are located mostly in the Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther's National Wildlife Refuge, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve Park, Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and other conservation areas in Collier, Hendry, and possibly Lee counties.
Among the factors that have led to the flower decreasing in population are the consequences of poaching as well as recent major storms, such as Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Ian in 2022, says Jaclyn Lopez, an attorney with the Jacobs Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University's College of Law based in Pinellas County, who is representing the conservation groups.
Other factors that have led to the ghost orchid becoming more vulnerable include increased development and climate change. The ghost orchid is a leafless plant species that uses its roots to photosynthesize and attach itself to a host tree.
'The habitat changes that happen used to be quite slow over time. As sea levels have changed historically that allowed plants to move,' Lopez said. 'The difference now is that the levels are rising much more quickly, not really giving plants the opportunity to adapt and to migrate on their own, and so the concern is that some of these trees could be lost to sea level rise.'
In February 2023, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted on social media that it had apprehended individuals attempting to steal a ghost orchid. In their petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the conservation groups noted that one of the chief threats to the ghost orchid was 'overcollection,' and therefore they did not list the exact locations of where the populations of the flower exist.
However, Lopez says that the Endangered Species Act requires very specific data to be included in the petition process, so the conservation groups were still able to provide that information to the Fish and Wildlife Service confidentially.
'We understood that the principal threat is poaching, so we had to make sure that we weren't going to be the reason poachers could find out their exact location,' she said, adding that the federal agency was later able to communicate directly with officials at Big Cypress and Corkscrew to provide 'location specific information on the species' right down to the individual plant.
In a statement, Elise Bennett, the Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, welcomed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's announcement on the ghost orchid, but said it was far too early to celebrate.
'[W]ith the Trump administration's incessant attacks on landmark environmental laws meant to stop species from going extinct, we know our job here isn't done,' she said. 'We'll continue to do what's necessary to ensure the ghost orchid and every other iconic Florida species has a fighting chance to thrive in our beautiful state.'
'People love plants,' adds Lopez. 'They're part of our own ecosystem and habitat. They're part of the aesthetic of living in Florida. And ghost orchids in particular are like the movie star of that ecosystem, so I imagine that this proposal will be gladly supported. I don't expect any political interference or backlash as a result. so we're just hopeful that the administration is able to move forward without further delay in giving the species finally all the protection that it needs.'
The Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments on the proposed rule until August 4.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Science-Backed Workout Jason Kelce Is Using to Build Muscle and Lose Fat
The Science-Backed Workout Jason Kelce Is Using to Build Muscle and Lose Fat originally appeared on Men's Fitness. Jason Kelce teamed up with exercise scientist Mike Israetel to transform his physique. After dropping more than 30 pounds, Kelce is entering a new chapter in his fitness journey: bodybuilding. Kelce and Israetel linked up for a YouTube video, where Israetel showed him the ropes guided Kelce through a push-day hypertrophy workout. Kelce explained he still wants to feel big and strong, but no longer wants to carry 295 pounds on his frame. At the time of filming, he said he weighed 266 pounds. His ultimate goal is build muscle while continuing to lose fat. "I would like to preserve the joint health and things that I have left to a certain degree," he says. During the session, he asked Israetel how recovered he should feel between sets during a hypertrophy phase—and how long to rest before moving to the next exercise. "The best answer is whenever you're really ready to do another hard set again, which requires four check boxes to be checked. One is that you're no longer breathing super heavy. The otherone is how do you feel systemically wise? Like do you feel strong?" Israetel answers. The last two boxes to check: making sure your target muscles and synergist muscles have also recovered. Here's the workout Kelce and Israetel pushed Bench Press Sets: 3 Reps: 4-6 Before getting serious weight on the barbell, Kelce completed a couple of warmup sets. Inverted Skull Crusher Sets: 3 Reps: 10-15 on Smith Machine 3 sets 10-15 reps They performed the workout on a Smith machine with no real weight loaded, making it an accessible move you can do at almost any gym. Israetel used the cue: "Elbows in, touch your chin, and come up." Deficit Pushups Sets : 3 Reps: 10 "Come down so only your chest touches the ground," Israetel cues. Super ROM Lateral Raises Sets: 1 Reps: 25 Though it's a high number of reps, Israetel allowed Kelce to break these up and shake his arms out. Super ROM lateral raises take the dumbbells to just over head height, focusing on a slow return to the start Science-Backed Workout Jason Kelce Is Using to Build Muscle and Lose Fat first appeared on Men's Fitness on Jul 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by Men's Fitness on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
NASA's supersonic X-59 jet that could slash NYC-London flight time in half taxis closer to take off
Breakfast in New York, midmorning snack in London. Taxi tests are underway on a highly anticipated supersonic plane designed to quietly break the sound barrier — and slash flight time between New York and London in half. The X-59 jet, dubbed the 'son of Concorde,' is one step closer to takeoff after the experimental aircraft taxied on a California runway at low speed using its own power for the first time on July 10, NASA said in a press release. The ground maneuvers at the US Air Force's Plant 42 in Palmdale mark the final series of trials for the 100-foot-long, 30-foot-wide jet before its maiden voyage, which is slated for sometime this year, according to the space agency. 3 NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft taxiing on a runway. Youtube/NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center 'Over the coming weeks, the aircraft will gradually increase its speed, leading up to a high-speed taxi test that will take the aircraft just short of the point where it would take off,' officials said. The high-tech plane, unveiled by NASA and Lockheed Martin last year, is the centerpiece of the space agency's QueSST mission to produce a quieter sonic boom for communities below and revolutionize air travel, potentially cutting transit time down significantly for commercial flights. It could possibly fly from New York to London flight in three and a half hours, the agency previously said. 3 NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft conducting its final tests before its maiden voyage. Carla Thomas/NASA / SWNS The new aircraft's innovative design and shape will cause it to produce a quiet 'thump' sound as it reaches speeds of up to 925 miles per hour, officials said. Supersonic flights have been banned in the US and other countries for the past half-century due to the thunderous sound generated when planes exceed the speed of sound — 767 miles per hour. 3 The aircraft is expected to revolutionize air travel. NASA But the X-59's thin, tapered nose is expected to break up shock waves that would cause the high-speed roar on a conventional aircraft, NASA previously boasted. The latest innovation will succeed the British Airways Concorde, which reached speeds of around 1,350 miles per hour and completed its fastest transatlantic flight in just under three hours on Feb. 7, 1996. The aircraft, which debuted in 1976, was plagued by costly maintenance and a fatal 2000 crash. It was retired from commercial service in 2003.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Felix Baumgartner, adventurer who leapt from the stratosphere and broke the sound barrier on his descent
Felix Baumgartner, who has died in a paramotoring accident aged 56, was a daredevil skydiver, BASE jumper and aerobatic helicopter pilot who achieved global celebrity after leaping from the edge of space. It was on October 14 2012 that the then 43-year-old skydiver stepped out of a pressurised capsule at an altitude of almost 24 miles and began a freefall to Earth. As he jumped he said: 'I'm coming home now.' Afterwards, he said: 'It's almost overwhelming. When you're standing there in a pressure suit, the only thing that you hear is yourself breathing, and you can see the curvature of the Earth; you can see the sky's totally black.' It took just 34 seconds for him to hit Mach 1, the speed of sound, creating a sonic boom that could be heard by those watching from the New Mexico desert below and the millions around the world watching the mission live (more than eight million tuned in, a record for YouTube at the time, almost breaking their servers.) Then to everyone's horror, he went into an uncontrollable spin. 'A lot of the scientists said prior to the jump, 'You're going to spin like crazy', he recalled in a documentary. 'I was mentally prepared to spin. The problem is there's no protocol. There's nobody in the world telling you: 'Listen Felix, if this happens you have to do this.' 'I was trying to move my arms around a little bit – maybe it does something? – and then it stopped for a second [before going] in the opposite direction. Then it really ramps up, and at that moment it's not about breaking records any more. It's all about survival.' After a few nailbiting moments, Baumgartner managed to exit the spin. Finally, after four minutes and 20 seconds he opened his parachute and landed safely. He had become the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound outside a vehicle and set the unofficial record for the highest manned balloon flight, of 123,491ft. He also broke the record for the highest-altitude jump, set in 1960 by the USAF Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who was Baumgartner's mentor and communicator at mission control. Before stepping from the capsule, perhaps conscious of the need for some portentous words, Baumgartner said: 'I wish the world could see what I see. Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are.' In 2014 the Google executive Alan Eustace broke his altitude record. 'Nobody remembers the second one,' said Baumgartner. Felix Baumgartner was born on 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria, the elder son of a carpenter and a housewife. As a child he had two ambitions, to become a skydiver and to fly a helicopter. After completing an apprenticeship as a machinist and working as a car mechanic, he enlisted in the Austrian armed forces for five years, receiving training as a parachutist. He completed his first BASE jump in 1996 from the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. BASE jumping had emerged as a thrill-seeking low-altitude variant of skydiving that involved leaping from fixed structures ('BASE' stands for buildings, antennas, spans and earth). He dedicated himself to the pursuit full-time and was soon sponsored by the Salzburg-based energy drinks company, Red Bull, which was then embedding itself in extreme sports. In 1999 he claimed a world record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he leapt from the Petronas Towers in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Later that year he made the lowest ever BASE jump, of 95ft, from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. In 2003 he became the first person to fly across the English Channel using a pair of specially made carbon-fibre wings. He leapt from a plane above Dover and landed 22 miles away in Cap Blanc-Nez, near Calais, 14 minutes later. 'You're totally alone,' he said afterwards, 'there's just you, your equipment, your wing – and your skills. I like it.' He became the first person to BASE-jump from the Millau Viaduct in France in 2004, and the first person to skydive on to, then BASE-jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden, in 2006. The following year he became the first to jump from the 91st-floor observation deck of the then world's tallest completed building, Taipei 101, in Taiwan. But it was the Red Bull Stratos edge-of-space project that catapulted him into the stratosphere, literally and metaphorically. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to his other childhood ambition. He had learnt to fly a helicopter in 2006, and he became an aerobatic helicopter pilot for the Flying Bulls team in Salzburg. More recently he had got into paragliding sports, initially flying fast and dynamic parakites – a cross between a kite and a conventional aerofoil wing – and latterly he had enthuiastically taken to paramotoring, the sport of motorised paragliding, in which pilots fly paragliders with an engine propeller on their back. It was while paramotoring in Porto Sant'Elpidio on the Adriatic coast of the Marche region in central Italy that he suffered a fatal accident, apparently undergoing a medical emergency and crashing into the swimming pool of a hotel. He always denied that he took unnecessary risks: 'I pay close attention to my flight preparation and do it extremely meticulously. That is who I am and that was always the message I wanted to convey. People know that I never push things too far, whether on a solo flight through the mountains, a jump or at an air show in front of 100,000 people.' Down on Earth Baumgartner was a controversial figure in his homeland. In 2010 he was fined €1,500 (£1,300) after punching a Greek truck driver in the face during a roadside altercation near Salzburg. He was also noted for his robust political views, once telling the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung: 'You can't achieve anything in a democracy. We would need a moderate dictatorship, where there are a few people from the private sector who really know what they're doing.' He received the (negative) 'Pink Handbag' award from the Austrian Women's Media Network for other uncompromising views, which also covered immigration, the LGBTQ community and the Covid pandemic. Baumgartner is survived by his partner of 11 years, Mihaela Schwartzenberg, a Romanian television presenter who he referred to as his 'great love' in an interview for Playboy. Felix Baumgartner, born April 20 1969, died July 17 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
