Plants

Cryopreservation is not sci-fi. It may save plants from extinction

Scientists want to deep-freeze plants for future revival

Photo illustration of a Magnolia tree flower. Some Magnolia species are endangered and are among the plants that researchers want to cryopreserve.

Magnolia trees (a photo illustration of a flower, shown) are among the plants that researchers want to cryopreserve.

TED VANCLEAVE (Magnolia) and The Voorhes (Ice)/Gallery Stock

By Sujata Gupta

Early one morning in 1985, a pair of researchers trekked into a spit of Colombian rainforest surrounded by coffee plantations. Their task was to identify all the epiphytes — plants that grow on other plants — in the forest canopy.

As Jan Wolf, a botanist now at the University of Amsterdam, measured tree trunk girth from the ground, volunteer field assistant Jan Klomp, an economist by training, clipped into a harness and climbed up a tall tree.