The Natural History Museum

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White-throated Magpie-Jay (Cyanocorax formosus), family Corvidae, order Passeriformes, Costa Rica

photograph by Alvaro Guttierez

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 Andaman Day Gecko (Phelsuma andamanensis), male, family Gekkonidae, Andaman Islands, India

photographs by Narendra Athnikar

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European Adder (Viperia berus), family Viperidae, Sweden

Venomous.

Photograph by Jennipher Jerrevång Uhlhorn

[museaumofnaturalhistory]

A Pod of Ancient Nacional Cacao Offers a Glimmer of Hope for Re-Foresting Ecuador’s Pacific Coast, Which by Some Estimates has Lost 98 % of its Original Forest Cover Over the Past Century.

The Quest to Save the World’s Most Coveted Chocolate - by Heide Brandes, Photography Credits - by Johis Alarcón | The Smithsonian Magazine - Planet Positive - Arts & Culture | 6th/09/2023 For These Ambitious Scientists in the Ecuador Jungle, Helping the Environment Has Never Tasted So Sweet.

Of all the heirloom cacao pods laid before us on a rickety wooden table, on this quiet hillside in the outskirts of the Ecuadorian city of Manta, the ancient variety known as Nacional was misleadingly plain. It was hard to believe this shrivelled yellow pod carried one of the world’s rarest & most coveted cacao beans.

Then I tasted its fruit in its fresh, raw, pure form. The flesh peachy & bright, with a fragrant sugary bouquet. The beans, once roasted & hand-ground into a thick paste, exude a rich scent of pure dark chocolate becoming almost overpoweringly seductive. Servio Pachard, (one of the world’s foremost cacao experts), mixed the paste in a metal bowl with sugar & other ingredients, his jaunty straw-hat dipping over dark eyes. He smiled as the sugary chocolate, served in a shot glass, reached my tongue. I think I may have moaned in pleasure. I had never tasted such chocolate, smooth & silky, yet almost supernaturally bold in flavour. I now understood why this fateful breed had made chocolatiers swoon for generations, & why some Modern-Day Choc-O-Holics are willing to fork over many 100 $’s for a single bar.

A Cacao Tree From the Codex Tudela, an Illustrated 16th-Century Aztec Text. 

Scholars estimate that Nacional was 1st grown more than 5K.Y.A, (in what is now the Zamora Chinchipe province), traders planted the trees near the coast. A 2012 study found that European colonists themselves began to plant Nacionals in the New World roughly a century after Columbus. The variety soon gained a global reputation for its strong aroma. The 19th Century integration of Ecuador in the Global economy was almost entirely dependent on the cocoa trade, (in the late 1800’s & early 1900’s), its popularity exploded as chocolate became a craze in Europe. In Hamburg, Germany, (then the centre of the global cocoa trade), Nacional was particularly prized.

The Jama-Coaque Reserve is Home to a Gene Bank of 200 Ancient Nacional Clones. 

Then, in 1916, frosty pod rot (a blight) ravaged cacaos, including Nacionals, & in 1919, the witches’ broom disease was thought to have finished off Nacional trees for good. Cacao yields in Ecuador plummeted, and growers introduced new hybrid & foreign varieties. The Nacional, with its distinctive & celebrated flavour, seemed to be a thing of the past - the dodo bird of the chocolate world

But in 2011, to the amazement of all, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, in collaboration with Fortunato Chocolate, (a Peru based American-founded venture), announced it had identified cacao trees in Peru with ancient Nacional DNA. (While Ecuador was the centre of the Nacional trade in the 18th & 19th centuries, Peru also boasted some of the precious trees.) Now, a venture b/w local growers & conservationists is bringing the legendary variety back from the brink of extinction.

Clemencia Murillo & her Husband, Mariano Ortiz, Peel Nacional Pods at Their Home in Camarones as Their Grand-Children Look On.

“We call it the ‘Noah’s Ark’ of ancient Nacional cacao,” says Jerry Toth, (45) co-founder of (TMA) the 3rd Millennium Alliance, (a conservation non-profit), & of To’ak Chocolate, (a private firm making organic, high-end chocolate from locally grown cacao). He now works with more than 30 families to re-forest their lands using saplings from the nearly extinct tree. The re-birth of this once-lost treasure is not just a miracle for the chocolate-loving world, it’s also a milestone in reviving the rich heritage of Ecuador’s coastal forests & farming. And it may even be a beacon of hope for saving other endangered trees globally. Toth was not seeking to rediscover a lost species when he co-founded TMA (in 2007). His aim was simpler: to re-forest degraded land. The Illinois-born conservationist, (a Cornell & London School of Economics graduate), moved to Ecuador (in 2006). While studying means & methods to sustainably reforest the mountains of Ecuador’s Pacific coast, depleted by logging & de-forestation, TMA determined that cacao trees were ideal for their shade tolerance & revenue potential. To support himself financially, he co-founded To’ak (in 2013) with Carl Schweizer, (an Austrian colleague), & Dennise Valencia, (a Quito native), to make a 21st-century brand from Nacional Cacao. (To’ak is a portmanteau of “earth” & “tree” from 2 Indigenous languages.)

A Farmer From the Camarones Community Roasts Nacional Cacao Nibs to Make Some of the World’s Most Coveted Chocolate. 

“I was like, ‘I can start a firm that really focuses on cacao at that point of origin & take it to a really high level [of chocolate], & I [can] do with chocolate what wine has been doing to grapes for ages,” Toth says. Accordingly, he aimed to mimic the world’s most discerning vintners, (who prize the purity of old-growth heritage vines). So he set out to find some old-growth trees. And no one knew more about old growth in Ecuador than Servio Pachard, (a 4th-generation grower & member of the Seed Guardians Network, an alliance of families working to save heirloom seeds of all kinds in Ecuador). He was also informally advising TMA since its inception.

When Toth told Pachard he wanted to find the oldest cacao trees in the country, Pachard immediately recommended the remote valley of Piedra-de-Plata, where he’d seen old-growth trees as a child, (ancient, gnarled things that carried the visible weight of age). Toth had often heard farmers recalling the legend of Nacional cacao with deep pride. So when Pachard said he thought he might be able to lead him to several Nacional cacao trees tucked up in Piedra-de-Plata that had survived the blights, he was intrigued.  Pachard believed these trees might be the last surviving ancient Nacionals in the region. ________________________________________________________________

Toth & Schweizer joined Pachard on a trek to Piedra-de-Plata to meet growers who showed off cacao trees planted by their grandfathers & great-grandfathers, prior to the arrival of the blight thought to have wiped out the trees in the early 1900s. It was a long & sweltering hike through tangles of un-developed coastal forest. They both hoped the hard journey would pay off. Perhaps in part due to the valley’s isolation from the rest of the country, these trees survived the disease & may have even gained resistance to the blight that killed off so many of their kin, Toth said. When the expedition reached the trees, the trees looked right, so Toth & Schweizer decided to put them to the test in a lab.

The Growing & Grafting Nursery for Nacional Cacao That TMA Maintains in the Jama-Coaque Reserve.

The pair partnered with the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund & Freddy Amores, (a INIAP scientist, the Ecuador Ministry of Agriculture research institute), to study the DNA of 50 trees they found in Piedra-de-Plata. To their delight, 10 proved to be 100 % pure ancient Nacional (likely the only ones known in the country). The world’s greatest chocolate was alive in Ecuador.

But a new problem presented itself: These Nacionals at Piedra-de-Plata were at least 100 years old & approaching the end of their life span. Most would soon die, & few at this age would even be able to reproduce. “Like, they are just ridiculously old,” Toth says.

So, in 2018, TMA set-up an outdoor gene bank nearby in the 2,000-+-acre Jama-Coaque Reserve(JCR) in Manabí, where the saplings can thrive. Working with the Agricultural Polytechnic School of Manabí, TMA began to replicate ancient Nacional trees (by a process of grafting): The JCR land already had some heirloom cacao planted decades ago, so ancient Nacional stems were grafted onto the rootstock of those heritage trees, making clones of the rare trees.

Jerry Toth, Co-Founder of TMA & To’ak Chocolate, in the Jama-Coaque Reserve(JCR) With Some of Those Magic Beans

TMA successfully planted 200 clones in a special parcel of the Reserve safe from cross-pollination from other varieties. (Cross-pollination would muddy the pure genetic waters. TMA & To’ak wanted to retain the purity of Nacional.) Toth’s goal was having all of those 200 reproduce, bearing their coveted yellow or orange pods. In the end, nearly all of them did so, & those that initially did not were re-grafted or re-planted. TMA continues distributing the offspring to any local grower seeking to help save the historic variety from extinction by generating a suitable market for it. To build upon their success for the next generation, TMA also trains a group of farmers in their 20’s in the nearby commune of Camarones to become grafting experts themselves. With careful grafting, Toth predicts that within 3 years, the young trees will provide enough cuttings to reproduce up to 5,000 pure Nacional seedlings annually.

Although Manabí farmers have long expressed pride in the legacy of Nacional, newer, hybrid varieties give higher yields much more quickly. So getting farmers to cultivate the ancient sprouts, Toth knew, would require financial help to offset potential losses from a slower-growing, less-fruitful crop. Accordingly, To’ak pays at least 3 times the standard market rate for hybrid Nacional cacao, & TMA pays additional bridge payments of around $1,600/acre over 5 years to farmers who agree to grow ancient Nacional & hybrid Nacional cacao, which produces less expensive but still-exalted chocolate. In turn, To’ak has gained fame for producing some of the markets costliest chocolate, in one case $500 for a single 1.76-Ounce bar. That big-ticket bar, & other Nacional confections, are available online at To’ak’s website & from specialty retailers like Harrods & Caputo’s.

“Cacao growers here in Ecuador are used to being promised a lot of things from political groups, from the government, from private institutions,” Schweizer says. “Most of the time, they would be let down, becoming disappointed & frustrated.”

Carl Schweizer, the Austrian Co-Founder of To’ak Chocolate, in his Office in Quito, Ecuador. 

Not so with the cacao project. Véronica Vaca, (a Camarones farmer), was among the growers to take TMA up on the challenge. “Everything is growing really well, as we are giving the trees a lot of attention,” she says. “Having a buyer that we know will buy our cacao, at a really good price, gives me confidence.” Mariano Ortiz, (another Camarones farmer), says the quality speaks for itself. “We want to continue planting Nacional cacao due to the overall quality,” he says. He adds that the farmers will keep planting so that it “does not fall & fade away.”   

TMA developed a plan to divide its plantings: (80% would be newer hybrids, & 20% ancient Nacional). Today, each participating farm receives regular seedlings of this precious heirloom cacao variety.

Carlos Vite, a Farmer in Camarones, Goes About the Painstaking Work of Grafting in the Community Nursery.

Currently, 40 families are part of the program. The plan is to scale up to 200 farmers over the next 2 years. TMA oversees the management, provides the land, performs the grafting & distributes seedlings to farmers. But To’ak delivers another key element, offering a guaranteed market for the final product.

Meanwhile, TMA continues to work on its broader goal: reforestation, particularly along the ecologically delicate Ecuador coast. In addition to planting cacao, TMA has been re-introducing & growing a wide variety of other fruit & native trees on depleted agricultural lands, forming the basis of the organization’s re-generative agroforestry program.

A To’ak Chocolate Bar With Those Rare Cacao Nibs - (Beans That Have Veen Pared or Crushed) - That Make it So Irresistible. 

Farmers working with To’ak receive, around 50 native shade tree saplings, 250 cacao saplings & 125 banana cuttings(per acre) in the 1st year. In the 2nd year, they get replacements for any seedlings that didn’t take. The growers can sell dry Nacional @ roughly $8,000/metric ton (more than 3 times the global median for cacao). After covering harvest & transport costs, TMA reinvests in the program & then pays 80% of the gross directly to farmers.

“We are trying to replicate a forest,” Toth says. “This is more than cacao. It is re-generative agro forestry.” The success of the TMA genetic seed bank gives hope to those seeking to preserve other endangered tree species the world over. There are now more than 800 seed banks globally. And last year in the US, President Joe Biden issued an executive order emphasizing the critical role of old-growth trees in reforestation & climate mitigation efforts nation wide, while directing his secretaries of the interior & agriculture to complete a full survey of old-growth forests on federal lands.

Workers at the To’ak Factory in Quito Pack Chocolate Bars. The Inset Designs are Inspired by Ecuador’s Geography.

Other chocolatiers are catching on, too. Already, TMA has 2 other firms expressing interest in buying the resulting ancient Nacional cacao: (Mindo Chocolate Makers of Michigan & Nikoa, a local firm). “I don’t think we will have a problem selling it,” Toth says. As for how people beyond Ecuador can help the on-going resurrection of the world’s favorite chocolate, Toth says the problem has a surprisingly bite-size answer: Just eat it. Even if you can’t afford the $500 To’ak bar, the firm has more modest options, & other local chocolatiers are beginning to use Nacional varieties in more affordable blended products.

“It shouldn’t be a hard thing to ask people: Eat, & become connoisseurs of really good chocolate.”

_______________________________________________________________Correction, September 8, 2023: A Previous Version of This Article Mis-Stated the Fee Paid to Cacao Growers Per Acre, & the Number of Saplings & Cuttings They Receive; These Numbers Have Been Up-Dated. It Also Said That Ecuador’s Pacific Coast Had Lost 98 % of its Trees Over the Past Century; it Has Been Up-Dated to Reflect That, in Fact, the Region Has Lost 98 % of its Original Forest Cover Over That Period. ________________________________________________________________

Heide Brandes is a Oklahoma City Based Travel Journalist & Editor. Muck Rack , AFAR , Off Range , Eating Well , Official

Johis Alarcón is an Ecuador Based Free-Lance Photo-Journalist. Panos Pictures , Visura , Vimeo , Darryl Chappell Foundation , BLINK , Catch Light , FOTO-FEMINAS , Photo-Ville , Magnum Foundation , World Press Photo , Link Tree , Official

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Spiny Turtle (Heosemys spinosa), juvenile, family Geoemydidae, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore

ENDANGERED.

As the juvenile turtle ages, the point serration of the shell becomes less pointy and pronounced.

photographs by Lasantha Kumara

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A Mountain Grove of Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Trees; California, USA - © Galyna Andrushko

Learning From the Ancients - by Lolita Brayman | Bio-Graphic - Systems - Books & Authors - Opinion - Land - Forests - Conservation - Discoveries - Climate | 22nd/11/2022 In His Latest Book, Elder Flora, Jared Farmer Chronicles a History of Exploration & Study, Destruction & Preservation That Will Keep Humans & Age-Old Trees Inter-Twined for the Long Haul.

The Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest of the White Mountains in Eastern California feels like another planet. It’s almost exactly that - a different epoch, frozen yet changing in & throughout time, simultaneously dying & surviving as glaciers melt, fauna goes extinct, & new stories are passed down or re-invented explaining how it all came to be. Trees usually have a hard time growing at high altitudes. The cold, dry air makes it hard for many species to adapt. Yet, here I am, hiking 10,000 feet above sea level among gnarled living beings that are over 4,000 years old.

The harsh landscape of the 1st ½ of my hike along the 4.5-mile interpretive loop trail in Schulman Grove (known as the Methuselah Trail) stunned me. The Great Basin Bristle Cone pines are not the prettiest or biggest trees I have seen in California, but they are by far the oldest & most interesting: Their contorted limbs, seemingly ½-dead yet thriving, are like Tim Burton creations. I am alone but it feels like ghosts are watching me. I do not need to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. The other more-real observation I have been making for some time & trying to ignore is that I desperately need to pee. With the visitor centre more than 2 miles away, my options are limited. Under most out-door circumstances, I have no problem relieving myself in the woods, but posted signs here make me hesitate: “Please protect the Ancients: Stay on Trail.” Squatting on the trail would be inconsiderate to other visitors. Finding some privacy behind a tree, however, seems downright irreverent to these millennial-aged trees & the very history of the world.

Was I being ridiculous or are trees sacred creatures worthy of such dilemmas & discomforts? In the book Elder Flora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees, Jared Farmer details this often-complex relationship between people & trees, especially very old trees. Throughout time, humans have revered certain trees, turning their leaves into medicine & their trunks into shrines. But we also knock woody plants down - for lumber or the paving of a road - and sometimes with no remorse. Elder Flora is a history book. As such, it is packed with facts & dates as well as storied narratives of the characters who exploited trees or tried to protect or study them for the sake of profit, religion, or science. But Farmer does not write exclusively as a historian; rather, he reminds the reader that he, too, is human. The author offers a fresh perspective on growing old & the lessons that trees bestow as gifts to a species navigating a burning world plagued by climate change.

By sharing stories of human relationships with alien organisms - for ultra-terrestrials experience time & place (time in place, place in time) in ways so earthly they seem other-worldly - I hope to say something hopeful, or at least anti-hopeless, about linear time, including the future. Instead of the sacred linearity of Christian time or the secular linearity of geological time, both defined by catastrophe, I want to emphasize the potential sacrality of elongating the now, postponing the end, & abiding with uncertainty. I think ahead to the next new world, after fossil fuel capitalism, when gardens must grow in our ruins

Giant Sequoias; Sequoia N.P, USA - © David Noton

Humans need trees. Aside from providing oxygen & storing carbon, old trees can also serve as role models to less stationary beings. Farmer contends that time is of the essence for both species but that humans would make better use of it by slowing down & thinking, or acting, more like our forest-dwelling counterparts. Trees can lead by example in their ability to lengthen time through periods of uncertainty, stress & transition.

“Perdurables (Farmer’s term for 1,000-year growers) are more than service providers. They are ethical gift givers. They invite us to be fully human - fully sapient - by engaging our deepest faculties: to venerate, to analyze, & to meditate. They expand our moral & temporal imaginations. This end-all argument, at once pragmatic & philosophical, is a matter of time. … to become wise stewards of the planet, we must learn to think in the fullness of tree time.”

What is tree time, & how can mere humans comprehend its fullness in our comparatively shorter lifespans? Elder Flora commits itself to answering this question with historical accounts of tree worship & exploitation - 2 acts intrinsically bound to the idea that trees exist to provide, in abundance, the essentials for human life. The homes of kings & emperors were built by the mighty cedars of Lebanon; olive trees from the Levant provided oil & light in biblical times; the ginkgo’s beauty was revered in China, Korea & Japan; & in Africa people relied on the baobab for shelter, storage, & shade. Old things can be found everywhere, Farmer reminds us, if only people take time to look.

Poetic beauty & its symbolism is also a crucial, human necessity. Human devotion to the pipal (the sacred fig), for example, helped spread Eastern philosophy west-ward. Having observed their natural process of growth, early philosophers concluded that fig trees possessed the power to create through their ability to destroy. After all, pipal seedlings begin as epiphytes, hanging on in the canopy of their host tree, rooting downward, splitting their host’s trunk as they mature.

Veneration doesn’t always ensure safety & care for a tree. Humans are known to make fatal mistakes, sometimes out of a desire for profit or simply because they can. Along the Pacific Rim, in ancient forests dominated by kauris in New Zealand, alerce in Chile, and hinoke & sugi trees in Japan & Taiwan, “…giant conifers, isolated for millennia, became hitched together in the long 19th century through colonialism & fossil fuel capitalism,” Farmer writes. “A pan-Pacific outlook reveals parallel forces liquidating the planet’s superlative forests and, ultimately, convergent forces shoring up compensatory reserves.” In California, European settlers harvested redwoods on a massive scale & colonized the Indigenous communities of Yaroks, Wiyot, & Tolowa as they went. “Of the coast redwood forest that existed in 1848, only about 5 % exists now - all of it protected.”

Giant sequoias in California were also commercialized even after laws were enacted to protect the species & Sequoia National Park had been established. Felled sequoias were turned into tree salons & shipped nationwide. Cross sections of stumps were also transformed into timelines of human civilization (a narrative based on the whims & beliefs of those who owned the stump & who tended to disregard the painful fact that these trees were taken from stolen land).

This fascination with big, old trees was at times grotesque. But it also led to scientific quests to understand time more deeply, including how the environment had changed across the ages. Due to the sudden influx of Sequoia slabs with imprinted timelines appearing in museums, dendrochronology (the science of dating using annual growth rings in tree trunks) progressed, as did an understanding of previous climates. Millennial sequoias had survived 100’s of fires & droughts in their lifetimes, (their tree rings marked these events). Gradually, the trees gave a more reliable & less biased timeline than we ever had before:

Sequoia chronologies of drought & fire are not equivalent to national or civilizational timelines. The “tree story” contains no plot or meta-narrative, just a record of change over time. Drought rings & fire scars can by keyed to the Christian calendar, or any other calendrical system, or none at all. The tree-ring archive de-familiarizes the past - a benefit to long-term thinking, but a detriment to temporal feeling. A cambial data set doesn’t feel like a piece of Americana like a sequoia slab. Indeed, no artifact can embody a sequoia chronology, which is a graphical representation of statistically smoothed data extracted from scores of samples. Through dendrochronology, sequoias speak collectively as populations, & speak honestly. However, their individual arborescence - their personhood - gets lost in the process.

Bark of a Bristle Cone Pine; White Mountains, USA - © David Welling

In the human quest to find & learn from the oldest living trees comes the most riveting part of Elder Flora: the profile of scientist Edmund Schulman & his persistent advances in the field of dendro-climatology (reconstruction of past climate events via tree rings). A religious Jew from Brooklyn, he lived his life chasing opportunity, later running up mountains to higher & higher elevations to find seemingly unimpressive, stunted trees that he was sure were older than the giant sequoias. His discovery of the “oldest known living thing” in the late 1950s was that of Methuselah - a Great Basin bristlecone pine that clocks in at over 4,500 years old. (The exact age of the tree is confusing since official sources list varying numbers.)

Mortal thoughts come too easily. Before driving up the mountain, Edmund confides to his brother, and his nephew overhears: “I’m walking on eggshells.” Dr. Cohen in Tucson has diagnosed him with arteriosclerosis & hypertension. He has difficulty breathing at high altitude. His ideal site is not ideally located (too far from the road). But he’s tantalizingly close to a lifetime’s worth of data. For some trees, the longest, cleanest cores aren’t enough. He sacrifices Pine Beta, too, for the cause of understanding the slow-dying biology of the “pickaback,” an endemic morphological type he sees all over Methuselah Walk. Such trees have been shutting down for centuries, one root section, one bark strip at a time, all the way down to a single strip, only to restart in an un-dead sector where growth has been suppressed for a millennium or more, producing a young strip of bark on the back of an ancient one. In a 5-hour ordeal, Schulman & an assistant carry the cross-sectioned torso of Beta on a stretcher to the car.

Schulman’s research lab in the White Mountains is now a tourist attraction - a grove that is his namesake. It was this same story book old forest where I faced my own moral dilemma in my search for a toilet. Methuselah (originally named “Great-Gramps” by Schulman) is not currently marked. This is for the tree’s protection as tourists & photographers in the 1960s got too close to the tree when it carried an identifying sign, causing trampled soil & missing limbs. Nonetheless, tourists from all walks of life visit the sacrosanct site. I was sure I would be able to tell which tree was the eldest, but Methuselah was not identifiable among her similarly senior kin. But she was everywhere. She was every tree & every twisted branch. She was the entire odd-looking forest. And the whole forest was Methuselah.

For non-scientists, the “real” Methuselah retains totemic power. Visitors to Schulman Memorial Grove want to see the oldest living thing known to science, 4 & a ½ millennia old, knowing ahead of time they won’t know when they’ve seen it. Their walk past the tree is an act of agnostic faith. No one seems dissatisfied when they return to the parking lot, having crossed the grove - what the Forest Service calls a “scientific resource” - off their bucket list. … The majority come in reverence, and leave in humility, believing they have experienced the numen of Methuselah, the aura of scientific discovery - and, increasingly, a foreboding. Whereas Edmund Schulman drove up the mountain without local prohibitions or premodern fears about felling elder flora, visitors in his tracks bring global anxieties. What would it signal about the planet if its oldest trees died? The postwar history of Schulman’s over-aged conifers is the history of ancient trees in modern times, concentrated & accelerated.

Mountain Ash Seedling; Wester Ross, Scotland - © Laurie Campbell

Do trees need humans? It’s obvious to anyone who visits the White Mountains that ancient bristlecone pines survived here because they lived in isolated, harsh conditions where humans could not interfere too invasively, even if they wanted to. But after Schulman’s discovery of their unique longevity, Methuselah, the eldest, was put in a more vulnerable position. There are many examples throughout the book of old trees and whole species of trees that greatly benefitted from human care. In Methuselah’s case, however, she was doing fine until Schulman put her on the map.

Trees keep on living in place - until something happens, as something will, sooner or later, or later still. Some external force will end a woody plant’s indefinite experience of place time. In a bio-sphere dominated by Homo sapiens, a fire-starting & tree-felling species, elder flora achieve longest life by being remote as possible from the depredations of people, or close as possible to their care. For a plant to become a perdurable, it must be preadapted to long living, of course, and also fortunate in time and place. 

Farmer explains this phenomenon as a universal human predicament - scientific discoveries can lead to loss. We want to see how other beings live, hear their silent advice on how to propel longevity & memorize the secrets. Along this path of edification, we arrogantly walk with the power to destroy the very thing we are trying to understand. At some point, as we are human, we come to regret some of these pursuits.

Our imaginations will naturally strive to revive the things we lost despite our involvement in their demise. For example, many modern conservation efforts in the U.S. protect remaining slim stands of old-growth forests by transforming them into out door museums. Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida takes visitors on a 2.50-mile adventure into the largest old-growth bald cypress forest in North America, while a paved interpretive trail in Hartwick Pines State Park (in the Lower Peninsula of North Michigan) is home to a 49-acre parcel of 400-year-old white pines. The Hartwick trees were ironically saved in 1927 by the daughter & heir of a prominent lumberman. In return for her preservation efforts, she requested that a logging museum also be built in the same park. Here, in one road trip stop, Michigan tourists can see some of the oldest pine trees in the state and learn about the very industry that brought them down. Others, mainly scientists & botanists, work on propagating old & new tree species together by replanting seedlings grown from the cloned genetic material of the old. This time loop of searching & learning, using & destroying, then protecting, en-shrining, or duplicating keeps humanity & ancient trees intertwined for the long haul.

…the dominant Western narrative about nature in the modern period can be summed up in a phrase: discovery & loss. Explorers & scientists, imperial white men, “discover” new species, un-known peoples, un-navigable rivers, un-climbed peaks, latest old things. They navigate, they summit, they survey, they measure, they name, they core, they claim. They create knowledge that permits forests to be cleared, roads to be blasted, rivers to be dammed, minerals to be extracted. They feel pride about progress, mixed with regret. They have “imperial nostalgia” for old landscapes, old languages, old ways, & old trees they helped to eliminate. So, they apply a portion of their developmental ethic & their accumulated capital toward saving pieces of depopulated Eden, & restoring damaged parcels back to imagined pre-settlement conditions.

Farmer is sure that humans & non-humans would lose “a world of things” if ancient trees died prematurely. Old trees sustain forest communities & benefit scientific exploration. They also provide humanity with moral grounding: “They help people make sense of - and make amends for - their destructive capacities,” he writes. Most importantly, old trees make us more human by encouraging us to be ourselves:

Homo Sapiens, the “wise people,” the earthly beings who tell cosmic stories & who contemplate the future as well as the past. Stories of sanctified plants are among the oldest living stories. These narratives make reality. Around the world, in shrines, temples & churchyards, local adherents give care to storied trees planted centuries ago - or, just recently, the latest in a long, un broken sequence of consecrated plantings. Meanwhile, agents of modern states guard secular sacred groves: natural monuments & national parks devoted to naturally occurring mega flora & elder flora. By keeping up or starting long-term relationships with long-lived plants, caregivers maintain (or recover, or reinvent) links to pre-modern pasts. Simply by hoping to prolong interspecies attachments through the great diminution, people exercise inter-generational sapience. Their hope is a rejection of The End, an affirmation that there will be - must be - tomorrow.

Milky Way Over Bristle Cone Pine; Utah, USA - © Anthony Heflin

Although we don’t know what tomorrow will look like, we do know that old trees are in danger. We’re in danger, too. All living things must one day die. “Forest die-back does not always spell forest doomsday, yet the demise of olden trees represents an ecological loss, a cultural impoverishment, & a social problem,” Farmer writes. While he agrees that the speed of climate change is concerning, he also has faith in evolution & relies on the distinction that ecologists draw between disturbance & catastrophe. Old trees live by continuously dying, every day, since their birth as seedlings. They keep on dying for as long as they live.

In effect, every functioning ecosystem exists in recovery mode. How well it bounces back - its resilience - depends on the scale of the exogenous disturbance as well as endogenous factors like species richness and the adaptable traits contained within any given genome….

Extinction becomes catastrophic in the ecological sense, in addition to the moral sense, when the scale of genomic loss forces resets of ecosystems. So far, global heating has been a disturbance - even a mega disturbance - for forest ecosystems, not yet a catastrophe. In abstract evolutionary terms, the climate-forced die-back of trees is simply strong selection. Ideally, deaths open niches for diversification & migration. On the current planet, though, bio-diversity continues to plummet due to land use & resource extraction. Destroyed habitats & obstructed corridors are everyday catastrophes.

Old forests can overcome disturbances by adapting to a changing environment. Europe’s last “primeval” forest, Białowieża, exemplifies this hope. Located between Poland & Belarus, it represents an ancient & constantly changing ecological community. Despite the building of dirt roads by Russian managers who organized tsarist hunting parties, the forest was un-harmed in WWI, and in the communist era it became a national park & a World Heritage Site. More recently in 2015, politics coupled with an outbreak of native bark beetles contributed to the opening of Białowieża to commercial loggers. Although mature trees suffer most from increasingly severe climatic disturbances, the forest itself shifts & continues re-generating in other ways.

Despite degradation of its buffer zone, Białowieża National Park remains a dynamic ecosystem for now. At the community level, it is ancient precisely because it’s changeable & changeful. In the 1920s, ecologists projected a future forest without linden; today, linden thrives. Hornbeams march forward, with maples close behind. On the other side of the ledger, ash falls back from fungal disease, & spruce declines from beetles. In general, current climate stressors select against tall conifers & massive oaks. If Białowieża must contain all these iconic plant forms to count as “primeval,” the forest is indeed dying. But if the essence of its antiquity is processual, the forest can endure even as change accelerates… Endowed with more than 50 native woody species, there should be enough bio-diversity to keep up the olden process of changing with the times. This resilience benefits far more than megafauna. The greatest ecological importance of Białowieża - as Europe’s hotspot for mushrooms, mosses, & lichens - may be small-scale.

The example of changing with the times, enduring, compensating here and there as other parts of the whole system grow weak, is perhaps the greatest wisdom that old trees impart to humans. And we can - we should - follow their lead. The choice is one of cynicism & short-term thinking, including grief over the loss of old trees & devastation for the bleak future of our planet, versus a more long-term perspective. The alternative is to take notes of how things are now, remember & pass down these stories, simultaneously & collectively plant new seeds, and imagine how the forest will look in the future. Maybe tree time means painting a picture of the forest as it is at this moment, and sharing that image with the next generation of young things to one day compare with the reality outside their window.

Farmer does not question that all things must end, but asserts that humans can intervene & decide how long we can prolong the dying process. “A great transition will happen one way or another—either catastrophically, with a fast-changing planet undoing its changers,” he writes, “or deliberately, with enough people working together to revitalize the cycle of the young becoming the old who sustain new youth. In oldness is the rejuvenation of the world.”

Humans can’t stop the big trees from falling. There will always be individuals who exacerbate the problem—unknowingly or because they think it’s for the greater good. The alternative is to embrace tree time. Get comfortable with the uncertainty of how time will play out relying, as Farmer suggests, on the resilience of ecosystems, the endurance of stories, the ability of humans to move slowly and venerate rather than panic and give up. Tree time is thinking long-term—extremely long term, beyond our bodies as individuals, beyond one felled tree, beyond an extinction of a species.

Even mass die-backs of big, old trees, already in progress, need not entail the extinction of elder flora. After an interregnum, renewed old-making should be possible. Because long-lived plants have been introduced widely, hot-spots of longevity could be every here & there. Someday, in changed habitats & modified cities, vegetal life-forms should again attain the status of ancient beings - if humans in the future still venerate such things. Old Ones will survive as long as people hope for & sorrow over - and give care to - young life that might live long.

I relieved myself in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. With millennial trees watching (either laughing or scolding) I found a place to squat somewhere private, not too far off the trail but away from the oldest-looking things. I am not proud of this act, but I recognize that I had few options. I’ve always used restroom facilities before any nature excursion but after my time with the Ancients, I’m even more prepared. However, after reading Elder Flora, I sometimes allow myself to take comfort in the possibility that maybe I helped a few square inches of soil diversify by being as un-intrusive as humanly possible. And maybe telling this embarrassing story is the best thing I can do for the trees.

All excerpts from Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees, by Jared Farmer. Copyright © 2022 by Jared Farmer. Used by permission of Basic Books.

________________________________________________________________Lolita Brayman is a L.A. Based Human Rights Lawyer & Freelance Writer. Her Work & Reporting From the U.S.-Mexico Border, Ukraine, the Caucasus, & the Middle East Has Appeared in Foreign Policy, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Nation, Reuters, Among Others. She Holds a Public Policy M.A. in International Conflict Resolution & Mediation. ________________________________________________________________

[mutant-distraction]

Giant Red Rafflesia Flower

The Rafflesia is one of the world's largest and rarest flowers, known for its impressive size and unique red and white speckled petals.

Light: Partial shade, mimicking rainforest conditions.

Water: High humidity and consistent moisture.

Soil: Well-draining, organic-rich soil.

Temperature: Warm, tropical climates.

Fertilizer: Not typically needed due to its parasitic nature.

credit: Earth Glorious

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Painted Bat

Center for Biological Diversity

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Bang’s Mountain Squirrel (Syntheoscirius Brochus)

Ignacio Yúfera

[museaumofnaturalhistory]

In The Shadows: The Shahtoosh Story | The Asian Dispatch

Before a Global Ruling in 1975, it Was the Most Luxurious Fabric Coveted by the Ultra-Rich & Sold by Leading Global Brands From Hermes to Yves Saint Laurent. But a International Campaign Led by Conservationists Raised an Alarm Over the Procurement of the Shahtoosh Wool. According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, it Takes the Life of 3 Tibetan Antelopes to Make a 2m x 1m Woman's Shahtoosh Shawl, & the Life of 5 - 6 of Them to Make a Man’s. And So, as the Ban Led to Raids, Arrests & Destruction of Shahtoosh Products Across the World, in South Asia, the Halt in Trade Manifested in Precarious Ways. A Recent Crack-Down Called 'Operation Soft Gold', Led by India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau High-Lighted How the Trade Does Not Just Continue, But is Finding Unique Avenues to Thrive & Find Mass Consumers in the Black Market.

The Trade in Shahtoosh is Counted Among the World’s Most Alarming Wild-Life Crimes Which Continue to Have an Exclusive Market, According to the 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime. The CITES Illegal Trade Database, Documented 245 Tibetan Antelope Specimen Seizures Between 2016 & 2021 in India, Nepal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK & the US.

In This Asian Dispatch Report, Supported by the Earth Journalism Network, Journalists From 4 Countries Joined Hands to Reveal New Information on the Illicit Trade of Shahtoosh & Show Why Authorities Across the Globe Need to Re-Visit the Implementation of the Ban.

In the Shadows: The Shahtoosh Trade - by Lead Reporters Pallavi Pundir & Hashim Hakeem (India), Rajneesh Bhandari (Nepal), Sajjad Tarakzai (Pakistan), Wael Elghoul (UAE). Production - by Anoushka Dalmia, Visuals - by Mia Jose, Shashank Raj, Sharanya Eshwar, Editing - by Asad Ali | The Asian Dispatch - Bio-Diversity - Conservation - Climate Change & Environment - Science & Technology - Law & Order - Borders & Policing - Customs & Excise - Fashion & Style - Poaching & Wildlife Crime| 26th/07/2025

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Long Before the Pashmina Became a Common Household Name, There Was the Shahtoosh. It Was the “King of Wool”, a Nomenclature Going Back to the Mughal Era. The Fabric Has Since Been Mythologised as One That Passes a Ring Test & Even Hatches an Egg With its Surreal Warmth. It was Openly Flaunted by the Ultra-Wealthy, & Sold on the Racks at Global Brands Like Hermes & Yves Saint Laurent. All Until Conservationists Sounded Alarm on the Real Cost of Shahtoosh - Mass Killings of the Tibetan Antelope - Thereby Imposing a Global Ban. And That is How the Lucrative Illicit Trade of Shahtoosh Began.

In This Report, Supported by the Bio-Diversity Media Initiative & the Internews Earth Journalism Network, Asian Dispatch Revealed as to How the Banned Shahtoosh is By-Passing Hostile Borders & Local Regulations to Make an Appearance in Private Collections, Weddings, Boutiques & Social Media Channels the World Over. As Journalists From India, Pakistan, Nepal & the UAE Joined Hands to Un-Earth the Shadowy Networks Smuggling Shahtoosh, They Seek Answers That Regional Authorities Have Been Struggling With for Years. ________________________________________________________________ In the bustling streets of Srinagar’s Old City, in India’s Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the mention of “shahtoosh” elicits a violent shake of the head. There is no shahtoosh here, we are told consistently. It does not exist anymore. 

The denial is as present as the dark clouds of ongoing unrest in the region are pervasive. It is also in line with the global shahtoosh trade ban since 1979 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). India banned it in 1979, & Jammu & Kashmir implemented it in 2000. The ban followed International studies & revelations of mass killings of a Himalayan Goat-Antelope, the Tibetan Antelope or Chiru. 

The chiru is a Schedule-I species as per the 1972 Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act. As per the Wildlife Protection Society of India, it takes the life of 3 Chiru to make one 2m x 1m lady's shawl, & the life of 5 - 6 of them to make a man’s shawl. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, is essentially to afford the animal the highest degree of protection. Yet, research indicates a high degree of precarity for the chiru. In ‘Operation Soft Gold’ (a crackdown), India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau analysed seizures & cases (from 2009 - 2020). Their report, (published 2022), found that the shahtoosh trade has been “actively operational undercover in order to cater to global demand.”

3-5 Chiru Have to be Killed to Make the Average Shahtoosh Shawl. Illustration: Sharanya Eshwar; Image [Also Used in Introduction]: A Shahtoosh Shawl With Silk Multi-Coloured Embroidery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Image Via Google Arts & Culture

A rare fabric coveted by the world’s high-society & political elite, the shahtoosh trade is counted among the world’s most alarming wild-life crimes which continues to have an exclusive market, as per the 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report by the UN Office on Drugs & Crime. The CITES Illegal Trade Database, documented 245 Tibetan antelope specimen seizures from 2016 - 2021 in India, Nepal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK & the US. 

Portrait of a Mughal Courtier From 1575, With a Scarf That May Have Been a Gift From Emperor Akbar, Who Loved Shahtoosh. Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art via Google Arts & Culture

The allure of the fabric draws much from its legacy: Its name translates to “king of wool” (shah translates to king, & toosh means wool). This nomenclature can likely be traced to the 16th century documentation of Mughal emperor Akbar, who loved it to the point of almost legislating against its use outside the royal courts. In fact, in his documentation in 1821, East India Company employee William Moorcroft recorded how Akbar allowed only 2 looms to be used to weave pure shahtoosh. Beyond the luxe factor, the fabric fibre happens to just be 10 microns in diameter. (Microns are used to measure small objects or particles, and are equivalent to a millionth of a meter). In comparison, a pashmina is 12 microns. Merino wool is between 18 - 24 microns. This makes the fabric incredibly light. So light is the woven fabric that it’s touted to pass through a wedding ring, & so warm it is believed as capable of helping hatch an egg. By 1975, when the global ban was imposed, the fabric was being sold by leading brands from Hermes to Yves Saint Laurent. Shahtoosh continues to be flaunted by the global elite: the American lifestyle expert & celebrity entrepreneur, Martha Stewart, flaunted travelling with shahtoosh as recently as in 2017 (she later retracted the claim). Officials Asian Dispatch spoke with state that the global crackdown on shahtoosh sales has been effective. However, over the years, 1,00’s of shahtoosh products have been seized, & many have been arrested globally for selling the product. Now, as part of a cross-border project helmed by Asian Dispatch, journalists from India, Nepal, Pakistan, & the UAE have produced exclusive interviews, & new details have emerged to reveal a complex narrative around the shahtoosh. The broader thrust of which indicates that authorities need to revisit the implementation of the ban, & ensure further collaboration to crack down on the illicit black market. 

The Kashmir Story

“Chori se chalta hain abhi bhi (It secretly continues even now),” Shabbir Ahmed, a 2nd-generation weaver from Srinagar who used to weave shahtoosh before the ban, tells Asian Dispatch. “If [authorities] find out, [the culprits will] surely get raided.”

Najeeb Mushtaq, a 3rd-generation trader of Kashmiri shawls, whose family transitioned from shahtoosh to pashmina trade after 2000, says, “Every 2nd house in the Old City was a weaver [of shahtoosh]. They were compensated well for their craft.” 

Most former shahtoosh weavers Asian Dispatch spoke to attested to the ongoing illicit trade. One trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they still get orders for shahtoosh. This trader refused to say whether they fulfilled those orders. The story of shahtoosh seems to be rooted in the physical geography of Kashmir: Historically, Kashmir was a part of the silk route connecting Central Asia, China, & the Middle East. It is also vital to note that shahtoosh has served as a strong economic pillar in the past for Kashmir’s dwindling artisanal community. India’s official surveys estimate that up until the ban, the production process involved up to 45,000 Locals, including families, with about 14,250 directly involvement in its making. Around 85 % living in the Old City. By 2002, the population of active weavers was reduced to 15,000 workers, with a Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) report projecting that it would continue to decline. There is no recent official survey of the shahtoosh weavers. 

As per an estimate by the Wildlife Protection Society of India, the price of raw shahtoosh wool in the 1990s (before Jammu & Kashmir implemented the ban) ranged between ₹34,000 to ₹60,000 per kilo (With the currency conversion being $1 = ₹35 at the time). Even though the ban on shahtoosh sales was imposed in Jammu & Kashmir in 2000, it took many years for the fabric to completely disappear from shelves. While it may not have the same retail prominence, it has conveniently slid into the shadows of a thriving black market.

A Depiction of the Ring Test of a Shahtoosh Shawl. Illustration: Mia Jose/Asian Dispatch

“When the ban was enforced, the traders transitioned to legal livelihoods, but the weavers could not,” says Mushtaq, “[The weavers] did not get appropriate rehabilitation by the state or their own community. Many of them were shifted to pashmina, but pashmina is ½ the price of shahtoosh, and artisans aren’t paid as well.”

Mushtaq refers to the unemployment rate (as of December 2024) the state, (standing at 12% against the national average of 6%). Official data shows that despite the significant contribution of the hand-loom sector in the region’s economy, the industry languishes as artisans are dropping out of it. 

Mushtaq says that the wave of unemployment & economic restrictions after the ban compelled some traders & weavers to get sucked into illicit activities. “The ban made these artisans not only un-employed but simultaneously took the respect they had in society. Now they have been reduced to smugglers,” he says.

Ahmed, the Old City weaver, told Asian Dispatch that even though he left shahtoosh-weaving when the ban came into effect, people selling illegal shahtoosh still ask him to weave it for them. “Someone contacted me just two days back in fact,” he says, during our interview, in April. However, Ahmed refused since he only weaves pashmina now.

Legality aside, there also remains the question of ethics, & when it comes to procurement of shahtoosh wool, the question of its ethicality depends on who tells the story.

Kashmiri traders & artisans say the wool has always been sourced “ethically” from their counterparts in the neighbouring union territory of Ladakh, who further source it from the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Line of Actual Control, dividing India from China-controlled Tibet, is a disputed & heavily militarized boundary. This region is marked by barren, high-altitude terrain with perpetual sub-zero temperatures - conditions befitting the chiru population. This is the region from where, Kashmiris say, Tibetans used to “gather” shahtoosh wool by collecting it from bushes that caught the chirus’ hair - not by hunting the animals. This argument, however, is contested by conservationists.

There are other complications as well. Musadiq Shah, (Senior Vice President of Kashmir Pashmina Organisation), tells Asian Dispatch that many of the post-ban arrests have been based on the detection of chiru’s guard hair (the outer layer of hair or fur) in pashmina products. This resulted in a group of pashmina shawl traders, in 2022, initiating a plea at the Delhi High Court after their export pashmina consignments were alleged to have shown presence of shahtoosh guard hair . They demanded better forensic testing in order to minimise “erroneous” confiscations.

“Our pashmina comes from the mountains, and we often don’t know what threads get mixed,” Shah says. Referring to the 2022 plea, Shah says, “Authorities claimed they’re shahtoosh which we have appealed [to rectify] many times to the textile ministry. Now, we have better testing systems in place, but these seizures have resulted in negative coverage of our people. There were times when our shipments were confiscated, and, by the time they came back from the labs, our orders were cancelled. We had to throw them away.”

At the moment, there is no official market value of shahtoosh products. Before the ban, authors Sherry Rehman & Naheed Jafri, in their book The Kashmiri Shawl: From Jamavar to Paisley (2006), estimated that 100 genuine shahtoosh shawls were exported from India every year. Today, the black-market rate of each shahtoosh shawl is estimated to be anything between $10,000 - $20,000. Rehman & Jafri write that: “Asli toos, or real shahtoos [sic] fibre is hardly used in Kashmir anymore, although international fashion & couture houses still quietly place their orders with their Kashmiri manufacturers.” 

The Illicit Journey of Shahtoosh

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau officer & 1 of the lead researchers of the report, Operation Soft Gold, A Pragatheesh does not buy the argument of “erroneous” chiru hair in confiscated material. “You can’t say the chiru hair just appeared in pashmina wool,” he tells Asian Dispatch, “It’s not a contamination.”

A Depiction of the Chiru or the Tibetan Antelope. Illustration: Mia Jose/Asian Dispatch.

Under his supervision, ‘Operation Soft Gold’ analysed 62 confirmed cases of shahtoosh products seized over the course of 11 years, to ascertain the physical properties of the chiru hair. “We identified the guard hair [of each consignment] and we found that the chiru’s guard hair is hollow. Scientifically, it has an insulating effect, which traps the air & keeps the skin warm for those who wear it,” he said. “This is distinguishable only through a microscope.” However, he adds, “As detection [technology] increases, so does the technique of [the culprits] evading the [authorities].”

Artistic Rendition of a Pashmina Shawl (Left) & a Shahtoosh Shawl (Right), Based on Descriptions. Illustration: Sharanya Eshwar/Asian Dispatch.

Operation Soft Gold unveiled an online network that is brazen in its advertisements. Now, a cursory search on social media can reveal multiple accounts claiming to sell shahtoosh. The operation corroborated these advertisements with the invoicing details of the seized products. They found that traffickers deliberately mis-declare shahtoosh as pashmina, cashmere & wool - all of which are legally & ethically derived from Indian goats. Once exported, the shahtoosh is then sold directly on retail to affluent buyers, mostly in tourist destinations across the world. The 62 consignments in question comprised 343 shawls & 101 stoles. Together, their valuation, based on the receipts, came to $1,925,464.

A Depiction of an Instagram DM Conversation Between an On-Line Seller & a Buyer. Illustration: Mia Jose/Asian Dispatch

The Wildlife Trust of India supports agencies such as the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in intelligence gathering, field validation & collaboration. From 2001 - 2019, it assisted with the seizure of 1,00’s of consignments of shahtoosh, leading to arrests. It told Asian Dispatch by email that, over the years, it has observed a shift in the trade's pattern - from open market sales to more covert operations, “often facilitated through digital platforms or concealed in courier shipments through a well-established network.” 

Crucially, Pragatheesh charted out 3 main routes of how shahtoosh enters India, before leaving for foreign shores: The 1st is from Tibet via Nepal into Delhi, and then to Kashmir to be woven before it’s exported to other countries. The 2nd is through Nepal’s border with the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, and then to Kashmir. The last is the direct, albeit more challenging, route from Tibet to Ladakh - (suspects likely walk this distance overnight due to the heavily guarded border). From Ladakh, he says, it reaches the traders in Kashmir. In the larger scheme of things, Nepal acts as a critical strategic hub in the raw shahtoosh delivery chain; while Kashmir is where the weaving transforms the raw material into premium ‘export ready’ products. 

The Neighbour's Complicity: Into India via Nepal

In Nepal, 2 huge seizures in 2013 trained the spotlight on the country’s role as a vital transit hub to smuggle shahtoosh to other countries, especially India. Nepal lists the Chiru as a “protected species” under the Nepal National Parks & Wildlife Conservation Act, (1973). Anyone caught with it can serve up to 10 years in prison, and/or NPR 75,000 ($550) in fine.

An Illustration of a Chiru [Wikimedia Commons]

Despite these measures, in January 2013, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police confiscated 46 bags of shahtoosh wool weighing up to 1,250 kg, & worth about NPR 5 billion ($32 million). This was in Nepal's Gorkha district, in Thumi village, (located in the northern belt about 160 km west of Kathmandu). The Gorkha district borders the Tibetan Autonomous Region from the north. 

A month later, another 400 Kg of shahtoosh wool was seized from Dhading district, which is also north of the Tibet border. Among the 6 arrested & charged was one Tibetan national, whom the police say came to Nepal 2 months prior to the heist to help identify chiru population in Tibet. “It takes around 2-3 days to reach the border that Nepal-China shares from the place where we seized the fur,” Bhola Bhatta, the deputy superintendent of Nepal Police, told Asian Dispatch. Bhatta worked on wildlife cases as an inspector in 2013. “It took me 3 years to arrest one of the main accused - this shows how complex the network was.” Considering the quantum of the consignments seized, experts Asian Dispatch’s Nepal correspondent spoke to claim that 7 - 10 K Tibetan antelopes may have been killed for that amount of hair.

"This Animal is Not Meant to be in Contact With People. The Idea of Ethical Shearing of Chiru for Wool is Not Possible." - Swiss Official Lisa Bradbury

However, more than a decade on, Sudhir Raj Shahi, the Central Investigation Bureau’s spokesperson & the information superintendent of police, says that there has been no seizure since 2013. When asked what explains this period of lull in activities, Shahi said, “Because of our law enforcement, [the smugglers] might have changed the route.” 

Whether the smuggling routes to or from Nepal have changed remains a moot point, although Pragatheesh, the researcher at India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, says that the country remains a crucial transit point. 

What is more evident, however, is the markets that continue to thrive next door in Pakistan, and beyond South Asian borders too.

Divided by Borders, United by Shahtoosh

At a posh supermarket in Pakistan’s Capital City Islamabad, dozens of women in the premium section of a shawl store asking for shahtoosh shawls is a common sight. The priciest shahtoosh shawl, one store seller says, can cost up to PKR 1.5 million ($5,325). But the hefty price tag is not a deterrent for these wealthy women. 

A Representation of a Shop Keeper in Pakistan. Illustration: Mia Jose/Asian Dispatch

As the store assistants display different varieties of the shawls, the shop owner reveals the range of “shahtoosh”. “It starts at PKR 400,000 ($1,420) & can go up to PKR 1.5 million ($5,325),” a shop owner said. However, adds the owner, a person with “legitimate income” can not afford pure shahtoosh. “Its price in Pk.R is over 5 million, or even more." 

Pakistan has in place a fine of up to PKR 1 million ($3,520) & a jail time of up to 2 years for trading shahtoosh. Despite that, it is publicly adored, & offers the elite bragging rights (until it draws online attention, & outrage). In December 2021, Junaid Safdar, the son of Pakistani politician Maryam Nawaz Sharif, wore shahtoosh at his wedding, & instantly came under public scrutiny after the brand behind it claimed that it sells “antique gold original shahtoosh” for $17,000. “When it’s old, the natural colour turns to gold,” their post claimed.

Dr Mumtaz Malik, the former chief conservator of wildlife in Pakistan, says that Pakistan has yet to effectively implement policies related to the chiru. “Despite being illegal, these shawls are still worn by a specific segment of the elite class in Pakistan. Legally, Pakistan is obligated to curb this trade, yet the shawls are available in upscale outlets in major cities like Lahore and Karachi,” says Malik.

Back in Islamabad’s supermarket, the store owner says, “Both shahtoosh & pashmina shawls are smuggled into Pakistan via Gulf countries, especially Dubai, from Kashmir… If Airport Officials Create Problems, They are Bribed. Nowadays, they are often brought to Pakistan in large shipping containers under the guise of import-export businesses." In Pakistan's cultural hub of Lahore, the main town in the province of Punjab, there’s a fabric store in a market area called Liberty, where the price of a shahtoosh shawl starts from Pk.R 2.5 million ($9,900).

2 traders in Lahore & Islamabad said that dozens of shahtoosh worth millions of Pk.R were recently gifted to the wedding party - including the bride & groom - of a prominent politician’s daughter. Some of the shawls were worth Pk.R 2.5 - 5.5 million ($8,880 to $19,400). 

"Both Shahtoosh & Pashmina Shawls are Smuggled into Pakistan. If Airport Officials Create Problems, They are Bribed." - Store Owner in Islamabad, Pakistan

There is a general awareness of the shahtoosh ban among the traders. The sale & purchase of shahtoosh, thus, doesn’t take place in ordinary retail shops. In a shawl store in Lahore, for instance, shahtoosh shawls were kept inside locked suitcases in a hidden room behind the main counters. Further, there is no official or unofficial data on the sale of shahtoosh; neither is there any media reporting on the seizures and arrests related to its illicit trade. 

The big question around the shahtoosh in Pakistan relates to its authenticity. Malik says that it’s a challenge to identify genuine shahtoosh - even for wildlife officials - in Pakistan due to poor detection technology. “Immigration staff at airports are ill-equipped to identify the material. In many cases, wildlife personnel are not posted at the airports,” she says.

Jaleel Khan, a trader who repairs used pashmina & shahtoosh shawls in Lahore, says that the average person is prone to becoming a victim of deception due to poor knowledge of shahtoosh. "Those who are unfamiliar with [shahtoosh] end up buying pashmina shawls under the label of shahtoosh," he said, "Elite class women are often duped this way.” 

"Real shahtoosh is very costly," said Khan, "The costly ones come via Kashmir & Dubai. The price for these shawls ranges from Pk.R 2.5 million ($8,880) to Pk.R 15 million ($53,250). People openly sell these under the guise of premium products," he said.

UAE: Core Customer Base Beyond the Sub-Continent

It used to be assumed that the majority of shahtoosh clientele lay in Europe, Pragatheesh at India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau tells Asian Dispatch. But he realised he was wrong soon: Most consignments were headed toward the Middle-East - Oman (18 %), & the UAE (17 %). Other regional destinations include Riyadh in Saudi Arabia (12 %) & Switzerland (10 %). Spain, Mauritius, Italy, China & Hong Kong are other destinations.  Wealth is a big factor for the UAE to be a hub of shahtoosh clients. In 2023, the average per capita net wealth of the UAE was $2.9 million. Last year, it was the world’s top destination for the wealthy, with an inflow of 6,700 millionaires, as per the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report. This now stands in contrast to the past when the shahtoosh’s primary market was Europe. 

Shahtoosh Head Scarves are Popular in the UAE. Illustration: Mia Jose/Asian Dispatch

After Oman & the UAE, Switzerland (otherwise known for its tight borders & 1,00’s of seizures) was a close 3rd, with 10 % of Operation Soft Gold’s contraband headed there.

Over the years, Switzerland has focused on shahtoosh by cracking down on its wealthy buyers in the country. On the contrary, South Asia primarily cracks down on smugglers.

In 2017, Swiss authorities raided the Alpine resorts of St Moritz, which unveiled 130 shahtoosh shawls worth up to $20,000 a piece. Lisa Bradbury, from the Swiss CITES Management Authority, agrees that the illicit markets are shifting, but this relies not just on the Middle-East’s wealth factor but also cultural & sentimental factors. “Shahtoosh is in demand among people with a long-standing tradition of wearing shahtoosh, or where you see a lot of family culture of owning luxury items,” she told Asian Dispatch.

Dubai recorded nearly 100 seizures right after the ban in the 2000s. While many of the crackdowns took place in physical spaces like the Global Village, an analysis by Asian Dispatch found that shahtoosh sales have now moved to the online space in the region. 

In one Emirati clothing brand called “Shal”, its owner is seen in several videos talking about selling shahtoosh from Kashmir among other fabrics, mentioning they sell only a limited number of these items. Another website, Al Khazam Gulf Garments, too, claims to sell shahtoosh through their videos on Instagram, although the source of the fabric or the wool isn’t detailed on the website. Their prices start from 148 Emirati Dirhams (Ae.D د.إ)(approximately $40). All transactions are conducted online, but when Asian Dispatch called on their local phone number, there was no answer.

Another page called “Shatosh Shall” promoted alleged shahtoosh products on their TikTok channel. Asian Dispatch called the shop on their listed phone number & a man confirmed they have shahtoosh products from Kashmir. However, he declined to reveal how he obtained them. The shop claims to sell shahtoosh starting from 5,000 Ae.D (approximately $1,500) for a single shawl meant to be worn as a luxury head covering for Emirati citizens. He confirmed that they are all "authentic, handmade," and come with a one-year warranty.

Screenshot of the 'Shatosh Shall' Instagram Page, Taken 18th/06/2025

Another Instagram page, with nearly 5,000 followers, called "Tayeb Zabeel," also claims to sell shahtoosh products. When contacted by phone, its shop owner told Asian Dispatch that shahtoosh products are "very rare" but that he still sells them, with prices starting at 10,000 د.إ (approximately $2,500) per shawl. He confirmed that shahtoosh products are "authentic, handmade," and can be used as a head covering for men, which is the traditional Emirati garment, the ghutra. He also noted that he has some shahtoosh shawls for women, at roughly the same prices. To complete the purchase process, orders are placed via WhatsApp, and delivery is available to your home.

While the majority of shops refrained from revealing how they obtained the shahtoosh, many admitted to have “imported” it as handicraft items from Kashmir.

Economic expert Dr Abdul Nabi Abdul Muttalib, who is also the undersecretary at the Egyptian Ministry of Trade & Industry, told Asian Dispatch that the only way shahtoosh enters the UAE is through "smuggling". “This could be through facilitation provided by some influential people inside the country," he says, “whether from governmental or private entities.” 

"Sometimes, members of diplomatic missions smuggle these products, taking advantage of the fact that their belongings & bags are not inspected,” he added. Muttalib points to Dubai's Free Zones, which are designated areas that are granted exemptions from duty & taxes, have simplified administrative processes, & duty-free import of items including raw materials. A 2020 report titled ‘Dubai’s Role in Facilitating Corruption & Global Illicit Financial Flows’, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, shows how these zones facilitate illicit activities including organised crime. Muttalib says that many goods enter those zones without "real oversight." 

Pragatheesh says the online space reveals a sophisticated trader & smuggler nexus. “The sellers know multiple languages & are highly educated,” he says, “Some smugglers update their location on social media based on where they travel across the world. They often have associates in different countries, running legal & registered businesses. Tracking these businesses helped us draw a pattern & trace their shipments for our investigations.”

Why a Rare Product is Suddenly So Easy to Find

While social media plays a significant role in diversifying shahtoosh’s customer base, the explosion of its advertising also casts aspersions on the credibility of the product. 

Shah, Ahmed & Mushtaq (from Kashmir)all believe that the shahtoosh circulating in the black market is either fake, or made from leftover shahtoosh wool, or from un-registered existing private collections. 

In India, registering Shahtoosh items (which involves declaring Shahtoosh possessions to the government through a unique identifier such a stamp or serial number) became mandatory after the ban. While traders could not keep stocks after the ban, private individuals who acquired Shahtoosh before the ban could keep it on condition of getting the item registered. 

“Borders are tougher now,” Shah says. “I honestly don’t think there’s new shahtoosh being made - nobody has that kind of capacity to carry out this operation in today’s day & age.”

“The stories you hear in the news, of Shahtoosh being sold, could be from the leftover stock that traders are selling illegally,” suggests Ahmed. He adds that after the ban, many traders retained the wool. “Shahtoosh doesn’t get bad but one needs to keep it carefully,” he says. “Back then, traders used to spray a specific kind of perfume to prevent it from getting spoilt. I’m sure the same method is being used now.” Asian Dispatch could not independently verify any of these claims, or the information about the aforementioned “perfume” to preserve Shahtoosh wool. 

A 1999 Story on Illegal Shahtoosh Shawls in the American Magazine Cosmopolitan. Credit: Vanity Fair Archive

The Wildlife Trust of India says that while some of the smuggled products outside of India might be genuine shahtoosh, there’s merit in considering that many traders falsely label similar-looking wool products to exploit the high market value associated with it. 

“Lab analysis or forensic examination is often required to confirm authenticity,” it says. “Without such verification, it’s difficult to be certain. There have also been instances of counterfeit goods being passed off as Shahtoosh in global markets.” The organization added that assuming all confiscated material is legacy stock - as the Kashmiri artisans suggested - overlooks the “persistent demand & continued procurement of chiru wool.” 

However, the fakes signal a major diversification of Shahtoosh trade. “It is a phenomenon where an exclusive item is reserved for high level wealthy people, but the rest of the people want a piece of it too," says Swiss CITES official Lisa Bradbury, hinting at the proliferation of mixed Shahtoosh products designed for a new customer base that has aspirations but may not fall in the ultra-high-income category. “We’ve found shawls that have shifted to a mix of cashmere & Shahtoosh, with a higher percentage of cashmere. This reflects in the price & the look of the shawl too.” The Wildlife Trust of India noted that in the beginning of the illicit Shahtoosh trade, the ratio of wool was 80 % Shahtoosh & 20 % pashmina. Recent seizures, they say, have shown 40 % Shahtoosh & 60 % pashmina, or 50-50 % of both wools. 

Over the years, shahtoosh detection has seen advancements. From using microchip tags to discourage traders to sell shahtoosh back in the 2000s, to using DNA testing in order to get accurate results today, the technologies have evolved. 

Bradbury says that CITES plays a major role in sharing data globally on the technology needed to detect shahtoosh. While countries like India are launching advanced DNA sequencing options, she says that at present, shawls are being treated chemically, making it impossible for labs to extract DNA, thereby rendering them un-reliable detection tools. However, even old-school observation of trends can help detection. “We had this notion that the design on a shahtoosh is necessarily traditional. But with time, we see shahtoosh being designed for a more modern clientele, with leopard prints or Burberry patterns. For now, we have alerted all customs to this trend to help with more detections,” she says.

No End in Sight

In an undisclosed location, Asian Dispatch meets a private individual who requested anonymity to talk about Shahtoosh. Without divulging too much detail, the individual says that the fabric is an important part of traditional ceremonies, like weddings & other family events, that people in their circle often access it through trusted vendors via private communication chains. “The vendor always says that it’s a dying art, that its weavers are dwindling,” the individual says. “Nobody ever talks about where the wool came from or that the sale & purchase is banned. The exclusivity, & the way the Shahtoosh feels, is where the appeal lies for many wealthy buyers.”

The individual adds that they were not aware of the ban until now. “How would I? There’s no taboo around owning a Shahtoosh in my circle. I am sure many people own a Shahtoosh even today,” they said. “It doesn’t shock anyone.” When asked whether the knowledge about the ban impacts whether or how they access shahtoosh in the future, they say that they’re just a small part of the problem. “There’s an argument that there’s supply where there’s demand. But if [Shahtoosh] didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be any demand. It’s the supply that creates the demand, you see.” Meanwhile, on the supply side, in Kashmir, there have been localised efforts by some traders who are advocating for the decriminalisation of shahtoosh. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Forests rejected a suggestion to do captive breeding in order to bring back shahtoosh weaving.

A Chiru in the Tibetan Plateau. Photo: Weichao Deng via Unsplash

Meanwhile, on the supply side, in Kashmir, there have been localised efforts by some traders who are advocating for the decriminalisation of shahtoosh. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Forests rejected a suggestion to do captive breeding in order to bring back shahtoosh weaving. Musadiq Shah, of the Kashmir Pashmina Organisation, recommends a global and collaborative pilot project to regularise shahtoosh shearing under controlled conditions. “There should be a scientific way to bring back shahtoosh. We are against killings. But we would want to give a chance to rehabilitate the weavers,” he says. 

In the wildlife community, there’s a unanimous consensus that this is not feasible. “It’s not possible to keep the Tibetan antelope in captivity & shear,” says Swiss official Lisa Bradbury, “This animal is not meant to be in contact with humans. The idea of ethical shearing of chiru wool is not possible.” 

Back in Kashmir, Mushtaq says that there should be more scrutiny on those who seek illicit shahtoosh rather than the middlemen who supply it, many of whom just happen to be desperate locals in need of employment. 

“I, as an honest trader, sell pure pashmina. But get paid far less than someone who passes off their dodgy product as shahtoosh,” he says, “This deceitful trade is hurting all of us.”  ________________________________________________________________Special Thanks: Mike Shanahan, Project Director, Bio-Diversity Media Initiative (Earth Journalism Network), Dr Mark Lee Hunter, Veteran Journalist, Author & Media Educator.  This Project is Produced With the Support of the Earth Journalism Network. Asian Dispatch Also Developed Bio-Diversity Training Curriculums as Part of This Project.

No Money or Gift Has Been Exchanged or Transactions Agreed Upon During any Part of the Reporting in any Country. ________________________________________________________________

[museaumofnaturalhistory]

Tibetan Antelope are Poached to Make Luxury Wraps, Called Shahtooshes, From Their Soft, Warm Under-Fur. 4 of the Animals are Killed to Make a Single Shahtoosh - Persian for “King of Wools.” Photograph - by Xi Zhinong, Nature Picture Library

A Rare Antelope is Being Killed to Make $20,000 Scarves - by Dina Fine Maron | The National Geographic - Wild Life Watch - Conservation - Drugs & Crime - Endangered Species - Law & Legislation - Borders - Sustainability - Fashion & Style - Ethics - Income & Livelihoods | 24th/04/2019 The Luxury Market for Shahtoosh is Imperiling the Tibetan Antelope.

CASTASEGNA, SWITZERLAND - Giovanni Albertini is accustomed to opulence. At this checkpoint on the Swiss-Italian border, a 2-hour drive from Milan, he spends his days evaluating well-coiffed travellers & scouring their Gucci & Louis Vuitton luggage for contraband. He & his Swiss border patrol colleagues have assessed diamonds, pricey wines, & caviar, among other luxuries.

But the drab scarf spread out before him now would not immediately impress. Wrinkled, beige, speckled with tiny, crinkly hairs, its only embellishment a small fringe at each end. And yet this seemingly unremarkable wrap could be another valuable piece of contraband.

2 hours earlier, Albertini had glimpsed it around the neck of a middle-aged Italian woman traveling with her husband in a silver Audi. The corporal pulled their car over because he suspected the shawl might be shahtoosh - the “king of wools” in Persian - a very expensive, ultra-soft, ultra-warm wool that is almost always illegal to import, trade, or even own.

Shahtoosh comes from the short, warm fleece of the rare Tibetan Antelope, Locally known as Chiru, a species almost exclusively endemic to the Changtang area of the Tibetan Plateau. It takes 4 animals to provide enough wool for just one shahtoosh shawl or scarf.

Because the antelope are wild animals that can’t be domesticated & shorn, the only way to get the wool is to kill them & strip it from their carcasses. Smugglers then sneak the raw wool into India, where artisans in Kashmir weave it into neck-warming wraps.

It Takes 4 Tibetan Antelope to Provide Enough Wool for Just 1 Scarf.

In the Previous Century Global Demand for Shahtoosh Wiped out 90% of the Chiru population, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), (which sets the conservation status of wildlife species). Once a valued dowry item in India, it is now sought primarily by Westerners, who may pay as much as $20,000 for a single shawl of the right size, colour, & design.

The origin of Shahtoosh long was shrouded in rumour. One common myth was that it came from the down of a “Siberian goose.” Another was that the Tibetan antelope naturally shed its wool, those hair clumps were then gathered up by nomads. Yet researchers have learned a lot about what goes into the shahtoosh trade, and they’ve seen the carnage from poaching.

Conservation biologist George Schaller, who has studied Chiru since the 1980s as part of his work for the non-profit Wildlife Conservation Society, says the sight of Chiru in the wild is exhilarating. “The males are spectacularly beautiful with their long, thin horns and black & white winter coats,” he says, adding that when the tan females & their young start moving en masse, it looks as if an entire hill is in motion. The phenomenon is all the more stunning, he says, because it happens in such a wild, remote landscape. “You have 1,000’s of square miles with no people at all.”

On the Move, a Herd of Tibetan Antelope Raises the Dust in China’s Qinghai Province. Photograph - by Xi Zhinong, Nature Picture Library

I 1st ran a shahtoosh through my fingers in a basement room tucked away in a residential neighbourhood of Bern, Switzerland, surrounded by 1,000’s - if not millions - of confiscated wildlife products. The locked room was located off a hallway that smelled like rotten cheese (government food-safety tests were under way nearby). In one corner, a display case held 100’s of shahtooshes of varying shapes & sizes. “This very small one is likely for a child,” explained Lisa Bradbury, pointing to an item about the size of a handkerchief. Bradbury advises the Swiss office that enforces the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES) in Switzerland. (CITES is the international treaty that regulates cross-border trade of protected wildlife.) Most of the Shawl’s she showed were quite large (about 3 feet by 6 feet). I wrapped one, an un-adorned royal purple shawl, around my shoulders, took in its delicate weave & buttery softness. I could see why someone might want a Shahtoosh (if you didn’t know about the animals killed for it).

The Global Demand for Shahtoosh Wiped out 90% of the Chiru Population During the Previous Century. Photograph - by Xi Zhinong, Nature Picture Library

Chiru once may have numbered about a million, but by the 1990s their numbers had fallen to 75,000. They began recovering in the 1st decade of this century, with stronger habitat protections in China & better enforcement of the animal’s strict CITES listing, which bars any international trade of the species. Even so, Swiss officials say they have been seeing a lot of Shahtoosh lately. From 2015 - 2018, customs officers seized the equivalent of more than 800 Chiru from the necks or luggage of travellers primarily from Italy, Germany, the UK, & the Middle East. Modern designs, including elaborate embroidery & patterns, suggest that at least some of the Shawls were newly made. The week before my February visit to the Castasegna checkpoint, Swiss customs discovered 3 more Shawls - the equivalent of 12 dead Tibetan antelope. “Shahtoosh is one of the main priorities for our office,” Mathias Lörtscher, (the head of the team charged with enforcing CITES in Switzerland), told me when I met him in his office in Bern. And he doesn’t think his country is the only one with a Shahtoosh problem - at 2 recent global CITES meetings, in 2016 & 2017, Switzerland called for immediate study of shahtoosh trafficking & increased vigilance around the world.

How Can You Know it's a Shahtoosh?

Identifying shahtoosh requires a level of skill. Usually officials look for guard hairs, the long, crinkly hairs that keep Chiru dry in the wild. These hairs, unlike the soft underfur, are not essential to a shahtoosh scarf’s characteristic texture, but often are both apparent & difficult for weavers to remove. When magnified, they look “kind of like a flagstone pattern,” says forensic morphologist Bonnie Yates, now retired & living in Oregon. In the mid-1990s, when she worked at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Forensic Laboratory, in Ashland, Oregon, she devised a way to distinguish the guard hairs of Chiru from those of other animals. Under the microscope, she found that Chiru guard hair is filled with minuscule air bubbles that give it the flagstone look. A single guard hair from the domesticated Capra hircus goat - the animal used to make legal pashmina scarves - is entirely different, however. It’s a thick, dark strip with white edges, almost like a freshly paved street with pale gutters. At the Castasegna border checkpoint, Marco Zarucchi peered through a microscope at 1 of the guard hairs from the seized brown scarf Albertini had handed him. Zarucchi, once an Olympic skier and now a sergeant major at Swiss customs, has confiscated 19 shahtooshes in the past 5 years. After a few moments’ study, he and a colleague were confident that they had another. “Yes,” he told Albertini, “this is a shahtoosh.” It meant that the Swiss government would take the scarf, and the now former owner would eventually have to pay a fine as high as several 1,000 $’s. Zarucchi broke the news to the woman, whose identity I agreed not to reveal due to Swiss privacy law. He handed her an official government information sheet about shahtoosh. The Chiru, it explained, has the “same international level of protection as for example elephants, tigers & rhinos.” Without raising her voice or begging for her shawl, the woman offered Zarucchi an explanation: She had inherited the scarf from a dear friend who died in December 2017. She had no idea it was Shahtoosh - she had never even heard of that word, she said. Zarucchi wouldn’t budge. This was not just a Swiss restriction, he repeated. Shahtoosh is regulated under CITES. And so, 2 hours after the couple had pulled in to the checkpoint, they were permitted to enter Switzerland - carrying a receipt for the roughly $1,800 deposit they’d paid against the fine that would later be set by officials in Bern. The Shahtoosh stayed behind in an evidence bag. Lisa Bradbury has trained many of the Swiss customs officials whose task it is to identify & seize Shahtoosh. After they make a positive identification, they must send the scarves to her & other officials at the Federal Food Safety & Veterinary Office, in Bern, for confirmation testing. (About a week after Albertini’s seizure at the Italian border the team analyzed the brown shawl & certified that it was indeed a shahtoosh.) Shahtoosh was first listed for CITES protection in 1979, but that didn’t immediately send the trade underground. During the 1990s - the peak of the global trade - shahtoosh was still sometimes offered for sale in shops around the world & even openly advertised, as per various media reports. In 1994, $100,000 worth of shahtoosh shawls were also sold illegally at a U.S. charity auction to raise money for cancer patients - (leading to the country’s 1st criminal prosecution for shahtoosh sales). (The shahtoosh smuggler, who brought in shawls worth about $250,000 in total, pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act as well as CITES, and a U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey imposed a sentence of 5 years’ probation & a $5,000 fine.)

Swiss Enforcement Officers Confiscate Shahtooshes at Locations Including Airports, Border Crossing Check-Points, & Clothing Stores.  Photograph - by Denis Balibouse, Reuters

As recently as October 2017, Martha Stewart told the New York Times that when she travels, “I always take a very comfortable shawl, a shahtoosh. They weigh almost nothing, & are as warm as a down comforter…it goes through a wedding ring.” (She was referring to the “ring test,” used to distinguish shahtoosh from thicker fabrics like pashmina.) She later walked her statement back, saying that what she actually meant was that her shawl was shahtoosh-like. (Her representatives did not respond to requests for comment.) Lately the U.S. shahtoosh trade has quieted, or perhaps gone unnoticed. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency tasked with tracking wildlife trade, to seek details about any seizures of shahtooshes or other goods made from Tibetan antelope dating back to 2007. It returned no entries.

A Case Holds Confiscated Shahtoosh in a Bern Basement Room Serving as a Warehouse for Other Illegal Wild-Life Products, Including Fur Coats, Shoes, Taxidermied Animals, & Elephant Feet. Photograph - by Dina Fine Maron

Switzerland: a Shahtoosh Hot-Spot

When it comes to publicly acknowledged confiscations of shahtoosh, Switzerland tops the list. Within its borders, shahtooshes are often nabbed at a tiny airport a few miles from the posh ski resort town of St. Moritz. The day after the shahtoosh bust at the Castasegna border crossing, two dozen private jets were scheduled to land between late morning and mid-afternoon. Many were searched for shahtoosh and other illegal goods. Around 2 p.m., when 3 adults & 4 children disembarked from their flight, their bags were loaded into a small white shipping container to be searched. Zarucchi, the customs official, quickly found a suspicious-looking scarf buried beneath layers of carefully folded blouses & pants. It was navy green with an embroidered trim in orange, red, & pink. Initials, likely those of the weaver, were sewn in the corner of the soft, smooth fabric. To Zarucchi, the wrap looked and felt like a shahtoosh. The scarf’s owner - a petite British woman with sunglasses tucked into her hair, perfectly applied pink lipstick, and a toddler expertly angled on her hip - pursed her lips. “This is not a shahtoosh,” she declared, unbidden. She continued, “Everyone knows what a shahtoosh is. This is pashmina!” Her scarf, she added, doesn’t fit through a ring. Saying he’d have to do a 2ndary check with a microscope, Zarucchi took the scarf to a back room in the main customs building. He tried the ring test - using my wedding ring - it passed through easily. But when he peered at the scarf under the microscope, he saw no guard hairs; this one was not a shahtoosh. (The ring test is a good guide but not fail-safe.) Zarucchi brought the scarf back to the woman and told her that, yes, she was right - it’s not a shahtoosh. Of course not, she retorted. “I’ve seen shahtoosh on friends, so I know what it is.” Shahtoosh has become infamous in Switzerland. In 2003, the Swiss government received a tip from the CITES secretariat (the Zurich-based coordinating office for the 183 parties to the treaty) that a St. Moritz shop had been selling 100's of shwls. The store, which kept meticulous records, had moved nearly 550 shawls in the previous decade. A wealthy Greek family had bought about 60 % of the stock. (Swiss privacy law barred officials from telling me the name of the shop or giving further details about the case.) “These shawls arguably constituted the world’s most significant case of illegal trade in these products,” Heinrich Haller, director of the Swiss National Park (the country’s only national park), noted in his 2016 book about wildlife crime. More incidents followed. Swiss officials snatched 24 shawls from commercial shipments in Basel in 2010 & then 8 more from a Swiss fair in 2013. That’s when they “realized this problem is not gone,” Bradbury says. And in 2016 in St. Moritz alone, 26 were seized from shops. Yet the main shahtoosh hauls in Switzerland continue to come from border patrol seizures. In 2014, 29 shawls were found in travelers’ bags. The next year it was 72, & in 2016, another 61. “If you look for them, you will find them,” Bradbury says.

China & Tibetan Antelope

To help the Chiru population rebound, China has expanded Changtang National Nature Reserve, the protected area in & around which the animals calve. In 2015, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection & the Chinese Academy of Sciences classified Tibetan antelope as “near threatened” in the country’s National Red List of Vertebrates. The next year, guided by that determination, the IUCN also down-listed the animal, from “endangered” to “near threatened,” and estimated that 100,000 - 150,000 remain in the wild. The tricky part in assessing how well Tibetan antelope are doing, says George Schaller, is that no full census of them has ever been done, so any population figures are rough estimates. The indomitable Schaller, who turns 86 in May, continues to make regular trips to the region. “In the areas I’ve seen,” he says, “they seem to be increasing, but it’s difficult to count them as they travel long distances. You can’t use an airplane like you can to census animals in East Africa as it’s China, & in a sensitive area. Most of the time I’m not allowed to even take another foreigner with me,” he says. Aimin Wang, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s China country director, notes that China’s government has said, informally, in recent meetings that Chiru now number 300,000 - a 4-fold rise over their estimated population in the 1990s. He says the numbers may be a bit optimistic & that the count is likely closer to 250,000. But, he adds, based on the improvements, the IUCN listing change seems to have been reasonable. Switzerland questions China’s numbers. “We’ve asked for the science, but we haven’t seen the population study - the population census - that allows us to say the population has strongly recovered,” Lörtscher said. In addition to being Switzerland’s CITES representative, (Lörtscher is the chairman of the international CITES Animals Committee, which assesses trade & scientific data for CITES-listed animal species). “We need to see more to be convinced here in Switzerland,” he said. “I’ve told my Chinese counterpart this as well. They should talk about it and show it if they are really doing good stuff. I’m not saying it isn’t happening, but we’ve seen no data.” (Multiple requests for comment to Wu Zhongze, China’s CITES official charged with enforcing the international treaty, got no response.)

Entrenched Culture

Shahtoosh Weaving has been illegal in India since the 1970s. A. Pragatheesh, an instructor in the wildlife crime bureau at India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, says the government is investigating how the wool is smuggled into the country, but because demand comes from abroad, efforts are mainly focused on ramping up training programs for India’s border guard agencies. In 2018 alone, according to the ministry, 35 shawls were confiscated in India - the highest number since 2011, when 55 were seized. (Schaller, based on his knowledge of the trade, believes the shahtoosh traffic is much larger than those numbers suggest.)

Westerners May Pay as Much as $20,000 for a Shahtoosh

To evade the authorities, Pragatheesh says, shahtoosh artisans have gone into hiding in Kashmir, and “it’s challenging to find them.” There’s great incentive to keep their work going. Switching to pashmina cuts weavers’ profits in 1/2, according to a documentary by the Wildlife Trust of India, (an India-based conservation non-profit). Workers who clean the raw wool also depend on what they earn to support their families. But making shahtoosh isn’t just about the money, Pragatheesh says. Shahtoosh weavers were once highly respected, and the culture is entrenched. Each shawl is painstakingly crafted, a process that can take years, & knowledge about how to work with the delicate, brittle wool is passed down through the generations. The industry is evolving, however, making law enforcement work even more challenging. To boost their profits & respond to changes in fashion, weavers often now mix in more pashmina, Pragatheesh says.

Un-Usual Designs are a Feature of Modern Shahtoosh, Made by Weavers in Kashmir & Smuggled to Western Markets. Swiss Officials Call for International Vigilance to Help Protect the Rare Tibetan Antelope. Photograph - by Dina Fine Maron

As a result, the scarves can support more intricate designs and look & feel more like a pashmina. “If you make a shahtoosh shawl with just shahtoosh wool, it’s very light & fragile, so by mixing it with pashmina, you can do more embroidery,” Pragatheesh says. This hardier wool also allows for machine production, helping weavers save time on work that would otherwise take years, he adds. In the hybrids, however, Tibetan antelope guard hairs may also be hard to find. I remember one confiscated scarf Lisa Bradbury showed me in the basement storeroom in Bern. It was black with tiny red skulls & cross bones (reminiscent of a kitschy pirate flag). It had a short fringe like other shahtoosh I had seen but otherwise looked very dissimilar. No guard hairs were apparent to the naked eye, perhaps due to the pre-ponderance of pashmina in the weave. If this scarf had not been found along with others that were obviously Shahtoosh, Bradbury said, it might have avoided testing & slipped by, altogether un-noticed.

[museaumofnaturalhistory]

A Young Living Root Bridge, Barely a Decade Old, is Seen From the Deck of a Much Older Root Bridge on the Same River-Bed. 5 Months After I Took This Photo, Monsoon Rains Triggered a Landslide Sending Boulders Crashing into the Younger Bridge. It Absorbed the Impact & Shielded the Older Bridge Down-Stream.

In One of the Wettest Places on the Planet, Indigenous People Build Bridges & Ladders Out of Living Tree Roots - by Trishna Mohanty | The Smithsonian Magazine - Arts & Culture - Travel, Tourism & Adventure - Innovation - Solutions - Geography - Climate Change - Heritage - Trees & Forests - Bio-Diversity | 25th/03/2026 

For Centuries, the Khasi & Jaintia 1st Nations in Meghalaya, India, Have Woven the Roots of Indian Rubber Trees into Structures to Help Them Navigate Flooded Areas.

What began as a stroll through broom plantations abruptly turns into a steep descent with near-vertical sections, each more precarious than the last. My shaky legs are relieved when we reach a sheer cliff that is impossible to maneuver. We will have to turn around, I think. But then I see it. Meticulously trained & grown over several decades to assume a precise form is a 50-foot-long cliff ladder made of living roots.

In Meghalaya, India, weather has shaped the land, & land has shaped the weather, for as long as its people can remember. To its south lies the East Khasi Hills district. Part of the Shillong Plateau, the district rises rapidly from the plains of Bangladesh, at a mean elevation of under 65 feet, to nearly 5,000 feet, over a horizontal distance of about 6 miles. This topographical wonder acts as a natural barrier, intercepting humid air masses & making the region one of the wettest on Earth. Sohra, popularly known as Cherrapunji, a town in the East Khasi Hills, holds Guinness World Records for the greatest annual rainfall, the greatest rainfall in 48 hours & the greatest rainfall recorded in a month.

When the juggernaut of monsoons rolls in, usually in June & July, raging rivers, flash floods & frequent landslides upend daily life. The resourceful Khasi & Jaintia 1st Nations, ancient stewards of the land, have learned to navigate the inclement weather by growing foot-bridges from the living roots of Ficus Elastica(Indian rubber tree). Sometimes knotted, sometimes braided, often fusing & then branching such that it is impossible to identify where one root ends & another begins, the tangled chaos of woody roots resolves & emerges as a Tolkienesque structure. The bridges that have been documented display astonishing variation, their altitude ranging from 160 to nearly 4,000 feet above mean sea level & their lengths spanning anywhere from 6.4 to nearly 176 meters.

Suspended Nearly 20 Feet Above Ground, This Hammock-Like Structure in Umniuh Tmar is Believed to be the Oldest of its Kind in the East Khasi Hills.

In 2017, on my 1st visit to Meghalaya, I learned 2 things. #1: Beyond the 2 living root bridges that, according to a Lonely Planet guide, were “fast becoming the postcard image for Meghalaya,” an indeterminate number of such structures are scattered across the region. #2: No definitive map or central repository of information on the subject exists. Intrigued, I began searching for these architectural wonders.

That same year, armed with digital vernier calipers & tape measures, a team of German researchers trudged across the local terrain, pocked with gorges & ravines, measuring & probing as they concluded their 3rd & final expedition. In their 2019 pilot study, they compiled an extensive inventory of 76 living root bridges, ranging from 15 - 700 years old & studied the bridge-building techniques of the Khasi & Jaintia.

“It’s definitely not an exhaustive list,” says researcher Patrick Rogers, (who began a series of long treks in the region in 2013 & co-authored the paper). “Many living root bridges exist in incredibly remote, difficult-to-reach locations, where only a very small number of people are likely to know about them.” Some disintegrate gradually from neglect, others are decimated by natural disasters, & still others get overlooked due to their under-stated appearance.

Ficus Trees Can be Planted for a Multitude of Reasons Such as to Stabilize Slopes, Shade, Latex & So On. Patrick Rogers Explains That the Exact Dividing Line Separating an Architectural Structure & a Naturally Grown Structure is Not Always Clear. The Retaining Wall of Roots Seen Here in the Back-Drop Might Have Been Planted for the Shade.

But, from their analysis, the team came to better understand the Khasi & Jaintia’s construction methods. The bridge makers encase the tender aerial roots of a mature F. Elastica, usually planted on a river bank years or decades earlier, within a hollowed-out Areca Catechu (betal palm) trunk supported by bamboo scaffolding. When the roots reach the opposite bank, they are directed back into the soil.

“Generations of builders contribute over decades or centuries to bridge structures, rarely with a clear or consistent plan,” the study states. They grow many structural elements, like handrails, a 2nd or 3rd bridge deck, & underpinning struts, using the same method. “This combination of continuous growth & maintenance leads to a high level of complexity in each bridge, making simple mechanical analysis unfeasible,” the researchers write.

Quick Fact: Who are the Khasi & Jaintia? The Khasi & Jaintia are Closely Related Indigenous, Matrilineal Groups That Live in Meghalaya, India.

Every bridge is distinct in how its architects have improvised & shaped it as torrential rains damage or alter their creation time & again. Approximately 200 years old, the Double Decker living root bridge of Nongriat village is at the heart of a lush valley 1,250 feet above mean sea level. “One of the most documented examples of natural engineering,” according to Meghalaya Tourism, the bridge derives its name from its form. 2 parallel decks, measuring 80 feet & 50 feet in length, protrude from the trunk of an Indian rubber tree over the Mawsaw River. Locals built the 2nd, higher deck after torrential rains flooded the river & the lower deck, making it risky for villagers to cross the bridge. The Wah Thyllong living root bridge spans the Thyllong River near the villages of Nohwet & Riwai. Measuring 40 feet, the single bridge deck is supported by roots suspended from the branches of the same tree high above, reminiscent of a suspension bridge.

Khasi Tribal Women Walk Across a Living Root Bridge. Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images

These 2 structures have appeared in several articles, documentaries & shows, from the Guardian to the BBC. In 2022, as the world emerged from Covid-19 lockdowns & Indian travelers sought novel experiences, the North-Eastern Region, marginalized for complex historical, political & social reasons, began to gain prominence. As per one report, by 2023, annual tourist footfall in Meghalaya had doubled over 10 years. Nongriat, once an obscure, quiet village with a single community homestay (where I lived for a week in 2017), is now a thriving tourism hot spot with more than 1/2 a dozen lodging options. Farming, previously the livelihood of the populace of less than 200, is rapidly making way for tourism & its opportunities. Many residents work as guides, accompanying tourists as they descend some 3,500 steps into the valley.

Away from popular tourist circuits, every new bridge presents a new form, a new origin story & an intimate connection with its people. Wengstone Rangjem, a 48-year-old member of the Khasi tribe, has been my guide on many treks in the East Khasi Hills to locate living root bridges. As I step onto the cliff ladder, terrified, he goads me: “Women from the village here climb it while carrying huge loads on their backs. It should be easy for you!” One wrong move and I will go hurtling down to the Jashar River, so far below that we can’t even hear it. The rungs, shaped from the roots of the massive F. Elastica above us, are as hard as wood, & I am baffled. How long have these other living root structures been around? Are they as old as the living root bridges?

Wengstone Rangiem Descends the 50-Foot-Long Cliff Ladder. 

The 1st known record of the practice appears in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1844. In a description accompanying a hand-drawn illustration of a living root bridge, Scottish Orientalist & geographer Lieutenant Henry Yule wrote:

“Two Great Roots Run Directly One Over the Other, & the Secondary Shoots From the Upper Have Been Bound Round, & Grown into the Lower, So That the Former Affords at Once a Hand-Rail & Suspending Chain, the Latter a Footway. Other Roots Have Been Laced & Twisted into a Sort of Ladder as an Ascent From the Bank to the Bridge.”

Over multiple trips to Meghalaya from 2023 until last year, I found more examples of cliff ladders in their infancy, with roots as delicate as a strand of human hair, being trained to take their final form years later. I photographed hammock-like platforms, the oldest of which can accommodate 30 to 40 people at a time. On precipitous slopes, I stumbled upon intricate, serpentine root staircases wound to provide secure footholds. The same roots are cajoled & steered in multiple directions, or sometimes woven like nets around massive boulders, to stabilize hillsides. In Nongblai, a village in the East Khasi Hills district with more than a dozen living root bridges (one of the highest known concentrations of such structures in the region), the roots of a chain of F. Elastica trees seem to form a retaining wall along the escarpment.

A single building block underpins all these structures. F. Elastica roots have a natural tendency to form a mechanically stable structure through inosculation: 2 separate structures, such as roots, fuse together to form 1 continuous living structure. Various methods, such as braiding or tying 2 roots in a knot, are implemented to induce the phenomenon, & form a dense, interwoven framework.

Darmasius Rane, a Traditional Khasi Healer, Navigates a Forest Patch Where He Cultivates Medicinal Plants, a Knup (Traditional Khasi Umbrella) Shielding Him From the Rain.

In 2022, the root bridges appeared on the UNESCO World Heritage Site’s tentative listing, the 1st step in a long process for potential inscription on the World Heritage List. It recognized that these living structures, or Jingkieng Jri, “encapsulate a profound harmony between humans & nature, validating outstanding ingenuity & resilience.” UNESCO also noted “significant diversity” among the types of structures built from F. Elastica, each a “unique site-specific response.” Bridges, ladders & steps let the Khasi navigate treacherous terrain in harsh weather. Tired farmers rest, recuperate & socialize on these platforms. Erosion & landslide prevention structures ensure the safety of settlements.

Living root bridges are not bound by typical laws of governance. Their up-keep & ownership vary from structure to structure. Of the 76 root bridges studied, 12 are maintained by individuals or families, 25 by a village community & 8 by a consortium of many communities. 14 other bridges are maintained by unknown entities, & 16 are left untended.

A Volunteer Works on a Living Root Bridge. David Talukdar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Every time I visit a living root structure with Wengstone, I spend an inordinate amount of time determining how I want to photograph it, while he quietly starts working on the structure itself, removing epiphytes, tying roots & clearing paths that lead to it. Sometimes, he will risk his life reaching places high above the ground to mend a structure or work on a section of it that is relatively new & unstable. He speaks of the work with reverence, as an invaluable “inheritance from the forefathers” and “a gift to our children and those who come after them.”

Nature is core to Khasi & Jaintia belief systems & cultural identity. In community-conserved sacred groves known as Khlaw Kyntang (in Khasi) & Khloo Blai (in Jaintia), desecration of any kind, such as cutting trees is believed to have grave repercussions from the forest deity. Rich in bio-diversity, these forest patches are hallowed ground for various rites & rituals.

Often, a Living Root Structure Serves Multiple Purposes. While a Large Portion of the Roots Forms a Stair-Case, a Part of it is Wound Around a Massive Boulder (Seen Just Behind the Stair-Case to the Right). 

Indigenous knowledge systems lean on intuition & keen observation of nature’s predictable cycles & un-expected whims. Communities work closely to safeguard & champion environmental resources with the foresight to “take only what is necessary,” as Wengstone often says, & leave the rest for future generations. In New Mexico, the Zuni people use waffle gardens, with sunken squares to capture rainwater & runoff, slowing the evaporation process. In Peru’s Lake Titicaca & India’s Loktak Lake, Indigenous people construct floating villages & aquaculture farms from plant material. What can we learn from such systems that have enabled survival for centuries? Can we replicate & adapt them as the world grapples with climate crisis & intensifying weather events?

Inspired by the living root bridges of Meghalaya, German architects Daniel Schönle & Ferdinand Ludwig (one of the co-authors of the pilot study) began building an experimental footbridge in the Neue Kunst am Ried Sculpture Park in Baden-Württemberg, (a state in southwest Germany), in 2005. Built according to the principles of Baubotanik, an architectural method that merges living trees with more typical construction materials, the structure consists of 64 vertical & 16 diagonal bundle columns, each comprising 12 - 15 Osier Willows (Salix Viminalis). More than 72 feet long & 8 feet high, it carries a pedestrian platform made of steel gratings. Over the years, its steel handrail has embedded itself into the living plant structure. Meanwhile, single plants and sometimes entire columns have died too.

Approximately 200 Years Old, the Double Decker Living Root Bridge of Nongriat Village is at the Heart of a Lush Valley 1,250 Feet Above Mean Sea Level. 

“If living structural systems do become viable, they could profoundly reshape architecture - transforming buildings into carbon sinks that strengthen over time & respond dynamically to climate conditions,” says Julia Watson, author of Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, (a compendium of global Indigenous practices & a call for their widespread adoption to generate sustainable, climate-resilient infrastructure). “Re-engaging Indigenous knowledge today is not an act of nostalgia; it is an act of re-calibration. It is about restoring plurality in how we understand the world & recognizing that sustainable futures depend on dissolving the hierarchies separating us from each other & from the living systems sustaining us.”

Emdorlang Khonglam, headman of Nongblai, recalls a formative memory from when he lived at the edge of a cliff: “I grew up in the shade of a huge Dieng Jri [Indian Rubber Tree] near our house. The year we moved out of that house, it rained very heavily. The tree fell, & the cliff collapsed soon after. Some may say that it was a coincidence. But we know the tree waited until we were safe, and only then gave in. It was holding both the land & us together. It saved us.”

A tourist hot spot. An architectural marvel. An ingenious ecological adaptation. There are perhaps as many epithets for living root bridges as there are actual examples of them, but their most defining characteristic is this: They are part of the expansive vocabulary of a people whose lives are deeply intertwined with the roots of trees. To navigate an uncertain climate future, others may very well need to learn this language, born from extremes. ______________________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________Trishna Mohanty is a Travel Journalist & Photographer From India. Her Work has Appeared in the New York Times, BBC Travel & Other Outlets. ______________________________________________________________________________

[wherethewildorchidgrows]

Why Is Everything an Orchid - by Sofia Quaglia | Nautilus - Environment - Evolution - Adaptation - Genetics - Bio-Diversity - Botany | 26th/10/2023 Orchids Were Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery.” They Continue Eluding Science - & Conservation Efforts to Save Them.

After investigating the origin of the species, Charles Darwin lunged into an exploration of something that seemed, by comparison, terribly minute: orchids. By 1862, he travelled the world wide & far, encountering incredible organisms like giant tortoises, seafaring iguanas & fossils of giant ground sloths. But he couldn’t stop thinking about a delicate, white star-shaped flower he’d been sent as a gift by his acquaintance James Bateman, (an English horticulturalist with a penchant for rare flora from Madagascar). The flower’s odd shape - with an extremely long nectar pouch hanging under its crown - stirred in him a deep, almost inexplicable fascination. “Orchids have interested me as much as almost anything in my life,” Darwin wrote. In their forms, he saw a vast landscape of the forces of selective evolution, a dance they played with their environment & their pollinators. “My little darlings,” as he sometimes referred to orchids, became his model for further exploring the forces he so broadly described in The Origin of Species. Just 3 years after the publication of that shattering work, he had produced his tome puzzling over the multitudinous, striking habits of orchids: On the Various Contrivances by Which British & Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects, and On the Good Effects of Intercrossing.

FORBIDDEN FLOWER: It's Illegal to Pick or Harvest Some Orchids, Like This Lady's Slipper Orchid. Orchids in the Lady Slipper Family Tend to Die When Removed From Their Natural Habitat. Photo by Dasha Artemieva / Shutterstock.

How a single family of flowers could vary so widely - from small & frilly, almost invisible to see, to large, gaudy & with a front pouch - left him baffled. He called this, & flower diversity as a whole, an “abominable mystery.” Indeed, there are upward of 28,000 orchid species world-wide & new ones cropping up every so often - at times even right under our noses. They have made their homes on all contemporary continents save for Antarctica - from the Arctic north, across the equator, reaching south through all but the tip of South America.

“I think the reason people become obsessed with them is because of that mystery: Why are there so many?” says Jamie Thompson, a life sciences researcher at the University of Bath, in the UK. Yet the scientific jury is still out - and fervently debating - how many species there are exactly, what secret makes them so brilliant at diversifying, and when & where orchids evolved in the 1st place. Getting to the bottom of these mysteries could help us better understand the evolutionary dynamism of this massive group of alluring plants, and how we might help them fend off upcoming decimation.

To search for answers, researchers have spent decades digging into the orchid’s past. For plants, fossil records are often hard to come by because soft organic matter is less likely to be preserved than, say, bones. To track when a plant 1st appeared on this planet, experts now tend to rely on phylo-genetic profiling: (They use DNA from different species to plot them onto a tree of life, and then use a statistical model to pull them back into the past & recreate their history). 

When, in 2015, researchers used this technique to sequence 39 species from all major orchid groups, as well as data from some fossils, their findings suggested that orchids originated between 100 - 125 million years ago, most likely in Australia.1 Ancient orchids then spread to the tropics by making their way through Antarctica - (which was then connected & flourishing with vegetation). And since then, Southeast Asia is where most of their speciation has taken place.

Darwin Could Not Stop Thinking About a Delicate, White Star-Shaped Flower.

Or at least, this is currently the leading theory of orchid origins. It may soon be upended, though, as per new preliminary findings.2 An international research team has drafted a study using DNA from more than 1,900 orchid species & pin-pointed their origin north, in Laurasia, modern-day Europe, Asia, & North America. The majority of diversification happened just over the past 5 million years, their work suggests. Southern Meso-America, such as the lush Costa Rica & Panama, actually hosts the fastest speciation of orchids.

This paper, posted to a preprint site in September, hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, & some outside experts don’t think this new hypothesis is any good. But Oscar Pérez-Escobar, the lead author of the study & a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, doesn’t think his findings are controversial at all. “Understanding where things come from can help us understand why we have X or Y species, & why there are so many,” Pérez-Escobar says. Today, it takes a long logbook to account for orchids’ present diversity of appearances & habits. “There’s quite a number of innovations that orchids can do that other plants can’t, or not so well,” says Katharina Nargar, an orchid researcher at James Cook University, in Australia who contributed to the new study.

LEAF ME ALONE: This Orchid, Taeniophyllum Glandulosum, Never Grows Leaves. Instead, it Has Chloroplast-Containing Cortical Cells in its Roots, With Which it Meets all its Photosynthetic Needs. Its Roots are Not Buried in Soil, But Rather Wrap Around a Tree Trunk or Rock. Photo by Satyajit Dutta / Shutterstock.

The neatest & most helpful of these tricks, according to Nargar, is that more than 70 % of orchids have the ability to grow out of tree trunks & branches instead of soil (a capability known as epiphytism). It allows them to exploit new territories other plants cannot use, giving them “free rein,” says Nargar. Studies suggest that epiphytism evolved independently at least 14 times throughout the orchid family tree, & epiphytic orchids are “significantly richer in species” than terrestrial ones, write the authors of one study of their diversity. To successfully live in trees, they have developed the ability to absorb moisture from the air via a succulent spongy outer coating on their stem & leaves, as well as to use their roots directly to photo-synthesize. The Taeniophyllum orchid, for instance, doesn’t even have any leaves: it just uses its roots for all energy production from the sun.

For the species that haven’t evolved to live in trees, the other main running theory for their inexplicable ability to diversify lies in how specialized their flowers are at getting pollinated. For one, some orchid species are the ultimate swingers - they are very lenient in their sex lives & can produce fertile offspring with orchids from some other species, making them more likely to reproduce & more likely to often birth unique, new hybrid species, according to Nargar.

To ensure pollination, some orchids also strike up an evolutionary deal with local fauna: The plant evolves a flower so intricate it’s only accessible to a couple types of insects, and those insects are sure to only really ever pollinate other orchids. One of these striking examples is the Angraecum Sesquipedale, the orchid Darwin had grown obsessed with, which has evolved a 12-inch long and narrow satchel for its nectar so that only the Hawk moth, with an exceptionally long proboscis, can access it. Although Darwin had already mused on this possibility, the moth hadn’t yet been discovered, so his theory was only confirmed almost four decades later, in 1903.

Some Orchids are Very Lenient in Their Sex Lives. 

In order to fine-tune their ability to accommodate just certain pollinators, orchids have also grown very meticulous about how they deliver their pollen gifts. Some orchids bundle their pollen in tailor-made, measured, sticky packages & fling them onto their preferred pollinators with precision so that no grains are wasted & lost along the way once they fly off, and they can only be dislodged once they reach their destination. This push to specialize pollen packaging according to available pollinators - maybe a moth, maybe a bee - has also pushed diversification. And it allows a mutant orchid to have a higher chance of having loads of offspring as less pollen goes to waste than with traditionally dispersed grains. The branch of the orchid family tree that has evolved this trick called “pollinia” has a higher speciation rate than orchids that have stuck with traditional pollen grains.4

I'M A BEE-LIEVER: This Orchid, Ophrys Apifera, Looks & Smells Like a Female Bee, Tricking Male Bees to Spend More Time With Them, & Become Un-Witting Pollinators. Photo - by Alberto Chiarle / Shutterstock.

To take their specialization a step further, some orchids evolved to mimic the mate of their preferred pollinator, or their favorite snack through looks, scent, & the release of special chemicals.5 Unknowing insects show up on their flower crown hoping to get lucky, get duped into picking up the flower’s pollen instead. Ophrys Apifera orchids look & smell like female bees. The Hammer Orchid eerily resembles a female wasp. The Satyrium Pumilum orchid, in South Africa, imitates the scent of dead animals to attract fruit flies, while Disa Pulchra orchids pretend to be other nectar-offering flowers, like the pink iris, to fool insects into coming looking for a sweet reward. Since bees, wasps & butterflies alike would clock the ploy if it were too common, it’s possible this has led orchids to vary in their mimetics as much as possible, spurring the birth of so many different species & tactics

These unique flower morphology strategies are “fundamental,” to diversification as per Dewi Pramanik, (Orchid morphology researcher at the Naturalis Bio-Diversity Center, in the Netherlands). One of her favorites is the Serapias Cordigera orchid, which has evolved to shape its hairy, burgundy flower like a comfortable resting place for the male Hoplitis Adunca bee, which will conveniently stop to rest there in between bouts of foraging, accidentally pollinating the flower. Dust-like seeds are also likely among the orchid’s arsenal for rapid diversification. A single orchid seed packet can contain up to 4 million seeds, sometimes as tiny as 0.05 mm in length - the smallest in the plant kingdom - meaning plenty can easily disperse with a single gust of wind. Though most of the dust seeds won’t ever germinate, this tiny seed technique does boost the odds for diversification compared to a plant with a heartier seed bulk as new plants can crop up quickly in new locations without too much energy expenditure, and rapidly adapt accordingly.

Though orchid excellence might not all be down to just tricks pulled by the plants themselves, as per Thompson - there are external factors at play, too. When he ran another phylogenetic statistical analysis on nearly 1,500 species of terrestrial orchids, his data suggested that their diversification “exploded” specifically when temperatures started dropping across the globe, somewhere around 10 million years ago.6 Global cooling is 700 times more likely to have influenced the orchid speciation rate than just time alone, Thompson says, making orchids “the best example of climate-driven speciation.”

Unfortunately, this also suggests extra trouble for the challenges orchids will face as the world warms. “I think extinction will increase, because a lot of them are cold-adapted, and we’ve seen in Europe, how hot it’s been this year,” says Thompson. Climate changes also put orchids at additional risk due to their hyper-specializing for one pollinator that might die off or be forced out of their habitat.

STAR-STRUCK: The Angraecum Sesquipedale Orchid - the Very Same Type Darwin Had Grown Obsessed With, Has Evolved a 12-Inch Long & Narrow Satchel for its Nectar So That Only the Hawk Moth, With an Exceptionally Long Proboscis, Can Access it. Photo by COULANGES / Shutterstock.

Going by their evolutionary history, orchids should continue to proliferate, and we should continue to discover new ones. “If you look at the number of orchid species described against time, it’s not really showing any evidence of leveling off,” according to Thomas Givnish, (professor of botany & environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), who penned that seminal Australia-orchid-origin research. But human-caused climate change & other habitat destruction are spelling out a different future for many Orchid species.

Some calculations suggest that plant species are dying out at least 500 times faster than before 1900, with orchids high on the threat list. Bangladesh has lost 32 of its 188 identified orchid species since 1996; in the Czech Republic, the suitable habitat for endemic orchids has declined up to 92 percent; in Florida, the number of famed ghost orchid (the sought-after subject of The Orchid Thief) has declined by ½ ; orchids in India are blooming earlier than they should, potentially disrupting pollination. And according to a study published earlier this year, almost 280 known orchid species are in need of “immediate conservation action” but most of these still lack adequate protection.

If most of the diversity arose in the past 10 - 5 million years, the rapid loss of species we’re experiencing now might be too late to counteract, according to Pérez-Escobar. “We are kind of stuck,” he says. “If we don’t protect the orchids that we have left, the time it will take for that diversity to bounce back is millions of years.” He is on a mission to gather additional international collaboration to sample the DNA of all existing orchid species - however many they may be - as he thinks that will help him definitively plot out the plant’s evolutionary history.

The one thing experts seem to all agree on is that perhaps the best way to come up with strategies to effectively stop orchids’ decline7  - whether it’s going to be saving the habitats they reside in, focusing on the pollinators they rely on, cutting down on their illegal trade, or all of the above - is to somehow answer the big questions of the “abominable mystery”: What are the secrets to their success in speciation? Further parsing these details about orchid diversity can help conservationists home in on their rapid and wild evolutionary plasticity to, hopefully, give them a fighting chance at adapting to a rapidly changing world. After all, Darwin, himself noted that orchids had been “eminently useful” for him to learn how every little element, “even most trifling details of structure,” are somehow a result of natural selection.8 As he writes in a letter replete with exclamation points to a fellow botanist: “The beauty of the adaptations of parts seems to me unparalleled.”

Lead image: Rak ter samer / Shutterstock

Prefer to Listen?

References:

1. Givnish, T.J., et al. Orchid historical biogeography, diversification, Antarctica, and the paradox of orchid dispersal. Journal of Biogeography 43, 1905-1916 (2016).

2. Perez-Escobar, O.A., et al. The origin and speciation of orchids. BioRxiv (2023).

3. Gravendeel, B., Smithson, A., Slik, G.J.W., & Schuiteman, A. Epiphytism and pollinator specialization: Drivers for orchid diversity? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 359, 1523-1535 (2004).

4. Givnish, T.J., et al. Orchid phylogenomics and multiple drivers of their extraordinary diversification. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282, 20151553 (2015).

5. Ackerman, J.D., et al. Beyond the various contrivances by which orchids are pollinated: Global patterns in orchid pollination biology. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 202, 295-324 (2023).

6. Thompson, J.B., Davis, K.E., Dodd, H.O., Wills, M.A., & Priest, N.K. Speciation across the Earth driven by global cooling in terrestrial orchids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120, e2102408120 (2023).

7. Fay, M.F. Orchid conservation: How can we meet the challenges in the twenty-first century? Botanical Studies 59, 16 (2018).

8. Darwin, C. Letter to J.D. Hooker. Darwin Correspondence Project. University of Cambridge (1862).

______________________________________________________________________________

Sofia Quaglia is a Free-Lance Journalist Writing About all Things Science & Nature as Well as How We Discuss Them. Her Work Has Appeared in The New York Times, BBC, National Geographic, The Guardian, New Scientist, & More. She is On a Mission to Visit the Entire Planet by Spending Each Month in a Different Country, So She has Been Living on the Road Since 2021. ______________________________________________________________________________

[coiour-my-world]

“Wonderland by Night” | Antelope Canyon eclipse || nibsclick

[coiour-my-world]

Fireflies in Japan || Daniel Kordan

[sisterofthewolves]

Picture by Jim Brandenburg

Arctic wolves hunting muskoxen. 

[museaumofnaturalhistory]

Humans in France Were Domesticating Grapes for Wine by 650 B.C. or Earlier, Around the Time When Greek Settlers Founded the Port City of Marseilles, According to a New Study. - Credit Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Ancient Grapes Reveal Long History of Modern Wines - by Rebecca Dzombac | The New York Times - Science - Life-Style - Food - Culture - Art | 24th/03/2026

Valuable Genetic Material Preserved in Ancient Grape Seeds Reveals When & How, Humans Meddled With Wine Grapes.

Humans have been drinking wine for millennia. Paintings from ancient Egypt show the harvesting of grapes & making of wine. Mesopotamian murals illustrate elites raising a glass of what some scholars think is wine. And Roman frescos depict Dionysus luxuriating in the drink.

But how much has wine changed over the millenniums? And what role did humans play in the evolution of grapes and their varieties?

Scientists are answering those questions using ancient DNA preserved in grape seeds found at archaeological sites. A new study presents an in-depth genetic analysis of ancient seeds, called pips, found in France, one of the world’s cultural & geographic centers of the wine-making tradition.

Humans in France were domesticating grapes for making wine by 650 B.C., around the time when Greek settlers founded the port city of Marseilles, as per the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. And the true date could be even earlier.

The study also examined how grape varieties changed, or didn’t, over centuries. Lineages like Pinot Noir & Folha-de-Figueira, a Portuguese white wine, remained essentially un-changed for centuries or more, thanks to careful propagation efforts.

“It’s mind blowing to think that we humans have cultivated this same exact genetic clone of a plant for almost 1,000 years,” said Jazmín Ramos Madrigal, who studies evolutionary genomics at the University of Copenhagen (not involved in this research). It’s a notable effort especially when compared with other domesticated crops.

“The varieties we grow are only a few generations away from the initial domestication, which is very un-like what happens in other crops,” said Michele Morgante, (a geneticist at the University of Udine in Italy - also not involved in the study). “Take current maize hybrids. They are 1,000's of generations away from where they started. Here, with wine, we’re only 5 - 10 generations away.”

The earliest domesticated grapes came from the mountainous region between the Black & Caspian Seas. People were turning those grapes into wine at least 8,000 years ago, based on a wine jar of that age uncovered in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Over millennia, as civilizations & trade expanded, people transported domesticated grapes west-ward, where they mingled with local, wild varieties that didn’t have much appeal on their own. Eventually, France & other European countries developed flourishing vineyards & wineries, sourcing grapes from all over Europe & the South-Western Middle-East.

But researchers have more to learn about when grape varieties were 1st created, how they were cultivated & how grape diversity changed over time with human interference.

“When it comes to France, every single question is wide open,” said Ludovic Orlando, a geneticist & evolutionary biologist at the University of Toulouse who led the new study. “There is a lot that’s known from history & archaeology, but there are a lot of ideas to be tested in terms of genetic data.”

Previous studies of grapes relied either on the size & shape of pips or on partial genomic analyses to re-construct diversity & cultivation over time. There were also big gaps in the record, particularly before the Iron Age & in the late Middle Ages, it left the timing of domestication un-certain.

Dr. Orlando and his colleagues collected more than 150 preserved wild & domesticated grape pips from archaeological sites around France. He focused on France partly because of the cultural importance of wine there, and partly because of its relatively central location in Europe.

The earliest sample was from around 2250 B.C., during the Bronze Age, extending the record back by almost 1,000 years. The most recent was from around A.D. 1450, at the end of the Middle Ages, about 300 years later than previous studies had covered.

Of all the pips, 49 had enough well-preserved DNA that they could be analyzed.

Dr. Orlando sequenced the pips’ whole genomes & then compared them with one other. He was looking for similarities to reveal when wild & domesticated grapes mixed, how & if humans cultivated specific varieties & how varieties changed or remained the same over time.

The oldest samples, from the Bronze Age, were wild. Around 625 B.C., in the early Iron Age, domesticated varieties that would have been imported from the East & plants that appeared to be wild-domestic hybrids appeared in the genetic record. Wild plants continued to exist, but after that point, France’s grape pips have a clear signal of cultivation.

“The biggest contribution of this paper is that it puts a more precise date on when the 1st fully domesticated varieties appear,” Dr. Morgante said.

Besides the relatively un-changed Pinot Noir & the Folha-de-Figueira, a modern Savagnin Blanc was a clone of a 900-year-old seed, as per a previous paper by Dr. Ramos Madrigal of the University of Copenhagen.

The longevity points to intentional propagation with cuttings, which creates clone plants but doesn’t build genetic diversity. It likely reflects efforts to create grapes better adapted to Europe’s warmer & wetter climate, as well as taste preferences.

“We like our wine,” Dr. Ramos Madrigal said. “Once you find something you like, you want to keep it. You keep growing it. And it seems like ancient civilizations were good at that, and we have them to thank.”

Having more completed grape genomes will allow researchers to find traits that could help modern grapes survive in a changing climate, as most European grapes came from places with hotter, drier weather.

Dr. Orlando is looking to extend the time-line even further back & keep filling in temporal gaps in France’s history of grapes. He would like to see similar studies carried out in more regions, with more grapes, to get a more complete picture of diversity, cultivation & movement over time.

“We really want to understand the whole co-evolutionary history of us and grapes, and how that circles back to culture,” Dr. Orlando said.

One Un-Likely Next Step: Drinking Facsimiles of Ancient Wines.

There’s only a slim chance to use this ancient grape DNA to recreate the wines the Romans were drinking. Wine is much more than growing grapes - it involves climate, harvest time, microbes & aging.

And ancient humans did all the work of cultivation for a reason, Dr. Morgante pointed out.

“I’m not sure the wine of the Romans was better than what we have today,” he said. “So why should we go back?”