The whimsical image fit when the state of Vermont announced last month that a plant thought to be extinct there—false mermaid-weed—had been found through a chain of events that seemed stolen from a fairy tale.
Ms. Glynn opened the photo, another plant, visible in the foreground, seized her attention. She knew at once what it was: Floerkea proserpinacoides, or false mermaid-weed, an herb that had not been documented in Vermont for more than a century.
Grace Glynn, Vermont's state botanist, surveying false mermaid-weed. Credit...Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
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