Sardinian Currant

Intro: 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Sardinian Currant.

Species Information: 02:05

The Sardinian Currant is a critically endangered flowering plant native to the Italian island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Sardinian Currant is a deciduous shrub of the gooseberry and currant family. It’s small, reaching heights of 3-6 feet. The main trunk is slender, often less than 3 inches in diameter, with bark that may be smooth or slightly textured, varying in color from light brown to gray.

The shrub's branches are numerous and somewhat spreading, creating a rounded canopy of foliage. Leaves are small, roughly one half to one inch in width and length, with three lobes, reminiscent of a squat maple leaf. The leaf’s margins are toothed, and the surface is covered in fine hairs, giving it a slightly fuzzy texture.

These hairs are called trichomes, and they help reduce water loss from transpiration, they reflect some sunlight, reducing heat stress, and they provide some protection against herbivory (being eaten by plant-eating herbivores). So though it’s not like a physical defense like thorns or spines, the dense covering of trichomes can deter small insects from landing and climbing on the leaves and they create an unpleasant texture for larger grazers. Like if I had the choice between a salad and a hairy salad, I would choose the one without hair.

The leaves are a soft green during the spring and turn yellow and reddish in the autumn before dropping for the winter. Sardinian Currant’s flowers are warm yellow and greenish blooms that develop small red berries.

The Sardinian Currant is considered hermaphroditic, meaning that both male and female reproductive organs present in the same flower. But unlike most hermaphroditic plants it is able to self-fertilize. Meaning a single individual can fertilize itself and produce viable seeds. Scientists also believe the Sardinian Currant may reproduce apomictically meaning it can produce viable seeds even without pollination and fertilization. Though viable, both of these reproductive adaptations limit genetic diversity, as offspring are genetically identical to the parent plant.

The Currant also reproduces sexually. Bees and flies, attracted to the nectar in the Sardinian Currant’s flowers are believed to be the primary pollinators. Though the shrub’s blooms are relatively small and inconspicuous, their open structure and accessible nectar are suited for insect visitation. The flowering period typically spans from April to early June, when the insects will drink nectar and inadvertently spread pollen from the male part of the flower (the stamen) to the female part (the pistil). The pollen grains travel down the pistil to the ovary, where they fertilize the ovules (ovules are the potential seeds). Once fertilization occurs, the ovary begins to swell and mature. The walls of the ovary thicken into the fruit's flesh, while the ovules inside develop into seeds.

In the case of the Sardinian Currant, the ovary develops into a small, red berry containing numerous tiny seeds. This fruit ripening period takes place from July to October. The ripe fruit is eaten, most likely by birds.

This is called endozoochory, which means that the seeds are dispersed by animals that consume the berries and distribute the seeds via their excrement.

The seeds, passing through the digestive tract of the birds, undergo scarification, which is the process of breaking or weakening the hard outer coat of a seed. The acidic environment and physical grinding within the bird's digestive tract soften the seed coat. This process allows water to penetrate the seed coat more readily, triggering the metabolic processes that initiate germination. In other words, it essentially "wakes up" the dormant embryo within the seed, prompting it to sprout and grow.

The seeds of the Sardinian Currant also require a period of cold temperature to initiate germination. This adaptation ensures that the seed sprouts under favorable conditions, typically in the following spring after the seeds are dispersal.

The Sardinian Currant is native to the island of Sardinia, in the western Mediterranean Sea, roughly 150 miles west of mainland Italy.

Over 30 million years, the northern part of Sardinia was connected to Corsica and mainland Europe, while the southern section was part of the Iberian plate. Through tectonic shifts and plate movement, these two microplates collided and fused together roughly 25 million years ago, forming the island we know today.

Following that collision, the combined microplate detached from the edge of the Eurasian tectonic plate and rotated counterclockwise, eventually settling in its current position. Volcanic activity also shaped the Sardinian landmass. Volcanic eruptions tens of thousands of years ago created the dramatic mountain ranges and rock formations of the Sardinian Currants habitat.

The Sardinian Currant is found in a single site on Mount Corrasi where it grows in a small southeast facing valley. Its population is spread across just a 700 square meter area, like roughly the size of two basketball courts. This is a rugged terrain with exposed granite and limestone formations, interspersed with patches of vegetation. The soil here is thin and rocky, presenting a challenge for many plant species but the Sardinian Currant’s robust root system has adapted well to these soil conditions.

This is a Mediterranean bioregion of hot, dry summers with temperatures reaching into the 90s°F, and mild, wet winters with temperatures rarely dipping below freezing. Annual rainfall averages between 25 to 30 inches,with most precipitation occurring during the winter months.

The Sardinian Currant shares it mountainside home with Mediterranean Gecko, Golden Eagle, Mouflon, Corsican Heath Butterfly, Lavender, Thyme, Tyrrhenian Tree Frog, Poppy, Rosemary, Sardinian Warbler, Strawberry Tree, Eurasian Jay, Griffon Vulture, Wild Boar, Eleonora's Falcon, European Green Toad, Mastic Tree, Sardinian Wildcat, Holm Oak, Wall Lizard, Orchid, European Hare and many many more.

————

In the dream:

I wander, in the dream and often in my life I am searching, but I do not know for what. In my life it often turns out to be housekeys, or a mug of cold coffee or the soft kiss of a new love. In the dream it is a weak hunger, a sense of absence to wanting to be filled And so I walk high ridges, and paths carved through granite. Dry air scented with lavender, scrubgrasses wind up the mountainside. Eastward into a small valley, filled with yellow flowers and bright red berries, tiny and impossibly rare. And blessedly before I must decide to eat, I wake.

In the dream.

————

Historically, human encroachment and the destruction of wilderness for agriculture, urbanization, and infrastructure development has fragmented and reduced the Sardinian Currant’s habitat.

Today, overgrazing by human introduced domesticated livestock, particularly goats, is impacting Sardinian Currant populations. Livestock consume and damage young plants, trample seedlings, and alter the soil structure, making it less hospitable for the shrub's growth.

Human induced climate change is an emerging threat. Rising temperatures disrupt the balance of the Currant’s life cycle, particularly its reliance on cold dormancy for seed germination.

And the Sardinian Currant's limited genetic diversity makes it even more susceptible to all of these threats. Its small population size, and its self-pollinating reproduction, limits its gene pool, hindering its ability to adapt to new challenges; these genetic bottlenecks increase the extinction risk.

The Sardinian Currant is included in Annex II of the EU’s Habitats Directive, conservation legislation that mandates the establishment of Special Areas of Conservation to protect threatened habitats.

tion program was initiated in: 2017

Offsite cultivation and preservation programs are also in place. The botanical garden of Florence on the Italian mainland has successfully cultivated Sardinian Currant and a collection of seeds has been added to the Sardinian Germplasm Bank to conserve genetic variability for future conservation activities.

ed on the IUCN Red List since: 2006

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 80 Sardinian Currant remain in the wild.

Citations: 19:02

IUCN – https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/61675/102933336

.: 4161

Plant Biology: Vol. 17, Issue 5 – http://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12330

.: 1111

Karalitan botanical museum at the University of Cagliari – https://sites.unica.it/hbk/?qs=Ribes+sardoum&q=&s=Ribes+sardoum&dove=l

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribes_sardoum

Music: 20:27

Pledge: 27:04

I honor the lifeforce of the Sardinian Currant. I will keep its human name in my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species.

And so, in the name of the Sardinian Currant I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of any plant and animal kin or their habitat, by individuals, corporations and governments.

I pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.

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