Dandelion-like ‘Welsh dodo’ plant continues to hold on in secret location

Thought extinct in wild until three plants were found in 2002, Snowdonia hawkweed numbers have risen to six

One of the rarest plants in the world is growing at a secret location on the edge of Eryri in north Wales.

The Snowdonia hawkweed (Hieracium snowdoniense) is a small plant, barely reaching 30cm high, but with a brilliant golden yellow inflorescence that looks a bit like a dandelion, which it is closely related to. The Snowdonia hawkweed was first discovered only in 1880 at a remote hillside near Bethesda on the edge of Eryri, or Snowdonia, but in about 1950 the plant vanished, feared extinct after sheep grazed heavily in the area. And so the plant earned the unenviable title of the Welsh dodo.