How the Missouri Botanical Garden hopes to bring extinct plants back from the dead

Jordan Teisher and Matthew Albrecht are leading efforts at the Missouri Botanical Garden to bring back plants that have been extinct in the wild for more than 100 years.
Conservationists are working against the clock to save endangered species of plants and animals — after all, once a species goes extinct, there is no turning back. Or is there? Can scientists turn back time and bring new life to a globally extinct species?

Missouri Botanical Garden conservation scientist Matthew Albrecht and herbarium director Jordan Teisher are attempting to do exactly that.

On Monday’s St. Louis on the Air, the two scientists shared what is at stake in the global “de-extinction” effort and what part the botanical garden has in the experiment.