York groundsel blooms again in Britain’s first-ever de-extinction event

The York groundsel was discovered growing in the car park of the city’s railway station in 1979. Photograph: Andrew Shaw/The Rare British Plants Nursery

York groundsel was a cheerful yellow flower that slipped into global extinction in 1991, thanks to overzealous application of weedkiller in the city of its name.

But now the urban plant has been bought back to life in the first ever de-extinction in Britain, and is flowering again in York.