Beth Leger, a plant ecologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, points to a tiny Tiehm's buckwheat that has sprouted at a campus greenhouse in this photo taken on Feb. 10, 2020 in Reno, Nevada. Their research is being funded by an Australian mining company that wants to mine lithium in the high desert 200 miles southeast of Reno, the only place the rare wildflower is known to exist in the world. UNR researchers are studying whether they can transplant the plant or seeds ger…
March 7, 2020
Stories this photo appears in:
March 7, 2020 1:26 p.m.
Who's greener? Mine fight pits electric cars against flower
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The rare Tiehm's buckwheat stands less than a foot tall (30 centimeters) in Nevada's rocky high desert, its thin, leafless stems adorned with tiny yellow flowers in spring.