Plants Cryopreservation is not sci-fi. It may save plants from extinction Scientists want to deep-freeze plants for future revival Magnolia trees (a photo illustration of a flower, shown) are among the plants that researchers want to cryopreserve. TED VANCLEAVE (Magnolia) and The Voorhes (Ice)/Gallery Stock By Sujata Gupta 1 hour ago Early one morning in 1985, a pair of researchers trekked into a spit of Colombian rainforest surrounded by coffee plantations. Their task was to identify all the epiphytes — plants that grow on other plants — in the forest canopy. As Jan Wolf, a botanist now at the University of Amsterdam, measured tree trunk girth from the ground, volunteer field assistant Jan Klomp, an economist by training, clipped into a harness and climbed up a tall tree. From his high perch, Klomp called down to say he had discovered something more familiar in the Netherlands than in the rainforest: tulips. Perplexed, Wolf scoured the forest floor for fallen flowers. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.