Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Okinawa Sumire.

Species Information 02:05

The Okinawa Sumire  is a critically endangered flowering plant native to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, in the Pacific Ocean, specifically, the island of Okinawa, roughly 400 miles southeast of the Japanese mainland. Its scientific name is Viola utchinensis and it was first described in 1938.

 

Description

The Okinawa Sumire is a small, evergreen perennial in the Violet family with a creeping, low-growing form, reaching heights of roughly eight inches, but many individuals, specifically those most exposed to wind and saltspray in their coastal cliffside habitat, only reach two to four inches in vertical height. So instead the plant grows laterally, spreading horizontal along the rockface, with thick branching roots that snake into cracks and fissures in the stone, anchoring against powerful ocean winds.

 

The Okinawa Sumire  grows clusters of thickened, deep green, heart-shaped leaves, with a waxy sheen, an adaptation to help prevent water-loss, transpiration, and providing protection from harsh sunlight and saltspray. They are an evergreen, they do not shed leaves in autumn or winter, instead retaining chlorophyll and photosynthesizing all year long.

 

They bloom from February to April, producing light blue, pale purple, purplish-white flowers each about an inch in diameter, with five petals growing from the ends of long slender stalks.

 

Reproduction

The Okinawa Sumire  is likely pollinated by bee, or small butterfly and moth. Its pale petals are lined with darker purplish nectar guides. Nectar guides are veins or patterns or markings on a flower’s petals, visual signals that help pollinators quickly locate the flower’s nectar. Like directions, like a simple map that indicates where to find nectar, and in doing so, the bees and butterflies also inadvertently collect and distribute pollen.

 

So, once pollinated, the Okinawa Sumire  produces small rounded dehiscent fruit, full of tiny black seeds. Deshiscent describes how the fruit, when mature, dries out and splits open to release its seeds. The seeds fall into the cracks and crevices of the limestone cliffside where they are further distributed by ants. This is called myrmecochory, ant seed dispersal. The seeds have an elaiosome, a small nutrient rich appendage, and worker ants will drag the seeds to their nest to share this food with their colony. They consume the elaiosome, but the seed coat is too thick and tough for the ants to crack, so they simply discard the seed, now underground and ideally in good conditions for germination.

In The Dream

————

In the dream, 

 

A limestone cliff, a kind of monument,

A stone record of a millennia of ocean life,

Raised from the sea by incomprehensible forces.

 

The rock is kissed by the ocean’s salty spray

and to the west a blue dress, unbroken waves and sky.

 

And there on the cliff face, a button of purple,

A tiny soft violet flirting with the bees

Serving supper to ants,

at the edge of the world.

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Okinawa Sumire is native to the island of Okinawa, in the Ryukyu archipelago, roughly 400 miles southwest of the Japanese mainland. Okinawa is fairly small, roughly 65 miles long by about 10 miles wide. The northern half of the island is relatively undeveloped and sparsely populated, while the southern parts are quite urban, housing over a million people.

 

Our Okinawa Sumire is found in just one location in the middle section of the island, right on the western coast. It grows on limestone ocean cliffsides, in the crevices of raised coral reefs. So raised coral reefs; let’s do a little geology:

 

Coral reefs are bustling underwater colonies built by small invertebrates called stony coral polyps, who extract calcium carbonate from seawater to construct hard, protective skeletons around their soft bodies. As generations of these stony coral polyps live and die, their skeletal remains accumulate, layer upon layer, gradually building up the structures we call coral reefs. This process can take thousands, even millions of years, as the reef slowly grows upwards and outwards.

 

Over time, the spaces between the coral skeletons become filled with sediments: sand and the remains of other marine animals, becoming more densely packed. Simultaneously, dissolved minerals in the seawater seep into the porous framework, then crystallize and bind the sediments and coral skeletons together. Meanwhile the weight of these accumulating layers, combined with the pressure of the water above, compresses the coral structure, gradually transforming this loose, porous, once-organic material into solid limestone rock.

 

In the case of Okinawa, the once-coral/now-limestone formation began developing roughly 1.5 million years ago, and then roughly 450,000 years ago tectonic activity lifted the seabed in this region raising the formation above the water’s surface, creating islands, the Ryukyu Islands.

 

So then exposed to the air, the limestone is weathered and eroded by rain, wind, and waves carving the rock, and creating jagged crevices, cliffs, and caves: raised coral reefs. And in the cracks of that limestone, grow the tiny purple blooms of our Okinawa Sumire.

 

The climate in this coastal region is subtropical, with hot, humid summers and mild winters. Summer highs reach the low 90s°F, while winter lows rarely dip below 50°F. Rainfall is abundant, averaging 80-100 inches per year, with a rainy season from May to June.

 

The Okinawa Sumire shares its coastal habitat with:

Sago Cycad, Warbling White-Eye, Common Moorhen, Slender Green-winged Grasshopper, Rice Field Frog, Sea Hibiscus, Sword-tailed Newt, Japanese Fig, Western Honey Bee, Ryukyu Flying-Fox, Korean Mulberry, Okinawa Tree Lizard, Plains Cupid, Asian House Gecko, Small Indian Mongoose, Crimson Marsh Glider, Wild Boar, Screw-Pine, Umbelled Rockjasmine, Okinawa Thistle, Joro Spider, Blue Rock-Thrush, White-flowered Black Mangrove, Giant Asian Mantis, Coastal Hog Fennel, Green Sandpiper and many many more.

 

Threats

The Okinawa Sumire faces two anthropogenic, human-caused threats. First poaching, the Sumire has historically been illegally collected from the wild for cultivation in ornamental gardening and for medical use. Today, the plant’s rarity and beauty continue to make it a target for illegal extraction.

 

And human induced climate change, resulting from a persistent over-reliance on fossil fuels, is a looming threat. The Okinawa Sumire’s limited range and low population are at risk from extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency and severity due to global warming. A single extreme weather phenomenon, a strong tsunami, a rockslide, could abruptly drive the Sumire to extinction.

 

Conservation

Fortunately the habitat of the Okinawa Sumire is considered a national monument by the Okinawa prefecture, and its entire range is protected in the Okinawa Kaigan Quasi-national Park. Collecting and trading the wild species is illegal.

 

There are off-site seedbanking and cultivation programs at the Okinawa Churashima Foundation Research Institute and at the Tsukuba Botanical Garden outside Tokyo, with living collections under active study.

 

Nevertheless the Okinawa Sumire has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2016 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate less than 200 Okinawa Sumire remain in the wild.

Citations 17:56

Information for today’s show about the Okinawa Sumire was compiled from:

 

Beattie, A. J., and N. Lyons. 1975. “Seed Dispersal in Viola (Violaceae): Adaptations and Strategies.” American Journal of Botany 62, no. 7: 714–722. – https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1975.tb14104.x

 

FamousFix. n.d. “Flora of the Ryukyu Islands.” FamousFix. Accessed June 3, 2026. – https://www.famousfix.com/list/flora-of-the-ryukyu-islands

 

iNaturalist – https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=false&nelat=26.527232454&nelng=127.974081399&quality_grade=research&subview=map&swlat=26.42028461&swlng=127.849111916&verifiable=any&view=species

 

Karnish, A. (2024). “Seed dispersal by ants: A primer”. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 185(5), 403–411. – https://doi.org/10.1086/730787

 

Koidzumi, G. (1938). “Contributiones ad Cognitioem Florae Asiae Orientalis”. Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 7 (2): 112–117 [113]. – https://doi.org/10.18942/bunruichiri.KJ00002594478

 

Marcussen, T., Ballard, H. E., Danihelka, J., Flores, A. R., Nicola, M. V., & Watson, J. M. (2022). A Revised Phylogenetic Classification for Viola (Violaceae). Plants 11(17), 2224. – https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11172224

 

Ministry of the Environment, Japan. 2016. Viola utchinensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T54081377A54081585. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T54081377A54081585.en

 

NYAN. 2026. “Viola utchinensis.” Violet Chamber of Flower Photo Gallery. Last updated March 19, 2026. –  https://www.io-net.com/violet/violet2/okinawa(e).htm

 

Shinmoto, Mitsutaka, Xiaohe Xinli, Anri Nerio, Nagaken Ishigaki, and Lishio Wu. 2011. “Research on Resource Botany of Natural Forests in Subtropical Okinawa.” The Science Bulletin of the College of Agriculture, University of the Ryukyus 52. – https://agriknowledge.affrc.go.jp/RN/2030722825

 

Sutton, Sharon, and Clara Benecke. 1985. “ARGS Members Visit Japan.” Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society 43, no. 2 (Spring). – https://www.nargs.org/sites/default/files/free-rgq-downloads/VOL_43_NO_2.pdf

 

U.S. Forest Service. n.d. “Visual Cues.” Celebrating Wildflowers. Accessed June 3, 2026. –  https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/Plant_Strategies/visualcues.shtml

 

Yousefi, N., S. S. Mehrvarz, and T. Marcussen. 2012. “Anatomical Studies on Selected Species of Viola(Violaceae).” Nordic Journal of Botany 30: 461–469. – https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.2011.01266.x

 

Wikipedia. n.d. “Viola utchinensis.” Wikipedia. Accessed June 3, 2026. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_utchinensis

Music 19:47

Pledge 24:53

I honor the lives of all Okinawa Sumire. I will commit their name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Okinawa Sumire I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Crau Plain Grasshopper.

Species Information 02:05

The Crau Plain Grasshopper is a critically endangered insect native to Western Europe, to the south of France, in the Provence region, in the Bouches-du-Rhone department, specifically found in the dry grasslands of the Crau Plain. Its scientific name is Prionotropis rhodanica, and it was first described in 1923.

 

Description

The Crau Plain Grasshopper is a large grasshopper with a stout body of roughly an inch and a half in length. They have a hard textured exoskeleton, that is a camouflaging blend of earth tones: browns, grays, and greens, often with darker markings and spots that mimic the texture and color of stones typical of their habitat.

 

The Crau Plain Grasshopper has a large, rounded head, with two compound eyes and two filiform antennae. Filiform means thread-like, so the grasshoppers’ antennae are long, slender, cylindrical, tapering slightly from base to tip. They are a key sensory adaptation; antennae are the primary olfactory organ, detecting chemical molecules, smelling, for food sources, and the pheromones of potential mates. The antennae are also used for mechanoreception, that is sensing touch and vibration; they can detect changes in air currents (alerting them to predators), and are used, not unlike say whiskers, to aid in navigation.

 

At the lower front of their large head are “mandibulate” mouthparts. Mandibles are a kind of small pincers, that protrude from the mouth that the grasshopper uses to grasp and tear off pieces of vegetation. The Crau Plain Grasshopper’s large head is large in part because it houses robust muscles to power the mandibles while feeding: to grip, grind, and crush the tough plant matter of their diet.

 

The Grasshopper has six legs attached to their stout thorax. They have particularly powerful hindlegs adapted for jumping. The fore and mid-legs are more slender and shorter, used for balance, walking, climbing, and feeding. They have short underdeveloped vestigial wings. They are incapable of flight, and rely on climbing, jumping and terrestrial locomotion, that is walking on the ground.

 

Behavior and Diet

They are markedly sedentary. In zoology, the term sedentary specifically refers to species that remain in a limited area, and exhibit minimal movement beyond their local environment. So this is different from our common use of sedentary to mean like lazy or inactive. Instead we’re describing how a species does not travel far from their initial locale.

 

In the case of the Crau Plain Grasshopper, a capture study found that the farthest a grasshopper traveled across their entire life, from their birthplace, was roughly 150 feet. 

 

Their day-to-day is focused on feeding, thermoregulation, and predator avoidance.

 

The Crau Plain Grasshopper is a generalist herbivore, meaning they eat plants and are not picky about which, feeding on a variety of available vegetation: Clover, Spurge, Southern Daisy, Dandelions, and various grasses, herbs, shrubs of their plains habitat.

 

They are ectothermic, cold blooded, relying on external heat sources to regulate their body temperature; basking in the sun to warm up and seeking shade to cool down.

 

The Crau Plain Grasshopper mainly relies on their camouflaging coloration to avoid predators, remaining extremely still when detected, though when directly threatened, their strong hindlimbs allow for evasive jumps. The grasshoppers’ primary predators are insectivorous avians, insect eating birds, like the lesser kestrel, cattle egret, and rook.

 

Reproduction

In areas of abundant food, the Crau Plain Grasshopper will sometimes gather in groups but otherwise they are generally solitary, only interacting to mate. Mating occurs in the late spring: May, June, July. The Grasshoppers do not form long term pair bonds, only coming together to copulate after which the male may pursue additional mating opportunities with other female. After successful mating, the female will burrow a small shallow hole in the soil, using her ovipositor. The ovipositor is a tube-like structure on the tip of a female grasshopper’s abdomen with two pairs of shovel-shaped valves that open and close to dig a chamber in the ground for the eggs. She lays a clutch of about 16 small eggs, each about the size of a grain of rice.

 

The eggs gestate underground for about 10 months, with the new nymphs hatching in early April of the following year. There is no parental care; the nymphs are born able to survive on their own. They grow quickly, molting 5 times, reaching reproductive maturity in roughly 6-8 weeks. Adult Crau Plain Grasshopper live for about a month, during which they attempt to mate, reproducing just once annually before dying, this is called a univoltine lifecyle. So, they spend roughly 10 months as an egg in the ground, 2 months as a growing nymph, 1 month as a reproductive adult.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

as is true in waking life,

I live in a tower, closer to cloud than soil,

and in the dream, as is also true in life,

I long to be more near the earth.

 

A small breathing stone in a field of stones,

to be earthbound, to be intimate to dirt.

To be still with dust and rock and scrub,

bonded with the depths, not the skies.

 

To wander a windswept plain

and know its breath in my body like an old song,

A song I’ve heard my whole life.

That I sometimes sing too.

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Crau Plain Grasshopper is native to the south of France, to the Coussouls de Crau, the Crau plain, roughly 30 miles northwest of Marseille and 10 miles from the Mediterranean coast, in the Bouches-du-Rhone department. They survive in three distinct isolated subpopulations, all within a roughly 15 square mile area.

 

The Crau Plain is a grassy steppe, a vast, flat expanse of sparse vegetation and stones, pebbles and gravel, deposits from a now dry tributary of the Rhone River. Roughly 20000 years ago tectonic activity shifted the tributary’s path and the resulting landscape is this semi-arid steppe. It is barren, the soil is dry and rocky, and the vegetation is mainly low-growing, drought-resistant plants: grasses, herbs, and shrubs.

 

The climate ranges widely. Summer high temps reach into the 90s°F and winter lows can dip below freezing and the region only sees about 20 inches of rainfall per year, most of which occurs in autumn and winter; the summer months are hot and very dry.

 

The Crau Plain Grasshopper shares its plain with:

Sweet Alyssum, Common Thyme, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Western Marsh Harrier, Great Egret, Star Clover, European Turtle-Dove, Northern Wheatear, European Rabbit, Rook, Purple Loosestrife, Viperine Snake, Common Crane, Mossy Stonecrop, Puncture Vine, Black Stork, Onion-Leafed Asphodel, Meadow Pipit, French Flax, Barn Swallow, Ocellated Lizard, Rough Poppy, Eurasian Kestrel, Mountain Rue, Bittersweet Nightshade, Common Swift, Common Mallow, Eurasian Linnet, Moth Vine, Reed Bunting, Pygmy Cudweed and many many more.

 

Threats

Historically, the Crau Plain Grasshopper population has been severely impacted by human habitat destruction. Large swaths of the plain have been developed for agriculture, highway infrastructure, military and industrial use. In the 20th and early 21st century, the Crau Plain Grasshopper population was estimated to have been reduced by 70% due to habitat loss.

 

Additionally grazing from domesticated sheep threatens the species. For over 4000 years, the Crau Plain has been an annual grazing site for these nomadic herds, who are shepherded from the Alps in the winter to graze on the plain through the spring, returning to the mountains come summer. Contemporary shifts in grazing patterns are affecting the Grasshopper. A 2019 study found that there is a kind of sweet spot of grazing that is best for the Grasshopper’s habitat. Undergrazing, so not enough grazing results in vegetation that is too high and too dense which hinders grasshopper movement and reduces the availability of viable soils to lay eggs. Overgrazing results in vegetation that is too sparse, which facilitates predation; the birds can better spot their Grasshopper prey. So changes in land use and grazing management is an ongoing threat.

 

Human induced climate change, due to the persistent overreliance on fossil fuel, is already affecting the Crau Plain Grasshopper population. During the last roughly ten years there were two summers of extensive (longer than normal) drought and one particularly cold winter; all of which impacts the Grasshopper’s reproductive success.

 

Conservation

Fortunately roughly three-quarters of the Crau Plain Grasshopper’s habitat is protected in the Réserve Naturelle des Coussouls de Crau. A broad partnership has been established between the reserve, the regional government, the Ecomuseum of the Crau, the Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and other local orgs. They are taking a wide-spread approach to conserving the Crau Plain Grasshopper: they’ve initiated education programs, installed fencing to prevent overgrazing, and instituted a grazing management program that includes economic compensation for shepherds.

 

They’ve undertaken predator monitoring studies and developed experiments with overhead fencing, to keep birds from the Grasshopper’s mating sites. The program is also exploring predator translocation; moving specifically the Lesser Kestrel to other parts of the Crau Plain.

 

And on-site and off-site captive breeding programs are in place. Those programs, in spring 2024 celebrated the successful reintroduction of 60 captive bred individuals and 30 egg pods in the Crau Plain Grasshopper’s native habitat.

 

Nevertheless the Crau Plain Grasshopper has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2012 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent estimates suggest that less than 5000 Crau Plain Grasshopper remain in the wild.

Citations 21:37

Information for today’s show about the Crau Plain Grasshopper was compiled from:

 

Bröder, Linda, Laurent Tatin, Anja Danielczak, Tobias Seibel, and Axel Hochkirch. 2019. “Intensive Grazing as a Threat in Protected Areas: The Need for Adaptive Management to Protect the Critically Endangered Crau Plain Grasshopper Prionotropis rhodanica.” Oryx 53 (2): 239–246. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000170

 

Bröder, Linda, Laurent Tatin, Axel Hochkirch, Anja Schuld, Linda Pabst, and Aurélien Besnard. 2020. “Optimization of Capture–Recapture Monitoring of Elusive Species Illustrated with a Threatened Grasshopper.” Conservation Biology 34 (3): 743–753. – https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13449

 

Bröder, Linda, Laurent Tatin, and Axel Hochkirch. 2023. “Quantifying Predation to Insects: An Experimental Approach.” Global Ecology and Conservation 44: e02485. – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02485

 

Ecomuseum of the Crau. n.d. “The Crau Plain Grasshopper.” Life SOS Criquet de Crau. Accessed May 18, 2026. – https://www.lifecriquetdecrau.com/en/le-criquet-de-crau/lespece/

 

Foucart, Antoine, and Michel Lecoq. 1996. “Biologie et dynamique des populations de Prionotropis hystrix rhodanica Uvarov, 1923 dans la plaine de la Crau (France) (Orthoptera, Pamphagidae).” Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 101 (1): 75–87. – https://doi.org/10.3406/bsef.1996.17220

 

Foucart, Antoine, and Michel Lecoq. 1998. “Major Threats to a Protected Grasshopper, Prionotropis hystrix rhodanica (Orthoptera, Pamphagidae, Akicerinae), Endemic to Southern France.” Journal of Insect Conservation 2 (3): 187–193. – https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009691612698

 

Foucart, Antoine, Michel Lecoq, and R. Sieglstetter. 1999. “Alarm on an Endemic Protected Grasshopper of the Crau Plain (Southern France), Prionotropis hystrix rhodanica (Orthoptera: Pamphagidae).” Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 35 (3-4): 337–340. – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291864068_Alarm_on_an_endemic_protected_grasshopper_of_the_Crau_plain_Southern_France_Prionotropis_hystrix_rhodanica_Orthoptera_Pamphagidae

 

Hochkirch, Axel, Laurent Tatin, and Mark Stanley Price. 2015. Crau Plain Grasshopper Conservation Strategy. Technical Report. IUCN SSC Grasshopper Specialist Group. – https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3933.3925

 

Hochkirch, A. & Tatin, L. 2016. Prionotropis rhodanica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T15038481A47713628. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T15038481A47713628.en

 

iNaturalist - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=false&nelat=43.60771507014928&nelng=4.966360194513175&quality_grade=research&subview=map&swlat=43.499515082721146&swlng=4.812502979314948&view=species

 

Piry, Sylvain, Karine Berthier, Laurence Streiff, Stephane Cros-Arteil, Antoine Foucart, Laurent Tatin, Linda Bröder, Axel Hochkirch, and Marie-Pierre Chapuis. 2018. “Fine-Scale Interactions Between Habitat Quality and Genetic Variation Suggest an Impact of Grazing on the Critically Endangered Crau Plain Grasshopper (Pamphagidae: Prionotropis rhodanica).” Journal of Orthoptera Research 27 (1): 61–73. – https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.27.15036

 

Streiff, R., P. Audiot, Antoine Foucart, and Michel Lecoq. 2006. “Genetic Survey of Two Endangered Grasshopper Subspecies, Prionotropis hystrix rhodanica and Prionotropis hystrix azami (Orthoptera, Pamphagidae): Within- and Between-Population Dynamics at the Regional Scale.” Conservation Genetics 7 (3): 331–344. – https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-005-9043-3

 

Tatin, Laurent, Raphaël Streiff, Antoine Foucart, and Gilles Besnard. 2013. “Chapitre 6: Présentation de l’espèce: Le criquet rhodanien.” In Écologie et conservation d’une steppe méditerranéenne: la plaine de Crau, edited by Laurent Tatin, Axel Wolff, Jean Boutin, Etienne Colliot, and Thierry Dutoit, 93–102. Versailles: Éditions Quae. – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326389866_Le_criquet_rhodanien

 

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouches-du-Rhône

 

For more information about conservation on the Crau Plain please see Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur at https://cen-paca.org

Music 23:47

Pledge 28:51

I honor the lives of all Crau Plain Grasshopper. I will commit their name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Crau Plain Grasshopper I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.