Many varieties of cultivated plants can die out for reasons other than their usefulness. I spent some time living on a farm in Maine and two stories I heard there come to mind, one about wheat, and the other about tomatoes.
Wheat was once cultivated as far north as Maine, where cold-hardy varieties were developed in order to lengthen the growing season and allow local farmers to supply the state's bakeries in what would otherwise be an inhospitable climate to more productive, but less hardy varieties of wheat grown in warmer areas further south. However, once the railroads reached Maine in the 19th century and were able to bring cheaper grain to market, farmers stopped growing wheat and the varieties grown then are now completely lost. Many northern homesteaders would love to have that seed today but it's gone.
Another example I heard from a woman who specializes in selling heirloom tomato seeds and starts. By the way, in contrast to apples, which do not produce identical offspring from seeds, tomatoes do. If you plant apples, expect the unexpected. But if you plant tomatoes, you'll get pretty much the same thing you started with. The tomato grower showed me a delicious variety that was discovered when a schoolboy arrived at school with a tomato and told his teacher "My grandfather says this tomato is special. But he's dying and he doesn't want it to be lost." It turns out that his family had brought over a variety of tomato from Italy as immigrants and had cultivated it for generations. Its quality was the reason it was almost lost forever - so good they kept it their own special secret until time almost ran out.
> But if you plant tomatoes, you'll get pretty much the same thing you started with.
Unfortunately this is not true. Many tomatoes with the best disease resistance are hybrids, and seeds will not produce the same plant with the same disease resistance. Heirlooms varieties will “generally” produce the same plant but you have to be careful about inbreeding.
> It turns out that his family had brought over a variety of tomato from Italy as immigrants and had cultivated it for generations.
The funny part about this is tomatoes are a new world veggie! So the plant went from America to Italy, and then a new variety was brought back to the homeland. I’d love to try this variety!
Wheat was once cultivated as far north as Maine, where cold-hardy varieties were developed in order to lengthen the growing season and allow local farmers to supply the state's bakeries in what would otherwise be an inhospitable climate to more productive, but less hardy varieties of wheat grown in warmer areas further south. However, once the railroads reached Maine in the 19th century and were able to bring cheaper grain to market, farmers stopped growing wheat and the varieties grown then are now completely lost. Many northern homesteaders would love to have that seed today but it's gone.
Another example I heard from a woman who specializes in selling heirloom tomato seeds and starts. By the way, in contrast to apples, which do not produce identical offspring from seeds, tomatoes do. If you plant apples, expect the unexpected. But if you plant tomatoes, you'll get pretty much the same thing you started with. The tomato grower showed me a delicious variety that was discovered when a schoolboy arrived at school with a tomato and told his teacher "My grandfather says this tomato is special. But he's dying and he doesn't want it to be lost." It turns out that his family had brought over a variety of tomato from Italy as immigrants and had cultivated it for generations. Its quality was the reason it was almost lost forever - so good they kept it their own special secret until time almost ran out.