AUSTRALIA — Before the last ice age, deep in the mountains and valleys of south-western Tasmania an unusual little sprout grew from a seed.  The plant grew and grew, eventually unfurling deep red flowers, but as the curled petals dropped to the ground no viable seeds formed.  Today, its wild population is limited to just a 1.2 kilometre square and it may be among the world’s oldest clonal plants — having grown from a single seed, genetically cloned many times over through the millennia.  New “individuals” formed when underground rhizomes struck out and new shoots appeared. Or when a limb would break off, form its own roots and start to grow. But these new plants were genetically identical, with no sexual reproduction scrambling their genetics and making new seeds.  Meet King’s lomatia — Lomatia tasmanica. And it’s critically endangered.