Final answer:
Silphium's popularity led to its overharvesting and eventual extinction because it was highly valued for its uses and could not be easily cultivated.
Step-by-step explanation:
As a result of silphium being so popular, several consequences ensued. In ancient times, silphium was highly prized for its medicinal, aromatic, and culinary properties. Its value was so great that it was worth its weight in silver. This high demand led to overharvesting of the plant to the point of extinction. The plant was only found in a narrow coastal region in Cyrenaica (present-day Libya), and due to its specific and non-reproducible habitat requirements, it was difficult to cultivate. The intense trade and its overexploitation meant that by the first century AD, silphium had disappeared, making it one of the first recorded cases of a plant being driven to extinction by human activity.