The imbalance facing nature is sharpened by climate change and the depletion of natural resources, a concern highlighted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in its fifth global report. The study, produced with the help of 200 researchers worldwide, notes that three of the four undescribed plant species are already on the brink of extinction.
Plants and fungi underpin life on Earth by delivering essential ecosystem services that support human livelihoods. They provide food, medicine, clothing, and raw materials. In the report, Confronting the Emergency of the Natural World: Evidence, Data Gaps and Priorities, scientists examine what is known and what remains uncertain about ecosystem diversity and the key components that sustain it, along with the threats they face.
“Right now, plants and fungi are increasingly threatened. We must act quickly to fill knowledge gaps and set conservation priorities,” stated Alexandre Antonelli, Scientific Director of Kew.
With around 350,000 known vascular plant species, researchers are racing against time to name and evaluate species yet undescribed. The challenge is immense: nearly 100,000 species remain officially unnamed.
Scientists estimate that about 75,000 vascular plant species are at risk of extinction. Based on these findings, new descriptions should be treated as if threatened until proven otherwise.
45 percent of flowering plants are endangered
“Many recently described species have small ranges, often known from a single location, and are experiencing population and habitat declines,” note the report authors. They believe that prioritizing these species for full assessments on the IUCN Red List will support conservation actions.
“Ideally, partnerships between taxonomists and conservation advisers should aim to describe and assess species simultaneously to maximize conservation impact,” says Matilda Brown, a researcher in conservation assessment at Kew.
“In the meantime, this guidance could help protect tens of thousands of undescribed threatened species that might be deemed threatened once recognized,” Brown adds.
The situation is urgent: 45% of known flowering plants may be on the edge of extinction. Orchid families, pepper plants, bromeliads and other crops are among the most vulnerable, according to researchers, with araceae and related groups also facing steep declines.
Scientists hope these findings will guide policymakers and conservationists in saving plant species at risk. This work is accelerating the assessment of extinction risk for many species, says Steven Bachman, a conservation research leader at Kew.
“The number of threatened plants has risen sharply in recent years. When I began as a taxonomist thirty years ago, I never imagined that a species I described might vanish from the wild; that was not the assumption,” explains Martin Cheek, head of accelerated taxonomy at Kew.
More than 90% of mushrooms remain undiscovered
What lies behind mushrooms tends to be less understood than that of plants and animals. To date, only about 155,000 mushroom species have been formally named, yet researchers suspect the kingdom is as diverse as, or even more rich than, plants and animals.
Current estimates place the fungal species count around 2.5 million, meaning more than 90% have yet to be described. This hides a potential treasure trove of food sources, medicines, chemicals, enzymes with industrial uses, and even natural capabilities like breaking down plastics.
As of January 2020, roughly 10,200 fungal species were newly described. At that pace, documenting all fungal diversity would take centuries, not decades.
Researchers are hopeful that DNA sequencing and molecular data will enable the cataloging of about 50,000 new species each year from environmental samples.
It remains crucial to document the diversity of mushroom forms and to determine which species should be protected from loss, notes Tuula Niskanen, a former leader in accelerated taxonomy at Kew.
“The vision of a world where losing too many species leads to a bland, uniform vegetation is alarming. It emphasizes the urgency of halting biodiversity loss, managing ecosystems sustainably, and restoring planetary systems while ample time remains,” the report concludes.
This connects to the fifth report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
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