‘Fifth of world’s plants under extinction threat’

A fifth of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction, British researchers warned on Tuesday in an unprecedented global census of the plant kingdom.

The survey by Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, said 21 per cent of species are under threat. The report, the first of its kind, is intended to become a global reference point for the study of plants. The study, which estimates there are a total of 390,900 plants known to science, found farming to be the biggest extinction threat, representing 31 per cent of the total risk to plants.

Logging and the gathering of plants followed at 21.3 per cent, with construction work attributing for 12.8 percent of the risk.

The threat of climate change and severe weather was estimated at making up 3.96 per cent, although scientists said it may be too early to measure the long-term effects. Other threats came from invasive species, dam-building and fires. “There has never been a State of the World’s Plants,” said Kathy Willis, director of science at Kew, which has one of the world’s largest plant collections in its sprawling greenhouses and gardens. “Given how absolutely fundamental plants are for human wellbeing, for food, fuel, climate regulation, it’s pretty important we know what’s going on.

“Unless we look at this information — the knowledge gaps — and then do something about it, we are in a very perilous situation, if we ignore the thing that underpins all our human wellbeing,” she warned. The report said that some 1,771 areas of the world have beenidentified as “important plant areas” but very few have conservation protection measures in place. It also said that 2,034 vascular plants — which exclude mosses and algae — were discovered last year alone, including an insect-eating sundew, a new type of onion and a giant slipper orchid.