Forty per cent of Earth鈥檚 plants are at risk of extinction, twice as many as previously thought, while many fungi are also under threat.
鈥淲e are living in an age of extinction,鈥� says Alexandre Antonelli at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. Kew鈥檚 on the state of the world鈥檚 plants has found that the number one threat to plants is farming.
The jump from to 40 per cent now is not because of a rapid increase in destruction, but due to greater scientific understanding, says Eimear Nic Lughadha at Kew. Between 2017 and 2019, assessments of more than 19,000 species were added to the Red List, the gold standard for extinction risk.
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Among the species facing extinction are medicinal plants including the black pepper-bark tree (Warburgia salutaris), a traditional medicine for coughs and colds, and medicinal fungi such as Fomitopsis officinalis, which has antimicrobial properties. Food and bioenergy crops are also at risk.
The report highlights how many species are still being found that are new to science: 1942 plants and 1886 fungi were described听last year. Among those are relatives of spinach, fungi from edible families and a tree (Cedrela domatifolia) from the mahogany family that could provide a new source of timber for furniture. A new wild relative of cassava, Manihot esculenta, could provide a backup for the 800 million people who rely on cassava as a staple crop.
Agriculture and aquaculture were found to be the major threat for a third of plants at risk, with climate change threatening only 4.1 per cent. 鈥淭he biggest threat to terrestrial biodiversity is conversion of natural habitats, including rainforests, into agriculture,鈥� says Antonelli. 鈥淏ut climate change is slowly catching up: it鈥檚 not only about increasing temperatures, but also the occurrence of extreme events including droughts and floods.鈥�
Solutions should focus more on general biodiversity than oversimplified campaigns such as planting trees or urban beekeeping, which can backfire, says Phil Stevenson at Kew. 鈥淏eekeeping in cities is now becoming so popular it鈥檚 actually becoming unsustainable in some because there is insufficient nectar and pollen to support the number of hives, let alone the other wild species that we have,鈥� he says. 鈥淗oneybees are outcompeting the other species.鈥�
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