Urgent action needed to conserve unidentified plant species

In a garden in southwest London, a research team of about 200 scientists from the UK and around the world are working hard to identify newly discovered plant species to speed up conservation work.

Cần hành động khẩn cấp để bảo tồn những loài thực vật chưa được định danh

Scientists are calling on countries to take urgent action to preserve unidentified plant species. (Source: AFP)

Millions of unidentified plant and fungal species may be facing extinction, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, warned in a study published on October 10, calling for urgent action to conserve them.

The newly discovered species are part of a near-complete list of all identified vascular plants in the world.

Vascular plants, or higher plants, are a group of plants that have vascular tissue to conduct water, minerals, and photosynthetic substances within their stems. Of this list, scientists have identified about 350,000 species. However, about 100,000 other species have not been formally named.

The team cross-checked data from the vascular plant species list with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The results showed that about 75% of these unidentified plant species are likely to be threatened with extinction.

The research team called for urgent action from countries and organizations to conserve these unidentified plants. In addition, the study also found that about 45% of flowering plant species are at risk of extinction.

Additionally, the team notes that unidentified tree species, herbs and cacti may be hiding in remote forests in Brazil, China or New Guinea.

Conserving these plants is now seen as one of the goals in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.

The team also studied diverse fungal samples from around the world that have been mentioned in research papers over the past 150 years. This research is important in identifying and describing unknown fungal species, to serve conservation work.

"We can share information with other researchers," says scientist Laura Martinez-Suz. "We can help each other identify the role of new fungi in the ecosystem and then assess whether these species are threatened with extinction."

To date, scientists have only identified 10% of the world's 2.5 million species of fungi.

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