The Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, in London, has published the first global census of the plant world. And according to their calculations, as of today, there are 390,900 species of vascular or higher plants (with differentiated tissues) on Earth, of which 2,034 were discovered in 2015.
For example, botanists added 90 new varieties of the genus Begonia and 13 of onion to the long list. Some were lost unclassified in herbaria and the Drosera magnifica , a 1.5 meter tall carnivorous specimen, was identified through Facebook . Apart from field work, the work of genetic biologists is also very important: the complete genomes of 139 plants have already been sequenced.
Experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew also warn of the fragility of this biodiversity: around 21% of land plants are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss, pests and, of course, climate change. 31% of these plants at risk of disappearance are threatened by the agricultural exploitation of the land. According to the report, last year 2.3 million square kilometers of forest were lost – approximately five times the size of Spain – and almost 5,000 species could be classified as invasive . The cost of eradicating the latter takes no less than 5% of the world economy.
Regarding the use that they are given, botanists estimate that 31,000 species are used as food, food, materials, and so on . The census authors also indicate that it is necessary to promote the collection and conservation of wild relatives of agricultural crops – currently there are 3,546 – to create a reserve of genetic variability and ensure food security in the future.
