A new study has found that almost 600 species of plant have been wiped from the wild since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
The first comprehensive global analysis of modern extinction in plants has found that at least 571 species of plant have gone extinct in the last 250 years.
It warns that the number is likely to be far higher as human knowledge many plant species remains very limited.
The number is twice that of all bird, mammal and amphibian species combined.
The researchers found that the plants are going extinct 500 times faster than they would be without human intervention.
They arrived at their conclusion by studying a previously unpublished database at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew in the UK.
The figure they arrived at is almost four times greater than that recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species.
Today, in a new @NatureEcoEvo paper, Kew Scientists have published the first rigorously researched list of all documented plant extinctions.
Rafaël Govaerts writes about his work with the plants we have lost forever: https://t.co/CDsrqhG6XN pic.twitter.com/xwcXALc1tL— Kew Science (@KewScience) June 10, 2019
The study found that the main cause of the extinctions is the destruction of natural habitats by human activities.
In May, a UN Global Assessment report warned that a million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction.
It found that the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life support systems is putting human society in jeopardy.
New research from @KewScience finds that almost 600 plant species have become extinct,
at a higher rate than background extinction, but almost as many have been wrongly declared extinct & then been rediscovered.https://t.co/VInU5g03Wn
Free-to-read: https://t.co/B0dgHzld7W pic.twitter.com/R1pWRKuJAC— NatureEcoEvo (@NatureEcoEvo) June 10, 2019
