A ghost orchid that grows in complete darkness, an insect-trapping tobacco plant and an exploding firework flower are some of the new species named by scientists in the last year. There are a number of species, from a rare tooth fungus found in the UK to a voodoo lily from Africa.
The first tree from the ylang-ylang family will be named after Leonardo DiCaprio. The African tree, which features glossy yellow flowers on its trunk, was threatened by a logging concession.
Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens and their partners around the world named 205 new species in 2021. Some of the vital parts of the planet may provide food and medicine.
Several are already extinct in the wild and many are threatened by the destruction of forests, expanding palm oil plantations and mining. Two in five plant species are threatened with extinction. The scientists said it was a race against time to find new plants.
Over the course of a decade, scientists across the world have named about 2,000 new plant species. Dr Martin Cheek said that it was almost inexplicable that we were still discovering so many. Now is the last chance to find and name unknown species and hopefully protect them from extinction.
The Didymoplexis stella-silvae is one of 16 new orchids from dense and remote forests in Madagascar and it was named after the star of the forest. It doesn't have any leaves or chlorophyll for photosynthesis and gets all its nutrition from underground fungi. The flower only pokes through the humus for a day to attract insects.
The tree named after Leonardo DiCaprio is from the ylang-ylang family. The picture is fromRBG Kew.
Three of the new orchids are thought to be extinct in the wild due to destruction of their forest homes, and one tree-dwelling species is likely to have been eradicated due to the demand for geranium oil used in aromatherapy. Hermans said that the plants of Madagascar are under threat due to climate change. It's a race against time.
The tobacco plant is covered in sticky glands that trap and kill insects and is one of seven new species found near a truck stop in Western Australia. Prof Mark Chase said that the arid parts of Australia have been thought of as barren, but in recent years these poorly studied areas have yielded many new and unusual species.
Ardisia pyrotechnica is a new species of primrose found in Borneo and it has a shower of white flowers that look like fireworks. Only a few plants have been found in two locations and it is under threat from palm oil plantations.
It is not known how many plant species will be revealed in the future due to palm oil plantations. It is sickening.
Ardisia fireworks. Shuichiro Tagane is the photographer.
The new pink voodoo lily has a flower spike that is 30 cm tall and was found in a small corner of the Ebo Forest. The Ebo Forest has a tree named after Di Caprio. Despite the president of the country cancelling logging permits in August 2020, the Uvariopsis dicaprio is still critically threatened.
The new fungus was first found in the UK in 2008 under a sweet chestnut tree, but not named until now as the analysis of a suite of species had to be completed together. It is one of a group of unusual mushrooms that form with long teeth under their caps and are becoming rarer due to nitrogen pollution from agriculture.
The blue-berried bush from the coffee family found in Borneo took a long time to be scientifically named. It was first seen by scientists in a painting by the renowned botanical artist, Marianne North, made in 1876 during a stay by the Sarawak river.
There was a new species discovered in the laboratory. A banana seed from Vietnam was kept at the Millennium Seed Bank. Fusarium chuoi, a coral-colored fungus that lives inside a plant without causing any harm, is called an endophyte. The scientists said that distinguishing these from the bad guys is important for protecting plant health.
A periwinkle from the Andean valleys in Bolivia has a resemblance to a fruit called a kiwi, and five Cape primroses from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are threatened by copper mining.
Many of the medicines are inspired by compounds that come out of plants. If we make species extinct before we can even look at what chemicals are inside them, that is crazy.
