Botaniker identifizieren weltweit 33 „dunkle Flecken“ mit Tausenden unbekannter Pflanzen | Kew-Studie deckt Gebiete mit mindestens 100.000 unentdeckten Pflanzenarten auf – höchstwahrscheinlich vom Aussterben bedroht

From the article: Botanists identify 33 global [‘dark spots’](https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.20024) with thousands of unknown plants
Kew study reveals areas with at least 100,000 undiscovered plant species – most likely to be under threat of extinction

Botanists have identified 33 “dark spots” around the world where thousands of plant species are probably waiting to be discovered, according to new research.

From a palm tree in Borneo that flowers underground to a Malagasy orchid that spends its life growing on other plants, researchers are still making dozens of new species discoveries every year.

But with more than 100,000 plant species believed to be undiscovered, the majority of which are believed to be at risk of extinction, a new project led by Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens is highlighting parts of the world where botanists should be concentrating their search.

From Madagascar to Bolivia, scientists have identified the areas of plant diversity in an effort to turbocharge identification. The study, published in the journal New Phytologist, builds on analysis by researchers at Kew last year that found that three-quarters of all undescribed plant species were likely to be threatened with extinction.

Scientists believe the unknown species could hold clues to future drug discoveries, fuels or other innovations.

Prof Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Kew and senior author of the paper, said the research was aimed at helping to better target conservation and speed up the rate of plant discoveries, warning that many species would become extinct before they were ever known to science at the current rate of identification.

Fantastic work, I hope this will lead to more protection. Maintaining biodiversity is something that I personally care a lot about. Animals and plants are products of eons of evolution, extinctions are a tragedy.

>“We are protecting 30% of the planet by this decade under current UN targets – but we don’t know which areas to protect unless we have the right information,” Antonelli said.

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>Most of the regions are in Asia, which has 22 areas listed as in need of further research, including the island of Sumatra, the eastern Himalayas, Assam in India, and Vietnam.

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>Next month, governments will meet at the Cop16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, for the first time since they agreed in 2022 on targets to prevent the loss of life on Earth this decade.