One Fifth of Flowering Plants' Evolutionary History at Risk of Extinction

More than one fifth of the evolutionary history of the world's flowering plants is at risk of extinction, according to research released on Thursday by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Zoological Society of London. The study measured the unique evolutionary branches represented by different flowering plant species and calculated how much of that diversity could be lost if threatened species disappear.

It found that more than 20 percent of the total evolutionary history faces elevated risk. Flowering plants, which include roughly 300,000 known species, underpin food chains, carbon storage, soil stability and medicinal resources used by humans.

Species with few close relatives carry a higher weight in the calculation because their loss would eliminate longer unique branches of evolutionary history. The organizations said the results highlight the need to consider evolutionary distinctiveness when setting conservation priorities.

Regions with high concentrations of threatened evolutionary history include tropical areas that hold both high species richness and many unique lineages. The study did not provide a single global extinction risk percentage for all flowering plants but focused on the proportion of total evolutionary history at stake.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Zoological Society of London conduct ongoing assessments of plant and animal conservation status. Their latest joint research adds to a series of reports that track biodiversity decline. Conservation groups use such data to guide protection efforts for habitats and individual species.