Humanity has become the reason that since the middle of the 18th century, more than 500 plant species have been erased from the face of the Earth. This conclusion was reached by employees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London), who studied and combined data from the Red Book and various scientific literature. In their opinion, the number of extinct species may be much higher, because some of them are still simply unknown, and some species are already on the verge of extinction.
The Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently lists about 150 extinct plants, but it does not cover all species. Due to this, the botanical team decided to combine their data with information from outside literature. It turned out that from 1753 to 2018, 571 plant species died on Earth, and this figure is not final, and there could be much more.
More than 500 plants have been destroyed by humans
Researchers have chosen a time period of 265 years for a reason - this is how many years ago the work of Carl Linnaeus "Plant Species" was published. In his work, the Swedish scientist listed all the plants known at that time and proved that the species is the basis in biological systematics. The date of publication of the work is considered the day of creation of the botanical nomenclature.
Having studied various literature, the researchers found that the rate of extinction of plants is constantly growing - on average, over the past 250 years, 2.3 plant species died annually. A particular increase in extinction has been noticed since 1900 - if up to this time 256 plants were erased from the face of the Earth, then after this date and to this day, 315 species have been exterminated. Most often, plants die out in regions with tropical and subtropical climates: 79 plant species have disappeared in Hawaii, and 37 plant species have disappeared in South Africa. The frequent extinction in these regions is due to the fact that they have a richer variety of life than other territories.
Distribution map of disappeared plants.
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Disappeared plants
Among the extinct plants was the St. Helena tree (Trochetiopsis erythroxylon), which grew only on the island of the same name. As contradictory as it may sound, it was destroyed because of its value - wood was famous for its high strength, and in the 17th century local residents actively used it to build houses.
Stems of the Saint Helena tree.
Also on the list of extinct plants is Chile's sandalwood (Santalum fernandezianum). It was last seen in 1908 by botanist Karl Scottsberg - later this species completely disappeared due to active felling, because the tree had aromatic wood.
Sandalwood Chile.
Extinct plants can revive
With all this, some plants are able to revive. Researchers estimate that 431 plant species were thought to be extinct, but then found again in nature. Over the past 30 years, botanists have recorded the revival of 16 plant species, and one of them is the hibiscus Hibiscadelphus woodii.
Distribution map of newly discovered plants.
Why are plants disappearing?
The vitality of animals has been studied much better than that of plants, but scientists are well aware of the reasons for their extinction. The main one, of course, is human activity. Humans destroy their natural habitats and growth in order to expand agricultural areas. Because of this, more than a million species of living organisms are currently under the threat of extinction, and some of them may disappear in the next decade.
Climate change also affects the decline in plant species. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), if humanity does not reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, 50% of plant and animal species may disappear from the face of the Earth by 2080. In this case, particular damage will be caused to the vicinity of Lake Baikal, the Amazon basin, the Namibian desert and Madagascar. Such conclusions were made in the course of studying the influence of climate on 80 thousand plants and animals in 33 points of the world.
Ramis Ganiev