State of the World's Plants and Fungi project

State of the World's Plants and Fungi project

Providing assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them.

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    State of the World’s Plants 2017
    (2017-05)
    Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    A detailed knowledge of plants is fundamental to human life on Earth. Plants underpin all aspects of our everyday life – from the food that we eat, to the clothes that we wear, the materials we use, the air we breathe, the medicines we take and much more. These essential services provided by plants are far too often taken for granted. This is the second annual report in which we have scrutinised databases, published literature, policy documents, reports and satellite imagery to provide a synthesis of current knowledge on the world’s plants. Last year, our focus was predominantly on synthesising knowledge of the numbers of different categories of plants: How many vascular plants are currently known to science? How many are threatened with extinction? What is the number of plants with uses? etc. We also looked at the main threats to these plants, including climate change, landuse change, invasive plants, disease and over-exploitation. However, simply knowing how many plants there are and how many are under threat is not enough – what is also needed is an understanding of why some plants are more vulnerable than others. This year, therefore, we have also examined the emerging evidence for the characteristics of plants that appear to make some types less/more resilient to current and future threats. It is not all doom and gloom, however. In this year’s State of the World’s Plants, we also highlight the rapidly accumulating discoveries and knowledge that provide important sign-posts to the next food crops, medicines, timbers etc. Information is now also emerging on the effectiveness of conservation actions and policies in protecting some of the most important plant species and communities across the globe. While there is still much more to do, these positive outcomes demonstrate that with scientific knowledge and evidence-based global actions, it is possible to conserve the extraordinary diversity of plants on Earth and to build on the unique combination of beauty and science which can together provide some of the solutions for the global challenges facing humanity today.
      6  5
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    State of the World’s Plants 2016
    (2016-05)
    Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    This is the first document to collate current knowledge on the state of the world’s plants. A large team of researchers has reviewed published literature, scrutinised global databases and synthesised new datasets. The output presented here represents a status report on our knowledge of global vegetation as it stands in 2016, including a synthesis of existing information about vascular plants (Figure 1), new findings emerging from the review process, and an update on current knowledge gaps. The report is in three sections. The first part describes what we currently know about plants: how many plant species there are, new plant discoveries in 2015, our current knowledge on plant evolutionary relationships and plant genomes, the number of useful plants, and the location of the world’s most important plant areas. We also present a country-wide focus, this year on Brazil. The second part of the report assesses our knowledge of global threats to plants. In particular, we review the potential impacts of climate change, land-use change, invasive plants, plant diseases, and extinction risk. The third part details international trade, as well as policies and international agreements that are in place to deal with some of the threats. There will inevitably be gaps in this report. We cannot claim to have covered all of the evidence currently available; this year is the beginning of an annual process, and in future years we will add to this knowledge base. However, by bringing the available information together into one document, we hope to raise the profile of plants among the global community and to highlight not only what we do know about threats, status and uses, but also what we don’t. This will help us to decide where more research effort and policy focus is required to preserve and enhance the essential role of plants in underpinning all aspects of human wellbeing.
      7  4
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    State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2020
    (2020-09)
    Antonelli, A.
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    Fry, C.
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    Smith, R. J.
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    Simmonds, M. S. J.
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    Kersey, P. J.
      3  1
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    State of the World's Plants and Fungi, 2023.
    (2023-10-10)
    Antonelli, A.
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    Fry, C.
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    Smith, R. J.
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    Eden, J.
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    Govaerts, R. H. A.
      63  14
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    State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2026.
    (2026-06-16)
    Antonelli, A.
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    Fry, C.
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    Smith, R. J.
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    Eden, J.
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    Kersey, P. J.
      99  37
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    State of the World’s Fungi 2018
    (2018-09)
    Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
    The facts and figures contained in the pages of this report and accompanying website (stateoftheworldsfungi.org) will probably come as a total revelation to many people. The first of its kind outlining the state of the world’s fungi, the report highlights just how important fungi are to all life on Earth. Despite early recognition of the importance of fungi for human well-being, and archaeological evidence for human uses of fungi in food, drinks and medicines going back at least 6,000 years, historically they have remained in the shadows when compared with research on plants and animals. In fact, many of the early writings on fungi assumed that they were simple or lower plants. It wasn’t until detailed work on fungal features including the cell wall, methods for digesting and storing food, and DNA, that it became apparent that they are in fact a kingdom in their own right, closer to animals than plants. For example, most fungi have a cell wall composed primarily of chitin, a substance that is also found in the exoskeletons of insects and shells of crabs and lobsters. The realisation that fungi are closer to animals than plants is, however, only one of a number of remarkable facts to emerge in the past few decades. It is now becoming apparent that these organisms, which often cannot be seen with the naked eye and spend vast parts of their life cycle underground or inside plants and animals, are responsible for incredibly important processes; these include global cycling of nutrients, carbon sequestration, and even the prevention of desertification in some drought-prone regions of the world. Fungi also underpin products and processes that we rely heavily on in aspects of everyday life, from critical drugs (including statins, the class of medication used to lower blood cholesterol), to synthesis of biofuels, to cleaning up the environment through bioremediation. Some have multiple uses; for example, species of Penicillium have uses as diverse as in antibiotics, the synthesis of third-generation contraceptive pills and cheese production. The global market in edible mushrooms is also huge and increasing. But some species of fungi can wreak havoc. Many gardeners will know only too well the problems with rusts, wilts and mildews caused by certain species of fungi, and throughout the world there is significant concern related to the spread of fungal pathogens that are devastating crops and wild plant communities – a threat which seems to be increasing with climate change. Understanding the pathogenicity, hosts and methods of spread of fungal pathogens is of critical importance to global biosecurity. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has housed a Fungarium since 1879. In fact, many notable figures came to examine specimens within it, including Charles Darwin and the children’s author Beatrix Potter (who was a keen mycologist). The Fungarium at Kew is the largest in the world and now has over 1.25 million specimens, a number that is growing daily as the global significance of this kingdom becomes more and more apparent. It therefore seemed appropriate that Kew should lead this endeavour to examine the current status of knowledge of Kingdom Fungi. In devising this volume, however, we have worked extensively in global partnership to pull together leading mycological researchers from across the world to provide an up-to-date synthesis of our current knowledge of the state of the world’s fungi. This volume is split into three parts. First, we present an understanding of current knowledge of the diversity and distribution of fungi, new discoveries and evolutionary relationships. Next, we examine some of the key and potential uses of fungi for everyday life, we look at the global impact of positive plant–fungal interactions, and we review the vast insights gained from knowledge of their genomes. For our country focus, we turn our attention to what is known about fungi in China; fungi have been an integral part of Chinese medicine, food and culture for thousands of years resulting in a knowledge base that is probably the best in the world. Finally, we look at the state of knowledge of some of the global challenges associated with fungi, including plant diseases, the impacts of climate change on fungi, and global efforts to conserve them. From this volume it is clear that Fungi should definitely be viewed on a par with the plant and animal kingdoms and that we have only just started to scratch the surface of knowledge of this incredible and diverse group of organisms. What also becomes apparent is that when looking for nature-based solutions to some of our most critical global challenges, fungi could provide many of the answers.
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