Study: Plant Species Lost at Alarming Rate

The most extensive global survey of plant extinctions to date reveals cause for concern.

Written byJef Akst

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In the past 250 years, 571 plant species have gone extinct, according to a study published yesterday (June 10) in Nature Ecology & Evolution. This figure is four times more than the number of plant extinctions on record at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Switzerland, and the researchers suggest that many more species losses remain uncounted.

“It is way more than we knew and way more than should have gone extinct,” coauthor Maria Vorontsova of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK tells The Guardian. “It is frightening not just because of the 571 number but because I think that is a gross underestimate.”

Compiling data from the literature, international databases, and museum specimens, Vorontsova and her colleagues surveyed more than 330,000 species to document the losses. That’s more than 10 times the number of species included by any other survey, ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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