[Science News] – Publication of the sixth edition of the report “State of the World’s Plants and Fungi”

On the occasion of the release of the sixth edition of the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in collaboration with numerous botanical gardens worldwide, reveal that although the true scale of the biodiversity crisis remains largely underestimated, the rise of new technologies is propelling scientific research into a new era. Bringing together contributions from more than 400 scientists across 40 countries — including researchers from Meise Botanic Garden — this landmark document demonstrates how artificial intelligence (AI) and large‑scale digitisation are becoming essential allies in the race to preserve biodiversity.

Plants and fungi underpin all life on Earth: they regulate the climate and provide us with food and medicine. Yet the lack of reliable data poses a major risk to current conservation strategies. Without accurate species mapping, efforts may overlook the most vulnerable ecosystems.
In response to this urgency, Kew announces a historic milestone: the complete digitisation of its 7.4 million herbarium and fungal specimens. Now freely accessible online, this vast database — enriched by the joint efforts of international institutions such as Meise Botanic Garden — offers researchers and decision‑makers worldwide an unprecedented scientific resource to investigate the effects of climate change and discover the medicines of tomorrow. Meise Botanic Garden, just like many other partner organisations, is fully committed to this global movement through the digitisation of its entire collection, representing nearly 4 million herbarium specimens.

“Botanical exploration, discovery and conservation rely heavily on access to herbarium collections,” confirms Marc Sosef, botanist at Meise Botanic Garden and responsible for the Flora of Central Africa and the Flora of Gabon. “For this report, we were able to provide information on the progress of herbarium digitisation, supporting research and conservation in southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Islands (link). These data are essential for both local and global research and conservation. Much work remains to be done to digitise the collections held in herbaria across Africa and also to add the data about the locality for each specimen; unfortunately, these institutions face major obstacles, such as limited funding, staffing shortages, and insufficient physical and digital infrastructure.”

The impact of this technological shift is already tangible. Thanks to AI, scientists have analysed eight million digitised specimens to conduct the first-ever global study of flowering times. The findings are unequivocal: climate disruption has shifted nature’s calendar, advancing global flowering by an average of 2.5 days per decade over the past century — severely disturbing long‑standing relationships between plants and their pollinators.

However, the report also sounds the alarm on the immense work that still lies ahead. To date, less than 16% of the world’s herbarium collections have been digitised, creating major geographic blind spots, particularly in the Global South. These knowledge gaps distort global climate models at a time when taxonomy is engaged in a true race against time. More than 100,000 plant species and over 2 million fungal species remain entirely unknown to science — and many may disappear before they are ever discovered. To address this, scientists call for abandoning traditional views of extinction in favour of mathematical and probabilistic models capable of estimating and targeting invisible biodiversity loss.

Quentin Groom and Sofie Meeus from Meise Botanic Garden have conducted research into these geographic blind spots. One of their publications made a significant contribution to the report. “Our research shows that opening up biodiversity collections creates enormous scientific opportunities, but the benefits are not shared equally”, explain our researchers. “Digital specimens are being used more than ever, yet much of that research is still led from the Global North. If mathematical models and AI are to help reveal hidden biodiversity losses, they must be supported by strong local capacity, shared infrastructure and genuinely equitable collaboration." 

Meise Botanic Garden: a strong commitment to global challenges

Through its active participation in these international efforts, Meise Botanic Garden reaffirms its leading role in safeguarding the world’s plant heritage. Faced with the immense challenges of climate change and biodiversity collapse, the institution places digital transition and cross‑border collaboration at the heart of its scientific strategy.

> Link to the publication (in English).