The New York Times April 9, 1998
Page A-1 Plant Survey Reveals Many Species Threatened With Extinction By WILLIAM K. STEVENS At least one of every eight plant species in the world and nearly one of three in the United States is under threat of extinction, according to the first comprehensive worldwide assessment of plant endangerment. Plants in Trouble Imperiled Species Percent of Total Species United States Australia South Africa Turkey Mexico Brazil Panama India Spain Peru Cuba Ecuador Jamaica Colombia Japan Source: The World Conservation Union The assessment, which required more than 20 years of work by botanists and conservationists around the globe, added nearly 34,000 plant species to the World Conservation Union's growing Red List of imperiled organisms. The survey was made public Wednesday in Washington. Among the plants most at risk, the survey found, are 14 percent of rose species, 32 percent of lilies, 32 percent of irises, 14 percent of cherry species and 29 percent of palms. Coniferous trees as a group, and many species found in island nations, were also judged especially vulnerable. While endangered mammals and birds have commanded more public attention, it is plants, scientists say, that are more fundamental to nature's functioning. They undergird most of the rest of life, including human life, by converting sunlight into food. They provide the raw material for many medicines and the genetic stock from which agricultural strains of plants are developed. And they constitute the very warp and woof of the natural landscape, the framework within which everything else happens. | |
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