Unearthed Rare fungi, ghostly palms and hairy herbs

List of new species discovered in 2024 highlights the natural world's fragility as well as the growing extinction risks

- By Damian Carrington

From a toadstool with teeth to a vine smelling of marzipan and a flower that has cheated its way out of having to photosynthesise, a weird and wonderful host of new plant and fungus species were discovered in 2024.

Other plants given scientific names for the first time include beautiful new orchids, a ghostly palm and a hairy plant that appears to have stolen a gene from an unrelated family. The species are among the 172 new plants and fungi named by scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew and their partners.

The species come from every corner of the globe, from woods near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England, to African sandstone cliffs in Guinea and the forests of Indonesia.

However, botanists are in a race against time to discover many plants and fungi before the continuing destruction of the natural world drives them to extinction. The loss of species does not only mean their unique biology is gone for ever, but also their potential for use as medicine, food and even as plastic recyclers. Some of the new species in 2024 already face extinction because of cement manufacturing, cinnamon farming and timber plantations.

There are 400,000 named plant species but scientists estimate there are another 100,000 yet to be identified. Every year, scientists name about 2,500 new species of plant and the same number of fungi.