Last modified on Thu 17 Dec 2020 12.10 EST
The âugliest orchid in the worldâ, a toadstool discovered at Heathrow airport, and a bizarre scaly shrub have topped a list of new species named by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and their collaborators in 2020.
The researchers said the 156 new plants and fungi highlighted the amazing diversity of species that remain to be found, with the potential to provide new crops, medicines and gardenerâs favourites. One is a morning glory plant, whose sweet purple tubers are already eaten by local people in the high Andes of Peru.
Ipomoea noemana, a morning glory plant found in Peru. Photograph: Enoc Jara/RBG Kew
Toadstool discovered on walk by Heathrow airport tops Kew Garden list of new plant and fungus discoveries
Kew Gardens scientists said that it is very rare to discover new plants and fungi in the UK
The new toadstool mushroom found at Heathrow
Credit: Kew
A toadstool discovered by chance on a walk near Heathrow has topped the list of Kew Gardens plant and fungi discoveries.
Each year, the scientists publish a list of all the species they have found across the world. Usually, most of these are from unsurprising places, such as remote parts of the rainforest.
The UK, being small and much-trampled, is a much more unusual source of a new wild plant or fungi variety.
crowned the “World’s Ugliest Orchid,” and it is one ugly
specimen.
The plant,
Gastrodia agnicellus, is originally from a national park in Madagascar and joins swathes of new orchid species described that made up a third of Kew’s list.
G agnicellus however, is surely the perfect mascot for a year such as this. Notable for its musky, rose-like fragrance, this heinous orchid goes underground for most of the year, hiding in the damp forest floor. Then, when it’s time to shine, it emerges to produce green-brown, fleshy little flowers that look a bit like a tiny, shouting mouth.
It appears on a list alongside a new toadstool discovered at Heathrow Airport.
Experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Kew, west London, joined collaborators from around the world in selecting 10 highlights of the new plants and fungal species from 2020.
They said the top picks represent the “amazing breadth of new species named every year and highlight the incredible diversity of species out there still to be found and documented”.
Toadstool mushroom Cortinarius heatherae, found at Heathrow Airport, is among the plant species newly named by scientists this year (Andy Overall/Royal Botanic Gardens Kew/PA)
Around 156 plants and fungi were found by scientists at Kew and their partners in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
‘Ugliest orchid in the world’ among 2020 s new plant discoveries Damian Carrington Environment editor
The “ugliest orchid in the world”, a toadstool discovered at Heathrow airport, and a bizarre scaly shrub have topped a list of new species named by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and their collaborators in 2020.
The researchers said the 156 new plants and fungi highlighted the amazing diversity of species that remain to be found, with the potential to provide new crops, medicines and gardener’s favourites. One is a morning glory plant, whose sweet purple tubers are already eaten by local people in the high Andes of Peru.