Scientists Studying Earth’s Flowering Plants Issue a Stark Warning to Humanity

Botanical illustration: The Vanelloe – Epidendrum Vanilla (aka Vanilla planifolia). Image credit: Mark Catesby / National Gallery of Art. Public Domain. Article by Jess Cockerill. ScienceAlert – July 19, 2026. Research article: Science.

From the beloved vanilla orchid, whose pods flavor many of our favorite desserts, to the nose-twisting corpse flower, whose gigantic flower draws crowds with every fetid bloom, even the world’s most treasured flowering plants are in grave danger. And scientists are only just coming to terms with just how much we stand to lose. In a recent paper published in Science, an international team of biologists warns that we risk losing more than a fifth of the evolutionary history of flowering plants, as a result of ever-increasing human pressures. […]

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Curated by Theresa Wysocki

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