#sabiennial a glimpse and summary of aspects of the state of plant #biodiversity pic.twitter.com/fwDnquaPoN
— Donat Agosti (@myrmoteras) August 28, 2015
Not much better for crop wild relatives, I suspect. And this doesn’t even mention genetic diversity. And the clock is ticking.
Not only is the clock ticking, but in the USA botany programs are getting fewer, universities, museums, and botanical gardens are getting out of botanical research and plant collections are being shelved or under utilized. Fewer and fewer people are being trained to identify plants let alone describe new species. One major factor is the emphasis on human bio-medicine in both the teaching of biology and the focus of research monies. It does look grim.