---
title: "AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists"
slug: "botaniker-setzen-ki-gegen-das-artensterben-von-pflanzen-ein"
date: 2026-06-16
category: tech-pub
tags: []
language: en
sources_count: 1
featured: false
publisher: AInauten News
url: https://news.ainauten.com/en/story/botaniker-setzen-ki-gegen-das-artensterben-von-pflanzen-ein
---

# AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists

**Published**: 2026-06-16 | **Category**: tech-pub | **Sources**: 1

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## TL;DR

- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.

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## Summary

- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.
- Kew has digitised its 7.4m specimens; globally, 145m digital specimens are online, but that is still less than 16 percent of herbarium holdings.
- An AI model analysed 8m digitised specimens and found flowering times shifting by an average 2.5 days per decade.
- For fungi, researchers can now extract high-quality genomes from samples up to 180 years old, with possible uses in drug discovery and disease monitoring.

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## Why it matters

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.

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## Key Points

- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.
- Kew has digitised its 7.4m specimens; globally, 145m digital specimens are online, but that is still less than 16 percent of herbarium holdings.
- An AI model analysed 8m digitised specimens and found flowering times shifting by an average 2.5 days per decade.
- For fungi, researchers can now extract high-quality genomes from samples up to 180 years old, with possible uses in drug discovery and disease monitoring.

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## Nauti's Take

This is AI with dirt under its fingernails: not a demo, but leverage against a data problem that has sat in drawers for centuries. The builder lesson is blunt: make old, clean collections machine-readable and you get early-warning systems, not pretty dashboards.

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## FAQ

**Q:** What is AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists about?

**A:** - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.

**Q:** Why does it matter?

**A:** Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.

**Q:** What are the key takeaways?

**A:** Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI and digitisation could help botanists identify and protect threatened plants and fungi before species disappear.. Kew has digitised its 7.4m specimens; globally, 145m digital specimens are online, but that is still less than 16 percent of herbarium holdings.. An AI model analysed 8m digitised specimens and found flowering times shifting by an average 2.5 days per decade.

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## Related Topics

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## Sources

- [AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/16/ai-could-help-win-race-against-extinction-of-vital-plants-say-botanists) - The Guardian AI

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## About This Article

This article is a synthesis of 1 sources, curated and summarized by AInauten News. We aggregate AI news from trusted sources and provide bilingual (German/English) coverage.

**Publisher**: [AInauten](https://www.ainauten.com) | **Site**: [news.ainauten.com](https://news.ainauten.com)

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*Last Updated: 2026-06-17*