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Six webcap toadstools have been named, all from the genus Cortinarius. C heatherae, right, was discovered alongside a river on Heathrow airport’s boundary by field mycologist Andy Overall. C ainsworthii, named after its discoverer Kew mycologist Martyn Ainsworth, came from Devil’s Dyke, Brighton, and C subsaniosus, was found at Barrow-in-Furness. Three were found in Scotland: Cortinarius britannicus in Caithness; C aurae, found by Kew mycologist Tuula Niskanen; and C scoticus in the Black Wood of Rannoch.
Photograph: Andy Overall/RBG Kew
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DNA analysis at Kew showed this strange scaly shrub, Tiganophyton karasense (Tiganophytaceae), found by botanist Wessel Swanepoel in the semi-desert of southern Namibia in 2010, fitted into the cabbage order but belonged to a species, genus and family new to science. While about 2,000 plants are named new to science annually, new families are only published about once a year. The shrub tolerates extremely hot salt pans and fewer than 1,000 plants of its type are known to exist.
Photograph: Wessel Swanepoel/RBG Kew
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Scientists around the world, including Kew’s orchid specialist, Andre Schuiteman, and partners Reza Saputra, in Indonesia, and Jaap Vermeulen, in the Netherlands, contributed to the naming of 19 tree-dwelling orchids. The species include three conventionally attractive species from the Dendrobium genus, including Dendrobium aurifex, right, which displays spectacular bright golden orange flowers and grew in Kew Gardens’ tropical nursery.
Photograph: Bala Kompalli/RBG Kew
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Of the other 16 orchid species, these are from the Bulbophyllum genus, many of which are pollinated by flies. Their Latin names reflect resemblance to human faces – “the dagger-tongued bulbophyllum”, pictured right, the “moustached bulbophyllum”, and the “bulbophyllum with sideburns”. Many of these orchids have only been found once and some are only known from a single preserved specimen, so scientists do not yet know if they are rare and endangered or occur more widely in New Guinea.
Photograph: TM Reeve/RBG Kew
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This is one of two new species of Aloe, the genus best known for the succulent Aloe vera often use for medicinal purposes, which were found and named by Kew scientists based in the organisation’s overseas office in Madagascar.
Photograph: RBG Kew
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Aloe species from Madagascar are usually found in open and sunny areas, but Aloe rakotonasoloi, right, and A vatovavensis were found in a forest. The Kew team, led by Solofo Rakotoarisoa, took the plants away to cultivate them for their flowers, which helped to confirm the plants as new to science.
Photograph: RBG Kew
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Not all species newly named by scientists are new to humanity as this pretty pink morning glory, Ipomoea noemana, demonstrates. This plant, from the genus including the sweet potato, was known to local communities in the high Andes of Peru as yura. It grows among cacti at an elevation of 2,300 metres, and has purple tubers up to 10cm in diameter, which can be eaten raw. The flower was named after the Peruvian philanthropist Noema Cano by a team of Peruvian and Kew researchers led by Enoc Jara, of the National University of San Marcos, Lima.
Photograph: Enoc Jara/RBG Kew
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Gastrodia agnicellus, newly named this year, is not the normal showy, vibrant and beautiful orchid. This orchid, found in Madagascar, has 11mm long brown flowers. After it is pollinated its stalks grow, holding the fruits well above the forest floor so that the dust-like seeds can disperse. The orchid depends on fungi for nutrition and has no leaves or any other photosynthetic tissue. It is assessed as threatened, and has a small range occurring within a protected national park.
Photograph: Rick Burian/RBG Kew
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This stunning, colourful, bromeliad, Acanthostachys calcicola, was discovered in Brazil by two botanists, Pablo Hendrigo Alves de Melo, and Gabriel Mendes Marcusso, along with Kew scientist Alex Monro in December 2019. It was found on a tree-shaded limestone cliff in Brazil, and believed to be in the same family as the pineapple. It is pollinated by humming birds. Only 25 plants were found. A calcicola is only the third species of its genus known to science. Its habitat is threatened by extraction of limestone for cement as well as by cattle farming and timber felling.
Photograph: Gabriel Mendes Marcusso/RBG Kew
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Marsdenia chirindensis was newly named in 2020 by Kew scientist David Goyder, who spent 30 years studying this and related plants. There are about 150 species of Marsdenia in the tropics. Classified as a herb, the plant is from the medicinally important family Apocynaceae, used to treat flatulence, gonorrhoea, paralysis, burns, and fungal skin infection. It is also used for dyes. This species is restricted to the Chirinda forest, Zimbabwe, on the border with Mozambique. Only one or two plants are known to exist.
Photograph: Bart Wursten/RBG Kew
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This shrub new to science, Diplycosia puradyatmikai, is related to blueberries. It grows on the upper slopes of the highest peak in south-east Asia, Mt Jaya, Indonesia. Its habitat is stunted montane forest, rich in plants from the rhododendron family. Growing up to 1.5 metres tall it has golden-brown stem bristles, round leathery leaves and red-tinged bell-shaped flowers. About 120 species are known in the genus and they are usually grow on high mountains, from Indochina to New Guinea. This species was named by Indonesian and Kew scientists led by Wendy A Mustaqim.
Photograph: Wendy Mustaqim/RBG Kew
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This spectacular, red-flowered Hibiscus hareyae with its jagged petals, was discovered online by Lex Thomson, an Australian Hibiscus specialist. Thomson, studying online images of historic herbarium specimens, recognised that these specimens had features never documented before. The plant is able to withstand much drier conditions than the well-known Hibiscus schizopetalus. He named the flower after Hareya Fassil, who has worked on traditional plant-based medicines in Africa.
Photograph: Ian Darbyshire/RBG Kew
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