Since there are this many species of trees alone, think of how many species of all kinds of plants exist. Certainly there are all kinds of bio-chemicals in these plants... enough to find cures for all the diseases. Why isn't the medical taking advantage of all this natural biology? Do you think it could be that they don't want people to be cured easily?
I highly recommend 3 books: Exotica, Tropica, Hortica... all by Alfred B. Graf. If you like plants, these books should be in your library.
Study suggests Earth could have as many as 73,000 tree species, with 9,200 still undiscovered According to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI), Earth could have as many as 73,000 tree species, with 9,200 species yet to be discovered.
The study findings were published in the journal PNAS.
Researchers reported that many of these undiscovered species could be “rare, in very low numbers and at threat from human-driven changes in land use and climate.”
The study suggests that South America should be the focus of conservation efforts, together with other global tropical and subtropical forests, which might also be home to many rare and undiscovered species.
The study involved a three-year international project and a collaboration of almost 150 scientists who successfully identified an estimated 40 million trees belonging to 64,000 species.
Knowledge is key to preserving ecosystems
Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy and the study’s lead author, explained that having extensive knowledge of “tree richness and diversity” is essential to protecting the “stability and functionality of ecosystems.”
Prior to the study, existing data on wide areas of the planet was rather limited and based on field-observation and lists of species from different areas. Cazzolla Gatti added that these limitations were “detrimental to a global perspective” on the matter.
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