As the planet warms and extinctions mount, scientists are racing to catalog the vast array of life on Earth before species disappear. This year, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, recorded 89 new species of plant and fungi across the globe, from the rocky edges of Antarctica to a dormant volcano in Indonesia.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to be a scientist, but even as we make these wonderful new discoveries, we must remember that nature is under threat, and we have the power to do something about it,” Martin Cheek, a senior researcher with Kew, said in a statement.

Kew scientists highlighted 10 particularly notable varieties of plants and fungi recorded last year.

• Aeranthes bigibbum, a new variety of orchid marked by its translucent flowers, was recorded in a protected forest in Madagascar. Locals guard the forest, earning money from visitors who come to see the blue-beaked Helmet vangas that live in the woods. Were it not for the villagers protecting this rare bird, scientists believe the forest likely would have been cleared and the orchid lost.

According to Kew, of the plants not yet recorded by science, as many as three in four are threatened with extinction. “It is imperative now, more so than ever, that we do everything in our power to go out into the field with our partners and work out which species of plants and fungi we haven’t given a scientific description yet,” Cheek said. “Without doing so, we risk losing these species without ever even knowing they existed.”

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