New discoveries to science from Kew

Over 250 years, Kew has made many discoveries about the fascinating worlds of plants and fungi. Each year, many new species of plant and fungi are discovered by our world class scientists.

We discover new things about the plants and fungi every day. This includes how different species relate to one another and new ways to use plants to make life easier and better.

Plants are essential to life on earth. In a world where our changing environment is becoming less and less certain, the power of plants combined with Kew’s scientific expertise is ever more critical.

Support science and research at Kew | Go behind the scenes with Kew blogs

Adventure and discovery around the world with the plant hunters

by: Michele Losse, Library, Art and Archives blog
18 Feb 2011
Plant hunters frequently travelled across the world to discover new plants for science. Discover some of their adventures here with stories from Kew's Archives.

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Rediscovering the comb fern in the Falkland Islands

by: Pat Griggs, UK Overseas Territories team blog
27 Jan 2011
Find out how Kew botanists were able to confirm the identity of the comb fern, a tiny plant believed to be extinct in the Falkland Islands until it was spotted growing on the island of West Falkland more than 180 years after its only previous sighting there.

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New year, new office, new challenges!

by: Helen Hartley, Library, Art and Archives blog
24 Jan 2011
Can you work it out? Kew's Directors' Correspondence Digitisation Team set a challenge to decipher some 19th century handwriting as they start the new year in their brand new offices.

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Botanical challenge: Identifying specimens in Kew's Herbarium

by: Gemma Bramley, Herbarium blog
18 Jan 2011
Find out how Kew botanists, specialising in the flora of southeast Asia, get together every Friday afternoon for the 'family sort' of specimens newly arrived to the Herbarium.

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The naming of a mistletoe

by: Tim Harris, Herbarium blog
13 Jan 2011
Find out how collaboration between mistletoe experts and the Drylands Africa team in the Herbarium resulted in a new species of mistletoe being documented.

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Botanical surveys of the coastal forests of Mozambique

13 Jan 2011

Fieldwork in the coastal forests of northern Mozambique has so far led to the discovery of 20 new species and 50 species not previously recorded in the country.

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People examining plant specimens in Kew's Herbarium

Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden announce the completion of The Plant List

29 Dec 2010

This landmark international resource is a working list of all land plant species, fundamental to understanding and documenting plant diversity and effective conservation of plants. This accomplishment is crucial to plant conservation efforts worldwide.

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Helixanthera schizocalyx herbarium specimen

New tropical mistletoe just in time for Christmas – one of many new discoveries from Kew this year

20 Dec 2010

As the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity draws to a close, scientists at Kew are celebrating the diversity of the planet’s plant and fungal life by highlighting some of the weird, wonderful and stunning discoveries they’ve made this year.

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35,000 new plant species ‘sitting in cupboards’

07 Dec 2010

A new study led by Oxford University and involving Kew has revealed that of the estimated 70,000 species of flowering plants yet to be described by scientists, more than half may already have been collected but are lying unknown and unrecognised in collections around the world.

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