Digitisation of plant and fungal collections is turning cupboards and boxes into accessible digital records, accelerating research on climate-resilient wild relatives of crops and enabling discovery and conservation efforts worldwide.

A global study of eight million specimens over a century finds flowering times shifting on average by about 2.5 days per decade, with larger changes in the tropics, affecting plant–pollinator relationships.

AI and digital tools help identify new species, reveal extinctions, track climate-driven changes in flowering and fruiting, and map biodiversity loss, especially benefiting difficult tropical and Arctic regions.

The work also highlights underreported contributions from collectors and communities and shows potential conservation gains through international cooperation and ongoing digitisation.

Technology is described as nature’s ally, exposing gaps in knowledge and guiding urgent conservation actions via AI, digitisation, and global data-sharing.

AI helps prioritize species for conservation, correct mis identifications, and uncover hidden biodiversity, though data gaps remain a major challenge.

Gaps persist: fewer than 16% of herbarium specimens have been imaged digitally, with pronounced gaps in the Global South, leading to biased conservation decisions and incomplete models.

Regional blind spots exist, with notably low imaging in the Global South and countries like Honduras and Nigeria.

Digitised records and statistical models can accelerate taxonomy and extinction risk assessments, addressing underreported biodiversity loss.

The report emphasizes that AI, digitisation, and international collaboration can dramatically enhance knowledge, conservation, and equitable access to biodiversity data, underscoring the urgency of ongoing discovery and protection.

A hopeful message: coordinated international action and advanced technologies can boost knowledge sharing and conservation outcomes globally, using digitised assets to uncover new species and assess extinction risks more effectively.

Kew’s state of the world’s plants and fungi report highlights AI, data sharing, and global coordination as keys to advancing conservation and knowledge, leveraging digitised assets for global benefit.