#  State of the World’s Plants and Fungi  

 





June 17, 2026

 

 

   ![Digitising plants at Kew](/sites/g/files/omnuum6796/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-06/01.%20Digitising%20plants%20at%20Kew%20-%20CREDIT%20-%20Jeff%20Eden%20%E2%94%AC%E2%8C%90%20RBG%20Kew.jpg?itok=UMyDtvw5) 

 

Digitising plants at Kew - CREDIT Jeff Eden - © RBG KewHarvard University Herbaria is one of 170+ institutions in 40 countries contributing to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s 2026 [*State of the World’s Plants and Fungi*](https://www.kew.org/sites/default/files/2026-06/State-of-the-World-s-Plants-and-Fungi-2026.pdf) \[PDF\] report. The report explores how new technology is transforming the race to save nature, as digital tools reveal critical gaps in scientific knowledge and pinpoint where action is most urgently needed to protect the world’s plants and fungi.

Two studies from the HUH are highlighted in the report:

Research led by HUH Director **Jeannine Cavender-Bares** and postdoctoral fellow **Dawson White** showed that light reflected from pressed herbarium leaves can reveal key traits almost as well as fresh material, unlocking herbarium collections for global ecological insight. The new International Herbarium Spectral Digitization (IHerbSpec) working group is uniting labs worldwide to standardize how we capture this spectral data, so millions of pressed plants can power next‑generation ecology, remote sensing, and biodiversity research. The study is published in [*New Phytologist.*](https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70645)

Research led by PhD candidate **Ryan Schmidt-Knapik** and Curator of Vascular Plants **Charles Davis** was also highlighted. Analyzing over 1 million digitized plant specimens from the northeastern U.S., the team shows that herbarium biases aren’t random. Botanists tend to collect in peak growing season, in easily sampled places, and favor plants that are simpler to identify, while avoiding big, complex groups. Understanding these predictable patterns can help scientists correct for gaps in the record and build more accurate biodiversity models for the future. This study is also published in [*New Phytologist*](https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70297).



 

 

 



 

 

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