Heathrow Airport fungus and ‘ugliest’ orchid on Earth among new plant species found in 2020

“Ugliest orchid in the world” seems a harsh description for a plant simply trying its best to survive on our planet, but that's how scientists view one of several new species discovered this year.

Other major finds in 2020 include six new species of fungus found in the UK – including one near Heathrow Airport – a scaly shrub from a completely new family of plants, and two new species of aloes.

They are among the top ten species new to science, as chosen by experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Researchers said that, despite the “challenges” of 2020, botanical and mycological science has had a bumper year, with a total of 156 newly-named plant and fungal species.

Dr Martin Cheek, senior research leader at Kew, said: “Among these are some amazing new finds for science, each with their own unique qualities and potential for humanity.

“Some could provide vital income to communities while others may have the potential to be developed into a future food or medicine.”

The Heathrow Airport toadstool was discovered when field mycologist (mushroom expert) and author Andy Overall was walking along the river on the boundary of Heathrow airport. It’s not a traditionally romantic move, but Mr Overall named the fungus after his wife Heather – calling it Cortinarius heatherae. His Twitter handle is “@fungitobewith”, which is also great.

The five other species of fungus found in the UK were all in Scotland, and were all also part of the same Cortinarius genus.

Dr Cheek said these species are “ecologically important in supporting the growth of plants, particularly trees such as oak, beech, birch and pine. This genus also plays a key role in the carbon cycling of woodlands and providing nitrogen to trees.”

Over in southern Namibia an unusual scaly plant found in the desert has had botanists scratching their heads for a decade – until this year, when the mystery shrub was declared a new species. Hooray!

Kew’s team of molecular experts analysed the plant and found the plant’s DNA fitted the cabbage order, but none of the known families in this order.

“It wasn't just a new species, but a new genus and a new family: Tiganophyton karasense (Tiganophytaceae),” Dr Cheek said.

“This is unique, as while around 2,000 plants are named new to science each year, new families are only published around once a year.”

Other plants discovered this year include a Brazilian bromeliad – a relative of the pineapple and sporting bright red flowers which attract hummingbirds; a shrub related to blueberries found growing on the edge of the world’s largest goldmine, in New Guinea; a herb from Zimbabwe, which comes from a family of plants used to treat flatulence, gonorrhoea and fungal skin infections; and a type of hibiscus discovered online, by a botanist searching through images of the flowers.

Despite the exciting new crop of plants discovered this year, Dr Cheek warned “the bleak reality facing us cannot be underplayed”.

He said: “With two in five plants threatened with extinction, it is a race against time to find, identify, name, and conserve plants before they disappear.”