img_logo_impression Protected plants

Protected plants

Lyon Botanical garden got recently involved in a valorisation of endangered plants politic. In this purpose a red label (on which is mentioned the degree of vulnerability of the species) has been adopted. So the public can realise how the plant world is endangered, and may discover the growing number of species that are on the verge of extinction.

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and naturals resources) published in 1997 a list of endangered species, plants or animals. It’s the 1997 IUCN red list of Threatened Plants, a scientific reference book for conservation.

How threatened plants are determined and classed ?

The IUCN determined some categories in order to make the difference between the threat degree upon each taxon (taxon notion is more precise than the species as it takes into account subspecies and varieties) In the crescent vulnerability order you’ll find the following classes :


Kosteletzkya pentacarpa Ledeb.
IUCN R 

IUCN R (for Rare) : concerns taxons with low world populations, not yet considered as vulnerable, but that might become endangered. This species are located on limited geographic areas or habitats. They could also be sporadically present in larger surfaces.

IUCN V (for Vulnerable) : The included taxons are those which populations reduced due to overexploitation, intensive destruction of their habitat or an other environmental nuisance; those which seriously reduced populations aren’t yet protected; or those wich populations are luxuriant but suffer from severe factors of degradation.

Centaurea alpina L. , Europe Méridionale
IUCN V 

Echinocactus grusonii Hildm. Mexique
IUCN E 

IUCN E (for Endangered) : concerns threatened species wich survival is uncertain if the factors subsist. Some taxons included could be extinct but were seen 50 years ago.

IUCN E/Ex (for Presumed Extinct) concerns taxons who have recently disappear in natural state.

IUCN Ex (for Extinct in the Wild) concerns species that no one has seen in the wild for the past 50 years.

These notes could be find on concerned plants labels, and you can find a summary of the definition at the entrance of the greenhouses and at different points of the open air garden.

Actually we can consider that 5 to 6% of the garden species are on the 1997 IUCN red list of threatened plants. It’s important to know them and to aware every one of the necessity of these plants safeguarding, which will soon extinct if men continue to damage their area.

To know more about it visit the IUCN website.

Pleiospilos simulans (Marl.) N.E. Br.
IUCN E