Zombie fungus, ‘living stones’ among favorite botany discoveries of 2025

It’s easy to forget how little we still know about our planet’s ecosystems. Each year, researchers identify thousands of species of plants and fungi previously unknown to science. While it may be difficult to highlight the most striking examples, an international team of scientists led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) in London, have come up with their personal picks for 2025. The selection of spider-infecting zombie parasites, plants camouflaged in stones and a “fire demon flower” are certainly worth a closer look.

In Brazil, botanists have described Purpureocillium atlanticum for the first time. This deadly fungus targets the area’s trapdoor spiders which reside in burrows deep in the rainforest. Once infected, P. atlanticum kills the arachnid after covering most of its body with fine strands of white, root-like structures called mycelium. The fungus then develops a nearly 0.8 inch fruiting body through the trapdoor burrow entrance. This expansion ends up releasing its own spores into a world of unsuspected spiders.

Other end-of-year selections are much bigger than a zombie mushroom. In Peru, researchers described an acanthus shrub growing more than 10 feet tall. These plants feature bright red, yellow and orange flowers that remind scientists of Calcifer, the fire demon in famous animator Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 classic, Howl’s Moving Castle. With this in mind, Aphelandra calciferi is an ode to the character, with “great potential as an ornamental conservatory plant,” according to Kew.

However, not all species are recognizable as plants or fungi. The savannah woodlands of Namibia are home to a newly described lithop subspecies (Lithops gracilidelineata subspecies. mopane) also known as “living stone”. The nickname is also well deserved. Each succulent looks more like a small pebble than a plant and produces a single pair of leaves that capture sunlight through filter-like screens. Unlike other lithops, the mopane has a more grayish-white coloring than other parents with more brown-pink or cream hues.

Continuing to scour the world in search of unknown species is a vital role for today’s botanists, according to Martin Cheek, senior manager of African species research at RBG Kew.

“It is difficult to protect what we do not know, do not understand and for which we do not have a scientific name,” Cheek said in a statement. “Each scientific identification of a new species helps us better understand ecosystems. Without this fundamental knowledge, species conservation efforts fail.”

RBG Kew estimates that botanists add around 2,500 plants and even more fungi to taxonomic records each year. Experts estimate that up to 100,000 plant species and up to 3 million fungi remain undescribed. It’s a race against time to classify and conserve them: in a 2023 report, RBG Kew calculated that up to 75% of all undescribed plants were at risk of extinction.

“Everywhere we look, human activities are eroding nature to the point of extinction, and we simply cannot keep up with the pace of destruction,” Cheek said. “If we fail to invest now in taxonomy, conservation and public awareness of these issues, we risk dismantling the very systems that support our life on Earth. »

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