Report: British Flora Faces Extinction

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2005/may/09/050908471.html

LONDON (AP) - Fewer British fields are bursting into yellow each summer, with 20 percent of native flora species declining at rates that put them at risk of extinction.

The absence of yellow flowers in summer fields is a result of the decline of corn marigold - just one of 345 native British plant species identified as facing the threat of extinction in The Vascular Plant Red Data List published on Monday.

The plant study evaluated the status of every wild plant native to Britain, including commonly found species. Previous threat lists only looked at species already known to be rare.

The widened research scope added 78 species to the threatened list, a 30 percent increase from the last report in 1999.

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