Plant facts & figures

Simple up-to-date global facts about plants . . . the number of species, their biomass, and so forth, can be difficult to find. I have assembled this kind of information here (in one place) for those who might find it useful. Please keep me up-to-date with any errors or omissions.

A collection of information on plants in Australia prepared at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, is available here.

Biomass

Biomass as carbon content (factors out water) in gigatons of carbon (GtC).^[1]

Plants comprise 80% of all the carbon stored in living organisms. Plants are mainly terrestrial, animals mainly marine, bacteria and archaea mostly deep subsurface. Terrestrial biomass is two orders of magnitude greater than marine. Human biomass is an order of magnitude greater higher than that of all wild mammals combined. Humans and their livestock outweigh wild mammals >20-fold. Domesticated fowl exceeds all other birds. In the last 10,000 years humans have halved wild plant biomass. The seas are mostly occupied by microbes, mainly bacteria and protists (≈70% total marine biomass, the remaining ≈30% mostly arthropods and fish). The deep subsurface holds ≈15% of the total biomass in the biosphere (mostly surface-attached bacteria and archaea). ^[1]

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”ORGANISM
all life
plants
bacteria
fungi
archaea
protista
animals
viruses
humans” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”BIOMASS – GtC^%911%93
550
450
70
12
8
4
2
0.2
0.06″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Collections

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”INSTITUTION
Botanic garden
Herbarium
Gene/seed bank
Agricultural seed bank” col_column_max_width=”150px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”NUMBER IN WORLD
3991^%912%93
3324^%912%93
97 (350 in bot gds of 74 countries): Most held in Millennium Seed Bank, Kew. Total 57,051 spp. in 2020^%912%93
1750^%912%93” col_column_max_width=”400px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Herbaria

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_column_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”HERBARIA
Total specimens” col_column_max_width=”150px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”3324 (N America 844; Europe 828)^%912%93
392,353,689 (Dec. 2019)” col_column_max_width=”200px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Botanic gardens

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_column_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”Species in living collections” col_column_max_width=”150px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”107,340 (31% total vasc. pt species)^%912%93” col_column_max_width=”200px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Conservation

Human activities are accelerating the rate of biodiversity loss such that two in five plant species is threatened with extinction.^[2]

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_chead_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”THREAT
Agriculture & aquaculture
Biological resource use
Natural system modification
Residential & commercial devt
Invasive biota
Energy production & mining
Climate change
Other human disturbance
Transport & access corridors
Pollution
Geological events” col_column_max_width=”300px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”PERCENTAGE
32.8
21.1
10.8
10.5
6.5
5.4
4.1
3.2
2.5
1.7
0.9″ col_column_max_width=”140px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Food

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”EDIBLE PLANTS
Number
Current food crops – 2020
Staple crops
Sources of large-seeded grasses
Potential new sources” col_column_max_width=”150px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”NUMBERS
7039 (in 2319 genera, 288 families)^{%912%93%913%93}
417 (5.9% of total vailable)
15 (90% energy intake – mostly rice, maize, wheat)^%914%93
56 (32 SW Asia & Medn; E Asia 6; C America 5; Sahara 4; N America 4; Australia 2; S America 2; W Europe 1)^%915%93
Sub-Saharan Africa; India; SE Asia; Papua New Guinea^%912%93” col_column_max_width=”300px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Medicinal plants

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”PLANT SPECIES WITH MEDICINAL PROPERTIES” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”25,791 ^{%912%93%919%93}” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Primary productivity

Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP)

HANPP

Human appropriation of net primary productivity

Development of NPP components and HANPP by land use type from 1910 to 2005 in gigatonnes of carbon per year (GtC/y).
Courtesy Krausmann 2013.

HANPP

Regional breakdown of global HANPP (excluding human-induced fires) in the year 2000

Courtesy Krausmann 2013

Species number

The total number of species in the world is extremely difficult to determine. Current estimates range between 8 and 10 million.

Plants in the biosphere

Plants in the biosphere

Known and estimates of undescribed species on Earth, arranged in major taxonomic groups. Left: number of species (orange = estimated undescribed species, blue = described). Right: percentage of species already described (green) assumed unknown (yellow)

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons – Gregor Hagedorn – Accessed 22 October 2020

The World Flora Online (WFO) is a consortium of leading botanical institutions worldwide aiming to achieve an online Flora of all known plants in line with the 2011-2020 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation Target 1. No breakdown of numbers by taxonomic category is available yet.

The following are the numbers of accepted species listed in the former Plant List which follows the Kew taxonomic system of classification. It is still a work in progress.

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_column_max_width=”0.2fr” tbl_stripes_active=”on” tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” tbl_chead_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_rhead_cell_color=”#d1b22b” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” tbl_rhead_text_font=”|600|||||||” module_alignment=”center” border_color_all_tbl_chead_cell_border=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur_tbl_tcell_cell_shadow=”5px” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”PLANT GROUP
Vascular plants (all below groups)
Angiosperms (flowering plants)
Gymnosperms (conifers)
Ferns & allies
Mosses & liverworts” col_column_max_width=”200px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”SPECIES NUMBERS
350,699 (642 families, 17,020 genera)
304,419 (405 families, 14,559 genera)
1,104 (12 families, 88 genera)
10,620 (48 families, 587 genera)
34,556 (177 families, 1822 genera)” col_column_max_width=”300px” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

See also Christenhusz, M.J.H. & Byng, J.W. 2016. The number of known plant species in the world and its annual increase. Phytotaxa 261(3): 201-217

Kew’s Plants of the World Online provides authoritative information of the world’s flora. It was launched in March 2017.

Largest

A clonal giant seagrass meadow of Posidonia australis in the shallow waters of Shark Bay, near Carnarvon, Western Australia is about 4,500 years old and measuring 180 kilometres across

Edgeloe, J.M. et al. 2022. Extensive Polyploid Clonality was a Successful Strategy for Seagrass to Expand into a Newly Submerged Environment Proceedings Royal Society B: 289(1976)

Trees

Number

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”WORLD TOTAL” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”3.041 trillion (3,041,000,000,000)^{%916%93%917%93}” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

Estimates initially based on satellite imagery have been supplemented by additional estimates using calculations of forest surface cover and density per square kilometer. Sub-arctic forests have the highest densities a tree every meter. Boreal forests of North America, Scandinavia, and Russia are densely packed with skinny conifers and are estimated to hold about 750 billion trees, representing 24% of the total trees in the world. Slightly fewer than half the world’s trees occur in tropical and sub-tropical forests where about 1.3 trillion trees (43% of the total) occur.^[6][7]

Fastest growing

Fastest growing – bamboo 91 cm (35 in) per day or at a rate of 0.00003 km/h (0.00002 mph).^[10]

Greatest volume

Volume Sequoiadendron giganteum, Giant Redwood (General Sherman), Sequoia National Park, California. 52,508 cu ft. Probably the world’s largest individual organism. ^[11]

Oldest

Oldest tree >4,700 years, Pinus longaeva Bristlecone Pine (Methuselah), White Mountain Range, California
(c. 4,900 Pinus longaeva Bristlecone Pine (Prometheus), Nevada cut down in 1964)^[11]

Oldest clonal tree Picea abies, Norway Spruce (Pando), in Sweden 9,550 years. Populus tremuloides, Quaking Aspen (Pando), Utah, c. 80,000 years and >6000 tons. ^[11]

List of the world’s oldest trees.

Tallest

[dvmd_table_maker tbl_row_header_count=”0″ tbl_tcell_cell_align_horz=”center” tbl_tcell_cell_align_vert=”center” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” tbl_tcell_text_font=”|600|||||||” box_shadow_style_tbl_chead_cell_shadow=”preset6″ global_colors_info=”{}”][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”TREE
Sequoia sempervirens, Coast Redwood (Hyperion), Redwood National Park, California
Eucalyptus regnans, Mountain Ash (Centurion), Styx Valley, Tasmania. (tallest flowering plant)” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_content=”HEIGHT
116 m (380 ft)^%918%93
95 m (331 ft)^%918%93” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]

tallest trees

Tallest Trees in the World

Image Courtesy Candide Gardening

Widest girth

11.6 m (38 ft) Widest girth in the world is the Arbol del Tule, a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) located in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Media Gallery

[pac_divi_table_of_contents included_headings=”on|on|on|on|off|off” active_link_highlight=”on” marker_position=”outside” level_markers_1=”icons” level_markers_2=”icons” level_markers_3=”icons” level_markers_4=”icons” level_markers_5=”icons” level_markers_6=”icons” headings_overflow_1=”ellipsis” title_container_bg_color=”#bb9d13″ body_area_text_link_color_h1=”#DFB758″ body_area_text_link_color_active=”#DFB758″ body_area_text_link_underline_active=”#DFB758″ admin_label=”Table Of Contents Maker” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font_size=”17px” heading_all_font_size=”11px” heading_all_line_height=”20px” heading1_font=”|||on|||||” heading1_font_size=”14px” heading_all_active_font=”|700|||||||” border_radii_keyword_highlight=”on|0px|0px|0px|0px” border_width_all_keyword_highlight=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}” global_module=”284584″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][/pac_divi_table_of_contents]

The Biggest Trees in the World ! How big it could be ?

MAD LAB – 2019 – 11:14

References

[1] Bar-On,Y.M., Phillips,R. & Milo, R. 2018. The biomass distribution on Earth. PNAS 115(25)6506-6511 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711842115. This analysis provides an overview of the biomass composition of the biosphere, its taxonomic categories, geographic locations, and food chains.
[2] Royal Botanic Gardens Kew 2020. State of the World’s Plants & Fungi., also Plants, People, Planet 2(5)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10141
[3] Ulian et al. 2020. Unlocking plant resources to support food security and promote sustainable agriculture. Plants, People, Planet 2(5) doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10145
[4] FAO
[5] Diamond, J. 2005. Guns, Germs and Steel. Vintage: London
[6] Ehrenburg, R. 2015. Global count reaches 3 trillion trees. Nature News. (September) http://www.nature.com/news/global-count-reaches-3-trillion-trees-1.18287
[7] Crowther, T. W.et al. 2015. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14967
[8] https://www.thespruce.com/great-trees-of-the-world-1709081
[9] Reconciling biodiversity conservation and global healthcare imperatives for sustainable use of medicinal plants and fungi. Plants, People, Planet 2(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10138
[10] Guiness World Records 2020
[11] https://www.thespruce.com/great-trees-of-the-world-1709081

—

First published on the internet – 21 October 2020

The Community of Life
Showing biological divisions, geological ages and major evolutionary events
Courtesy Evogeneao https://www.evogeneao.com

TreeofLife