April 5 : A joint report from the non-profit Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and Fauna and Flora International (FFI) has claimed that 50 percent of the world’s magnolias are close to extinction.

The report, which appears in the National Geographic magazine, says that 131 of the 245 known species of wild magnolia trees are in danger of going extinct.

Having survived millions of years of geologic and climatic upheaval, these ancient plants is now suffering from rapid deforestation around the world, the report says.

Magnolias are known to have existed throughout the Northern Hemisphere since the Cretaceous period, 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago.

Today, about two-thirds of magnolia species are found in Asia, with over 40 percent growing in southern China. The remaining species are found mainly in the Americas.

According to the new report, roughly half of China’s wild magnolia species face extinction, and similarly dire conditions exist in North and South America.

The new report is based on data collected by Adrian Newton, of Bournemouth University and his colleagues.

“We need to ensure that all species are in cultivation in botanic gardens,” Oldfield said, “so that we can propagate the most vulnerable species and get them back into the wild,” the authors of the report conclude. (ANI)