Many useful members of this 'iconic' plant family are at risk of extinction, according to a study.
"We need to do all we can to protect biodiversity and that encompasses more than a thousand palm species that we now know may be threatened," said study leader, Dr Sidonie Bellot of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
Palm trees have a host of uses, including as staple crops such as coconut, palm oil or dates, or in the making of furniture, rubber, oil and ropes. They say wild plants are invaluable to local people, but could vanish even before their full potential is known.Official assessments of extinction risk are time-consuming and costly, prompting the Kew-led team to investigate machine learning as a tool.
"With these predictions we can help to prioritise conservation activity and to target species with further conservation work in the countries where they are most at risk," said Dr Steven Bachman, research leader in Kew's conservation assessment and analysis team.
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