India’s threatened plants: 700 Red List species assessed for cultural and medicinal uses

A new review has mapped the ethnobotanical significance of India’s threatened flora using the IUCN Red List 2025-2, covering 700 plant species. Of these, 159 are classified as Critically Endangered, 292 as Endangered and 249 as Vulnerable, and 460 species — 65.71 percent of the total — are endemic to India. The study, published in Plant Biosystems, was conducted by Suhasini Raikwal, Ishita Chandra and Preeti Chaturvedi.

Agriculture and aquaculture emerged as the most dominant threat, affecting 422 of the assessed species. Residential and commercial development and biological resource use followed as the next most significant pressures. The authors note that threatened plants holding cultural and economic value face greater conservation challenges, because their utilisation can intensify anthropogenic pressure on top of existing ecological threats.

Ethnobotanical uses were documented for 243 of the 700 species, with ethnomedicinal use as the most significant category, recorded for 194 species, particularly through folk medicine. At the family level, Dipterocarpaceae, Cycadaceae and Apocynaceae showed the highest proportions of threatened species with ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal uses.

Species-level analysis identified Jatropha nana as the most severely threatened ethnobotanical species in the assessment. Alongside it, a cohort of six medicinally important species was highlighted: Iphigenia stellata, Cypripedium cordigerum, Cypripedium himalaicum, Dipcadi concanense, Nesphostylis bracteata and Nepenthes khasiana.

Notably, 457 species lacked any documented ethnobotanical use, yet they exhibited comparable threat severity. The authors interpret this as evidence that ecological vulnerability operates independently of species utility — a plant does not need to be useful to people to be pushed toward extinction.

To guide conservation action, the study built a prioritisation framework based on threat status, endemicity, the number of threats, ethnobotanical utility and harvesting mode. This framework identified 45 ethnobotanically important species and 16 endemic species lacking documented ethnobotanical uses as conservation priorities. Ceropegia jainii, Ceropegia odorata, Dipcadi concanense and Nepenthes khasiana were ranked among the highest-priority taxa.

The findings point to an accumulating extinction debt among India’s threatened flora, with consequences the authors expect to cascade through the ecosystem services these species provide. The review is a desk-based assessment of Red List data and documented uses rather than new field surveys, so its conclusions reflect the current state of recorded knowledge.

According to the authors, safeguarding these species requires an integrated conservation approach combining sustainable harvesting practices, community-based conservation and targeted in situ and ex situ conservation strategies, while recognising the interdependence of biodiversity conservation and human well-being.

Subject of Research: Ethnobotanical assessment of India's threatened plant species based on the IUCN Red List

Article Title: Ethnobotanical significance of threatened plants in India: an assessment based on the IUCN Red List

Article References: Raikwal, S., Chandra, I., & Chaturvedi, P. (2026). Ethnobotanical significance of threatened plants in India: an assessment based on the IUCN Red List. Plant Biosystems, 160(6), 301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44473-026-00317-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44473-026-00317-z

Keywords: ethnobotany, IUCN Red List, threatened plants, India, endemic species, ethnomedicine, conservation prioritisation, biodiversity, extinction debt, Plant Biosystems, Ethnobotanical, significance