Which new plants were named in 2025?

Last year was full of scientific discoveries - from dinosaur footprints, to a glow in the dark shark and the plant world was no different.

Kew Gardens in London and its international partners named 125 new species of plant and 65 fungi around the world in 2025, including a zombie fungus and a flower named after a studio Ghibli character.

However, a lot of them are already endangered, meaning they could soon go extinct.

Kew's State of the World's Plants and Fungi report said in 2023 that as many as three in four undiscovered plants around the world are already threatened with extinction.

There's lots of weird and wonderful discoveries in their 2025 list - here are five of them.

The first on the list is a pretty grisly one - meet Purpureocillium atlanticum, otherwise known as zombie fungus.

It was found in the Atlantic forest in Brazil, and is a parasite, as it survives by infecting spiders and growing through their corpses - eew!

The group of fungi it belongs to is called entomopathogenic, which means they can kill and infect insects.

A new species of orchid was found in the Andean forests of Ecuador which has been called Telipogon cruentilabrum.

There are about 250 known species of Telipogon, and they're all found in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

They can only be identified when they bloom, and this one can be recognised by its red centre, which almost looks like it's got blood on it.

It grows on tree daisies but unlike the fungus is not a parasite, so doesn't feed off them to live.

However, it's already been classed as endangered, as its habitat is rapidly declining.

If you've ever seen Studio Ghibli's film Howl's Moving Castle, you'll know all about the sassy fire demon Calcifer.

Well, last year, scientists named this plant after him.

Aphelandra calciferi has bright red, orange and yellow flowers that look like flames - but what is more unclear is whether or not it can cook bacon and eggs as well as the little fire demon.

Calciferi was found in the tropical rainforests in the centre of Peru.

Okay, so it's not actually stone that comes to life.

Living stone plants are great at camouflage and can blend in with rocky surroundings.

Lithops gracilidelineata is the newest of these, and was found in Namibia, a country that is home to many other living stones.

This one seems like a tiny rock when you first look at it, but is actually a type of plant called a succulent, meaning they're very good at storing water (like cactuses).

A new species of palm tree found in 2013 has now been scientifically recognised and given the name Adonidia zibabaoa.

It's a type of Christmas palm, which are tropical trees with bright red fruit.

It took a while for it to be officially classified as it was not immediately obvious to scientists what genus (or group) it belonged to.

However, after DNA samples were studied at Kew, it was eventually found to belong to the Adonidia genus.