Even in a country whose plants have been catalogued for more than two centuries, botanists are still finding species nobody has recorded before. A new analysis of floristic discoveries in Ukraine, published in Botanical Studies, has compiled every vascular plant species and subspecies either described as new to science or recorded for the first time in the country between 1997 and the end of 2024. The tally comes to 331 taxa, of which 314 are currently accepted, including 57 taxa formally described as new to science during the period. For a temperate European flora often assumed to be thoroughly mapped, the numbers suggest that botanical inventories remain strikingly incomplete even where fieldwork has been intensive for generations.
The study, conducted by Mykyta Peregrym, Ihor Olshanskyi and Svitlana Zhygalova, is the first systematic review of its kind for the Ukrainian flora. The researchers drew exclusively on a literature survey, analysing 192 publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed as well as unindexed periodicals and monographs published mostly in Slavic languages. They compiled a table of every discovery with supporting details such as location, habitat type, collection date, species origin and notes, then examined patterns across taxonomy, origin, habitat, geography, seasonality and data sources. The most recent comprehensive checklist of Ukrainian vascular plants, by Mosyakin and Fedoronchuk, dates to 1999 and is now more than 25 years old, which is precisely why the authors anchored their survey to the years following its publication.
The taxonomic spread of the discoveries is broad. Flowering plants dominated with 302 species and subspecies, including 78 taxa of monocots and 223 taxa of eudicots, alongside a single magnoliid. Ferns contributed nine species and subspecies, gymnosperms two, and lycopods one. Three families, Aizoaceae, Menispermaceae and Talinaceae, are reported for the first time in the spontaneous flora of Ukraine, together with 31 genera new to the country, including familiar names such as Ampelopsis, Nerium, Symphyotrichum and Mesembryanthemum. Among families, Asteraceae led with 52 new species and subspecies, followed by Poaceae and Rosaceae with 22 each and Orchidaceae with 20.
Where the plants were found proved as informative as what was found. Synanthropic habitats, those shaped by human disturbance, yielded the highest number of discoveries, with 123 taxa newly recorded for the country’s flora. Many of these were escapees from cultivation, and Kyiv city alone accounted for 49 alien taxa that had escaped from gardens, more than any other locality. Grasslands ranked second, contributing 56 newly recorded taxa and 33 newly described species, while woodlands yielded 25 new records and 9 new taxa for science. Stone outcrops and coastal habitats added smaller but notable shares. No new species were described from aquatic, wetland or shrub habitats during the period, although new national records were documented from each of those environments.
Geographically, the Crimean Peninsula emerged as the clear leader, with 119 new species and subspecies recorded for the flora of Ukraine, nearly one-third of the total. The authors attribute this to the region’s biogeographic uniqueness, its wealth of endemism and its concentration of hybridogenic diversity. Kyiv city followed with 54 taxa, then Transcarpathia with 33, Lviv region with 30 and Odesa region with 20. Among taxa described as new to science specifically, almost half, 25 species and subspecies, came from the Crimean Peninsula. The authors note that the peninsula’s continued botanical exploration and the protection of its natural areas look almost impossible under the conditions of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, a constraint that also colours their outlook for future discoveries.
The origin of the new taxa splits into two roughly equal streams. Of the 331 discoveries, 166 taxa are of natural origin in Ukraine, 139 are alien, and the origin of nine could not be precisely determined. Among the alien species, the larger group, 76 taxa, consists of plants escaped from cultivation, while 63 taxa arrived through transport, cargo movement or other anthropogenic pathways. The authors expect the introduction and documentation of new alien taxa not only to continue but likely to intensify, citing the full-scale Russian invasion as a major driver: large-scale movements of military equipment, supplies, food and personnel from multiple regions raise the risk of unintentional species introductions, while widespread habitat destruction creates disturbed environments and novel ecological niches that may facilitate the establishment and spread of alien plants.
Historical herbarium specimens turned out to be an unexpectedly powerful engine of discovery. In total, 82 floristic discoveries, 26.1 percent of all those recorded during the period, were based on herbarium materials, and 34 of those cases involved the description of new species and subspecies for science, accounting for 69.4 percent of all taxa newly described from Ukraine in the timeframe. The reviewed publications cite 19 herbarium specimens collected in the 19th century, 66 from the first half of the 20th century and 78 collected between 1951 and 1990. The oldest specimen underlying a discovery is a collection of Botrychium simplex from the vicinity of Kharkiv, dated 12 June 1828. Forty of the 57 taxa new to science were described on the basis of old herbarium material, underscoring the authors’ argument that digitisation, curation and re-examination of historical collections using contemporary taxonomic frameworks remain essential, particularly where field access is limited by geopolitical or logistical constraints.
Seasonality shaped the record in predictable ways. Of 490 dated collection records compiled from the publications, 213 were made in the second quarter of the year, April to June, and 198 in the third quarter, July to September, matching the active growing season of most vascular plants. Yet the colder half of the year was not barren: 46 records date from the fourth quarter and 5 from the first. Most collections, 317 records or 64.3 percent, were made within the publication window itself, with 2017 and 2020 the most productive years for fieldwork at 37 and 34 records respectively. In terms of publication timing, 2020 was the most productive year with 36 taxa reported, followed by 2019 with 29. On average, 11.18 plus or minus 8.26 accepted species and subspecies were newly recorded from Ukraine per year across the period.
Hybrids formed a substantial and distinctive share of the findings. Of all discovered or described taxa, 39 are of hybridogenic origin, mostly nothospecies but including four nothosubspecies, three intergeneric hybrids and two three-species hybrids. Orchidaceae contributed the most hybrid taxa with eight, followed by Lamiaceae and Poaceae with four each. Only seven hybrid taxa have alien origin, and four of those, including Lonicera xmuendeniensis and Symphyotrichum xsalignum, are considered escapes from cultivation in Kyiv botanical gardens and the Syrets Arboretum. Most hybrids were identified from fresh field material, but ten were identified from herbarium specimens, and eight of those were described for the first time for science.
Citizen science platforms are beginning to play a supporting role, although not yet a decisive one. No new species or subspecies of vascular plant has yet been formally described solely on the basis of platform data in Ukraine, but the Astragalus calycinus discovery was made with help from the Plantarium platform, and the occurrence of Tamarix laxa was partially confirmed through observations on iNaturalist. The authors argue that the Ukrainian case carries lessons well beyond the country’s borders: floristic discovery remains a vital component of biodiversity research even in intensively studied temperate floras, and survey efforts focused on underexplored synanthropic and steppe habitats, biogeographic hotspots such as Crimea and the Carpathians, and taxonomically complex groups like Taraxacum, Rubus and Viola, combined with collaboration among professionals, citizen scientists and herbarium curators, can accelerate discovery and strengthen early detection of invasive species in comparable regions worldwide.
Subject of Research: Drivers of vascular plant discoveries in Ukraine from 1997 to 2024
Article Title: Drivers of floristic discovery in a temperate flora: insights from three decades of vascular plant records in Ukraine
Article References: Peregrym, M., Olshanskyi, I., & Zhygalova, S. (2026). Drivers of floristic discovery in a temperate flora: insights from three decades of vascular plant records in Ukraine. Botanical Studies, 67(1), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-026-00492-4
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s40529-026-00492-4
Keywords: floristic discovery, Ukraine, vascular plants, herbarium specimens, synanthropic habitats, Crimea, alien species, hybrids, citizen science, Taraxacum, biodiversity assessment, temperate flora
News Source: Drew Townsend. (October 29, 2026). Three Decades of Plant Discoveries Reveal Ukraine’s Flora Is Far From Fully Known. Scienmag.
