This photo was taken by Solofo Rakotoarisoa, at one of the few remaining wild populations of Aloe fragilis.

We hope that our updated tool can help track the international traffic of Aloe plants better. In doing so, we can hopefully put an end to succulent poaching and reinforce conservation.

Finally, we could identify plants intercepted by customs at London Heathrow airport. Among 10 plants that we screened, we already found one critically endangered aloe from Madagascar... This small aloe is aptly called Aloe fragilis and has been threatened by habitat destruction due to mining.

This database was also used to make a much-needed update to the systematic classification of aloes. Just out in @annbot.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...
This revealed very interesting geographic patterns in the evolution of aloes and made us more confident in identifying these plants.

We then built a big database with >300 species using living collections from botanical gardens, and herbarium collections from large natural history museums. Many thanks to collections @rbgkew.bsky.social, Herbarium East Africa, @mnhn.fr, @thebotanics.bsky.social and many global collaborators!

This was not straightforward in aloes, where species are very similar to each other, in terms of their genomes. We had to use 189 nuclear genes, that can now be sequenced with a customised target capture sequencing kit (doi.org/10.1038/s415...), to reveal useable differences between species.

That is where DNA barcoding comes to the rescue: DNA sequences help us discern patterns that are unique to each species. By comparing DNA sequences from unidentified plants to a verified reference database, we can determine which species the plant belonged to. And whether the trade is illegal.

Thankfully, aloes are protected under the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES). This means that it is illegal to trade plants across borders without a permit. Some traders still try of course, but how do you proof that they are transporting threatened species?

The conservation status of aloes (and succulents in general) is very worrying. More than a third of all (600+) Aloe species are currently threatened with extinction due to habitat destruction. Illegal international succulent trade is putting further pressure on these plants. It is time to stop this!

Very grateful for the collaborations with my former PhD supervisors Olwen Grace and @ninaronsted.bsky.social, tropical succulent horticulturalist Paul Rees, and very knowledgeable Aloe taxonomists Gideon Smith, Ronell Klopper and Solofo Rakotoarisoa!

The production of this immense molecular phylogeny was possible thanks to amazing Aloe collections @rbgkew.bsky.social @thebotanics.bsky.social @nhmdk.bsky.social @mnhn.fr, East Africa Herbarium Nairobi, South African National Biodiversity Institute and many other botanic gardens and herbaria.

Very grateful to Gerard Shouten and Bart Wernaart
@fontys.bsky.social for this opportunity. And for @stockholm-uni.bsky.social @bolincentre.bsky.social to support me in continuing my urban plant ecology research.

@barbaragravendeel.bsky.social and I contributed a chapter on the potential value of AI in studying urban plant diversity. We discuss the current evidence on urban plant evolution and how AI tools can help trace trends in demographics and phenology. @niooknaw.bsky.social @naturalis.bsky.social

Very nice to publish this with @botsocamerica.bsky.social where fundamental plant science is right at home. Can't wait to further discuss with the botanical community how to tackle these challenging but fun groups of plants.