A new scientific study reminds us that protecting the Azores also means protecting the fragile green language that has quietly written these islands for thousands of years.
Long before there were churches standing above village squares, before whalers scanned the Atlantic horizon, before vineyards climbed volcanic stone walls or hydrangeas became the familiar signature of the Azorean landscape, there were plants that belonged only to these islands. They arrived through wind, birds, ocean currents, and geological time, adapting patiently to volcanic soils, mist-covered mountains, lava fields, and ancient forests. Over thousands of years they became something extraordinary: species found nowhere else on Earth. They are not merely part of the Azorean landscape. They are the landscape’s oldest inhabitants, the first citizens of these islands, living witnesses to an Atlantic story that began long before human memory. Today, however, science reminds us that this ancient inheritance has become alarmingly fragile.
A comprehensive new study published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports offers one of the clearest assessments ever undertaken of the Azores’ endemic vascular flora, and its conclusions are sobering. Applying the internationally recognized criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), researchers found that nearly two-thirds—60.9 percent—of the endemic plants evaluated now fall into threatened categories, ranging from Vulnerable to Endangered and Critically Endangered. The study represents the first comprehensive Red List assessment of the archipelago’s endemic vascular plants and establishes a scientific baseline from which future conservation efforts can be measured. Its findings remind us that while the Azores remain one of Europe’s great natural treasures, that treasure cannot be taken for granted.
The research examined ninety-four endemic plant species and subspecies—plants that occur naturally only in the Azores—and drew upon more than 10,600 validated occurrence records, herbarium collections, and extensive field surveys carried out across the islands. After excluding species for which insufficient data currently exist, researchers determined that fifty of the eighty-two fully assessed taxa are facing significant extinction risks. Particularly striking is the predominance of species classified as Endangered, suggesting that many plants are not merely declining but approaching thresholds beyond which recovery may become increasingly difficult.
Perhaps the study’s most heartbreaking conclusion is its confirmation that two endemic plants—Vicia dennesiana and Armeria maritima subsp. azorica—must now be considered extinct. Despite repeated targeted field surveys in the locations where they were once known to grow, neither species could be found. Equally troubling is the absence of preserved living specimens in botanical gardens or seed banks that might one day allow their reintroduction. Their disappearance is permanent, representing not simply the loss of two plants but the irreversible erasure of unique chapters in the biological history of the Atlantic.
Extinction always carries a profound silence. When an endemic species disappears, the world loses something it can never recreate. No laboratory, however sophisticated, can restore thousands of years of independent evolution. No technological innovation can reproduce the intricate relationship between a species and the volcanic landscape that shaped it across millennia. Each extinction diminishes not only biodiversity but also humanity’s understanding of life’s extraordinary capacity for adaptation and resilience.
The causes identified by the researchers are neither mysterious nor unexpected. Invasive non-native species continue to exert enormous pressure upon native ecosystems, often overwhelming plants that evolved in relative isolation and therefore possess limited natural defenses against aggressive competitors. Equally significant has been the transformation of native habitats over centuries, particularly through the expansion of pastureland associated with livestock production. These changes have fundamentally altered landscapes that once supported unique plant communities, fragmenting habitats and reducing already small populations to isolated remnants.
The paradox is striking. The Azores are internationally celebrated for their spectacular natural beauty. Visitors travel thousands of miles to experience crater lakes, volcanic peaks, dense forests, dramatic coastlines, and luxuriant vegetation. Yet much of what appears green is not necessarily native. Over centuries, introduced species have transformed large portions of the landscape, often obscuring the far older botanical heritage that first defined these islands. Behind every postcard image lies a quieter ecological story: one in which endemic plants struggle for survival amid increasingly altered ecosystems.
The researchers also identified eighty areas across the archipelago that contain particularly high concentrations of endemic plant diversity. Their spatial analysis revealed an important challenge for conservation policy. Several of these biologically rich areas remain only partially protected under existing legislation, while others receive no legal protection at all. This finding carries important implications for future environmental planning. Protected areas have long formed the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, but effective protection depends not simply upon designation; it requires that the right places receive the right level of management before irreversible losses occur.
Consequently, the study calls for a comprehensive strategy that extends beyond traditional conservation measures. Expanding legal protection, controlling invasive species, restoring degraded habitats, strengthening ecological monitoring, and incorporating additional endemic plants into regional and European conservation frameworks all become essential components of safeguarding the islands’ natural inheritance. These are not merely scientific recommendations. They represent practical expressions of an ethical responsibility toward landscapes that exist nowhere else on Earth.
The Red List Index calculated by the researchers—0.602 on a scale where one represents complete security and zero represents total extinction—captures this delicate balance between hope and urgency. It is neither a declaration of inevitable loss nor a reason for complacency. Rather, it serves as a reminder that conservation is ultimately measured not by intentions but by outcomes. Scientific knowledge provides society with the ability to act before decline becomes disappearance.
Yet beyond the statistics lies a deeper philosophical question. What does it mean to inherit an island? Too often we imagine inheritance in terms of language, architecture, music, cuisine, and historical memory. These are unquestionably central to Azorean identity. But the islands also inherit something far older: ecosystems shaped over geological time, forests that evolved in isolation, and plants that learned to thrive upon young volcanic rock while much of human civilization had yet to emerge. Their survival is part of the same cultural inheritance that has produced the Holy Spirit festivals, whaling traditions, stone vineyards, and generations of island communities.
For the Azores, biodiversity is not an abstract environmental concern separate from society. It is inseparable from the identity of the islands themselves. Endemic plants stabilize volcanic soils, support native birds and insects, regulate water cycles, and sustain ecological relationships that have developed over countless generations. They also remind islanders of a profound truth: human history occupies only the most recent chapter of a much longer Atlantic narrative.
There is reason for optimism as well. The very existence of this landmark assessment demonstrates the remarkable growth of Azorean scientific research over recent decades. The collaboration between the University of the Azores, the Azorean Biodiversity Group, CIBIO, BIOPOLIS, LIFE IP AZORES NATURA, the Natural History Museum in London, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and numerous international researchers reflects the global significance of the archipelago’s biodiversity. The Azores have become not merely subjects of scientific inquiry but leaders in island conservation research, contributing knowledge with relevance far beyond their own shores.
Ultimately, every generation receives two landscapes. One is inherited from those who came before. The other is the landscape it chooses to leave behind. The study published in Scientific Reports quietly asks which of those two landscapes the Azores wish future generations to inherit. Will the forests continue to shelter species found nowhere else on Earth? Will children still encounter plants that evolved only on these volcanic islands? Will the silent green language of the Atlantic continue to speak?
The answers depend not upon science alone but upon collective will. Conservation begins with knowledge, but it succeeds only when knowledge becomes stewardship. The endemic flora of the Azores has survived volcanic eruptions, storms, isolation, and centuries of change. Whether it survives the twenty-first century now depends largely upon the choices made by those who call these islands home.
For in the end, protecting the Azores means protecting more than scenery. It means safeguarding a living library written leaf by leaf across thousands of years—a library whose oldest pages can never be rewritten once they are lost.
Based on a story in Diário dos Açores-Paulo Viveiros, director. Photo from DA.
