Twice the number of plants have been driven to extinction in the last 250 years than all the birds, mammals and amphibians combined, a 30 year research project has found.

Scientists, including experts from The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, discovered that 571 species have completely disappeared in the wild since the middle of the 18th century.

Kew botanist Rafael Govaerts has spent the last 30 years reviewing all publications on plant extinctions and found the number was four times more than are registered in current listings, with species disappearing at 500 times the natural rate.

Many have been eradicated through man-made habitat loss, such as the Hieracium Hethlandiae, a small yellow flower wiped out through overgrazing by sheep and quarrying on Shetland.

Mr Govaerts said: “It’s very bad. We’re already past a runaway point. Every species that becomes extinct is supporting other organisms that also become extinct at the same time, and many we don’t even know about it before it happens.

“The English oak for example, if it were to go extinct, there are around 400 species and animals that rely on it so the implications are far wider than just losing one species of plant.