Iraq Kew flora project revived after 25 years on hold

A project to catalogue every plant species in Iraq has been restarted, 25 years after it was put on hold because of the political situation in the country.

Experts from Iraq are once again working with botanists at Kew Gardens in London to finish the reference work Flora of Iraq, the first volume of which was published in 1966.

There are estimated to be around 3,500 plant species in the country but many are not comprehensively documented.

The project aims to complete the final three of nine planned volumes. The most recent was published in 1985.