According to the Florida Regulated Plant Index, prepared by Coile, the state considers 339 species endangered and another 66 threatened. The federal government lists 44 species found in the state endangered and 10 threatened, according to the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Fourteen species are considered commercially exploited. Most of the endangered plants are herbs or wildflowers. The loss of those species could be just as critical to humans as the loss of animal species, botanists say, yet they receive little attention.
Botanists can guess why.
With 4,600 species, sometimes it's hard to know where to begin. Botanists say its tough to compete against the high-profile animals for research money to determine exactly where the plants are and what roles they play in ecosystems. The FNAI, a private, nonprofit group affiliated with the Nature Conservancy, is funded to do field research, although very little, and depends on input from other agencies to update its records and track species. But representatives for agencies that might send data to FNAI, said field research and categorization of plants is difficult and time-consuming, making it quite costly. We've done some quick surveys on some of the lands we've managed, but we can't do real detailed surveys because of the cost involved.