Kew's Plants and Fungi Symposium Starts June 29: What's On and What to Watch For

Kew is about to turn its new State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2026 report into three days of live debate. The State of the World's Plants and Fungi Symposium runs June 29 to July 1, 2026, a hybrid event at Kew Gardens in London that pulls international researchers together around one question: how digitizing the world's plant and fungal collections is reshaping biodiversity science.

What's on the agenda

The program moves through themed sessions on digitization success stories, new frontiers in specimen science, and turning raw specimen data into biodiversity policy. The one worth flagging for our crowd is a special session on the powers and pitfalls of AI in conservation. That's the exact tension we dug into in our breakdown of the 2026 report: machine learning can sort millions of specimens fast, but it still needs experts to train it and check its work.

Why the fungal world should care

This is the live version of the story Kew has been telling all year. Fungaria, the fungal equivalent of herbaria, are being scanned and put online so researchers anywhere can study specimens that used to require a trip to London. One of the symposium's stated goals is building support to digitize collections in biodiverse, lower-income countries, which is exactly where much of the planet's undescribed fungal life actually lives. Fix the access gap there and you speed up the hunt for the next plastic-eating or medicine-making fungus.

What to actually watch for

In-person and free online registration both closed back in late May, so this isn't a last-minute sign-up. The part worth tracking is the output. Kew says the workshop discussions will be developed into an open-access publication aimed at shaping future biodiversity policy. That document, not the ticket, is the real takeaway. You can follow the discussion as it unfolds under the hashtag #SOTWPF.

Stay in the loop

We'll be reading that publication the moment it drops and breaking down what it means for the fungal world. Want it first? Subscribe to The ShroomSpy Debrief and we'll send the highlights straight to your inbox, no London travel required.