The researchers at Meise are taxonomical experts in the field of plants of the coffee family, spokesman Koen Es explained. Taxonomy is the science of describing species correctly and according to internationally-agreed rules so that other scientists can recognise them. Not only do the garden's researchers take part in expeditions to places like Central Africa and Madagascar, they also work on comparing the DNA of ostensibly new species with the garden's four-million-specimen collection of dried plants and 18,000-specimen collection of living plants.
Among the other new species chosen for the IISE top 10 are a "mother fish" found in fossil form and named after the BBC's David Attenborough; a "ghost slug" with teeth-like blades found in a garden in Wales; and the smallest seahorse ever found, only 13 millimetres long.
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