Today the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species released its first update for 2026, publishing over 1,200 new tree species assessments and reassessments. Highlights from this update include the publication of species from the Neotropics and India, and Sorbus species from the UK and Ireland.

In December 2025, a group of experts from across the UK met to share their knowledge to reassess UK species of Sorbus. Participants from Natural England, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the National Botanic Garden of Wales and experts in Sorbus came together in a workshop organized by Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum and Botanic Gardens Conservation International as part of the Global Tree Assessment.

Known as whitebeams, rowans, and service trees, there are 42 species of Sorbus only found in the UK and Ireland and almost all of them were assessed as threatened with extinction in 2016. For the majority of species, the reassessments have the same final Red List category, however, due to surveying over the last ten years, up-to-date population counts could be added to several assessments.