As the world is rushing towards a sixth great extinction, scientists and experts across the world are racing against the time to capture the genetic evidence from the plants all over the world.

A project was also launched on Wednesday to collect the genomes of the major plant groups within the next two years and put them into deep freeze.

It has been said that the newly launched project is part of the Global Genome Initiative. Its major aim is to collect and preserve the DNA of all life on Earth in cryo-storage facilities.

The project might appear frightening, but scientists heading the project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of natural History said it will take only few months time to gather samples from half of the world’s plant groups.

The researcher said this because they are already growing those samples in botanic gardens, and rest most of them can be found within a five-mile radius of Washington, DC.

There are nearly 500 plant families and more than 13, 000 genera within those groups, said researchers. They said this task is very necessary because some species are on the verge of extinction.

Scientists have also warned that earth has entered its sixth mass extinction. The last such extinction event killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

John Kress, interim Under Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution, said, “It's not just plants - it's plants, animals and micro-organisms. Everything that is alive and living in a natural habitat is now being threatened by degradation of those habitats primarily because of what we're doing as humans”.