The Plant List

The Plant List
Name	The Plant List
Type	Online database
Country	United Kingdom
Established	2010
Creators	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Missouri Botanical Garden
Format	Digital checklist
Subject	Vascular plants and bryophytes

The Plant List was a collaborative international checklist created to provide a working inventory of botanical names for vascular plants and bryophytes. It was compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden to address the proliferation of synonyms and unresolved names in floristic and conservation work. Intended as a baseline reference, the project aimed to support institutions such as the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and botanical gardens, herbaria, and floras worldwide.

History

The initiative originated from discussions between Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden linked to global plant conservation agendas promoted at events like the World Summit on Sustainable Development and initiatives under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Work accelerated after meetings involving representatives from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The database was announced in 2010 following inputs from national herbaria including the Natural History Museum, London and the New York Botanical Garden. Development drew on historical projects such as the Index Kewensis and later digitization efforts at institutions like the Herbarium of the University of California, Berkeley and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Funding and technical support involved organizations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and bilateral collaborations with universities such as Washington University in St. Louis.

Scope and Content

The checklist aggregated names for seed plants, ferns, lycophytes, and bryophytes from major datasets including IPNI (the International Plant Names Index), regional floras, and institutional monographs. Coverage emphasized accepted species names, synonyms, and unresolved names with data fields for author citations and publication details tied to bibliographic resources like Curtis's Botanical Magazine and the historic Species Plantarum by Carl Linnaeus. Geographical breadth spanned global floras from regions documented by institutions such as the Botanic Gardens Conservation International and national checklists maintained by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Plant List presented taxon status categories—"accepted", "synonym", "unresolved"—to assist users ranging from curators at the Field Museum to policymakers at the United Nations.

Compilation Methodology

Data integration relied on merging authoritative databases through algorithms and editorial curation by taxonomists at partner institutions. Source datasets included those from the International Plant Names Index, the Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, and the Missouri Botanical Garden's Tropicos database. Technical work built upon digital library practices from projects like the Biodiversity Heritage Library and informatics frameworks developed at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Names were reconciled using heuristic matching of binomials and author citations, then reviewed against nomenclatural codes such as the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants adjudicated by the International Botanical Congress. Contributors included curators and taxonomists affiliated with institutions like the Natural History Museum, London, Kew, and regional herbaria in Australia, South Africa, and Brazil.

Taxonomic Concepts and Nomenclature

The project navigated complex issues around species concepts and nomenclatural validity by adhering to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants while recognizing divergent treatments by monographic works and regional floras. Taxonomic decisions were often influenced by authorities represented in the database, including revisions published in journals such as Taxon, Kew Bulletin, and the Annals of Botany. The Plant List provided standardized author abbreviations consistent with entries in the International Plant Names Index and reflected historical typification practices stemming from the work of figures like Carl Linnaeus and later revisions codified at International Botanical Congress meetings. However, the checklist did not universally adopt phylogenetic conceptions advanced in molecular studies published in journals like Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

Data Quality, Limitations, and Criticism

Users and reviewers noted strengths in global scope but also highlighted limitations: uneven coverage of some families and regions, reliance on legacy datasets, and a static snapshot that could not keep pace with ongoing taxonomic revisions published in outlets such as Nature, Science, and specialist monographs. Criticism from taxonomists at institutions including the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the New York Botanical Garden focused on unresolved names, inconsistencies in synonymy, and limited provenance tracking for certain name decisions. The project’s methodology, while transparent in part, left room for improved editorial workflows as advocated by initiatives like the Open Data movement and standards promoted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. These limitations spurred calls for dynamic, versioned checklists and better integration with nomenclatural repositories such as the International Plant Names Index and regional databases.

Legacy, Impact, and Successors

Despite constraints, the checklist influenced botanical infrastructure, informing conservation assessments by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, national red lists, and digitization priorities at herbaria including the Natural History Museum, London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It served as a stimulus for successor projects emphasizing currency and community curation, notably the World Flora Online consortium, which involved partners including Botanic Gardens Conservation International and expanded on collaborative models developed by Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden. The Plant List’s dataset informed biodiversity informatics platforms such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and regional initiatives tied to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and its legacy persists in workflows adopted by botanical institutions worldwide.

Category:Botanical databases