An integrated assessment of the vascular plant species of the Americas

ZARUCCHI, J. L.; JORGENSEN, P. M.; STIMMEL, H.; ZULOAGA, F. O.; VILLASEÑOR, J. L.; NEILL, D. A.; STRONG, M. T.; RAVEN, P. H.; LEÓN, B.; NEE, M.; MAGIL, R. E.; FORZZA, R. C.; LEÓN-YAÑEZ, S.; HOKCHE, O.; ROBBERT GRADSTEIN, S.; BRAKO, L.; DAVIDSE, G.; CELIS, M.; BELGRANO, M. J.; BERRY, P.; BERNAL, R.; ULLOA ULLOA, C.; BECK, S.; ACEVEDO-RODRÍGUEZ, P.

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2017 vol. 358 p. 1614 - 1617

0036-8075

The cataloging of the vascular plants of the Americas has a centuries-long history, but it isonly in recent decades that an overview of the entire flora has become possible.We present anintegrated assessment of all known native species of vascular plants in the Americas.Twelve regional and national checklists, prepared over the past 25 years and including twolarge ongoing flora projects, were merged into a single list. Our publicly searchable checklistincludes 124,993 species, 6227 genera, and 355 families, which correspond to 33% of the383,671 vascular plant species known worldwide. In the past 25 years, the rate at which newspecies descriptions are added has averaged 744 annually for the Americas, and we canexpect the total to reach about 150,000.