While the act of discovering a species is often seen as a thrilling moment, newly published research demonstrates the initial encounter is just the beginning of a long process. Understanding what a species represents actually, on average, takes more than a century.

Knowing what plants exist - and where they live - is a prerequisite to conserving global plant diversity. To improve understanding - and, so, meet the targets of initiatives such as the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, a programme of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity - it is necessary to work out how knowledge of plants accumulates over time. And, how it can be continuously updated against the high levels of climate and land use change being witnessed around the world.

To shed light on how knowledge of plant diversity is obtained, botanists from Oxford University and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have measured how long it takes for a new species to be collected, given a name, and for 15 specimens of that species to be obtained and accurately identified.

The group’s study, published in Systematics & Biodiversity, on Thursday, May 7, 2020 shows that discovering plant species takes, on average, 70-100 years. Dr Zoë Goodwin, one of the paper’s authors, explained: “The long time it takes to understand a species, even at a basic level, reflects a lack of capacity in the field of Taxonomy — the science responsible for species discovery.”

Co-author Dr Pablo Munoz Rodriguez added: “Limited taxonomic capacity has important implications for science and policy targets that rely on this information, such as conservation and global biodiversity studies, as they are severely compromised, with knock-on effects for our ability to accurately measure levels of extinction.”

In an era of upheaval, with so much still to achieve, stock needs to be taken of the situation, concluded Dr Goodwin: "More than ever before we need to train new taxonomists and give them the opportunity to build up their expertise, if we are to take on the massive challenge of the biodiversity crisis."

ENDS

Image: Aframomum thonneri first collected in 1909 in Democratic Republic of Congo. The species name was published in 1911. The species remained known only from that one location until 1955 when a second colllection was made. In 1992 Congolese botanist Dr Jean-Baptiste Dhetchuvi identified two more herbarium specimens in Brussels and now it is still only known from the Democratic Republic of Congo and appears very rare growing in four localities. Once all the available specimens from 11 different collections are studied by Harris & Wortley in a comprehensive study in 2018 the species is found to be widespread, in five countries and common and of "least concern" for conservation purposes.

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EDITOR’S NOTES:

How long does it take to discover a species? is published by Systematics and Biodiversity:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TCSPHEVNIY8XENNHIBS6/full?target=10.1080/14772000.2020.1751339

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