Mistaken identities of tropical plants raise questions on biodiversity data

Since the 1970s, the world's plant collections have more than doubled, but more than 50 percent of tropical specimens, on average, are likely to be incorrectly named, the study suggests.

"Part of the reason for such rampant misidentification is the huge increase in the number of specimens which have been collected in the last 50 years," says Robert Scotland of the University of Oxford. "The other reason is the lack of expertise in many tropical plant groups. This produces a situation where huge numbers of incoming specimens can overwhelm any efforts to identify them by the few people with the necessary skill."

This discovery has serious implications for the use of specimen data coming out of those natural history collections. That might sound discouraging, but it's a problem that can be tackled.

"We estimate it takes £500 ($750) to revise a species, which means for the cost of one world-class footballer--[such as Barcelona megastar] Lionel Messi--it would be possible to monograph the entire flora of tropical plants," Scotland says.

He and his colleagues say that they are now doing their part by actively exploring new integrated approaches to taxonomy. They've brought their techniques together into something they call "foundation monographs," getting their start with two plant groups (see http://www.springer.com/-/2/AU_yD0s52brxj7RSZdi1 and http://phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=5459).

The findings come as yet another timely reminder of how much there is to learn about biodiversity. "We know so little about the natural world, but we still have a chance to document it properly!" Scotland says.