World Flora Online Mid-term Update

Abstract

Abstract There are an estimated 400,000 species of vascular plants on Earth, out of which 10% are still to be discovered. These plants, both known and unknown, may hold answers to many of the world's health, social, environmental, and economic problems. A full inventory of plant life is vital if many threatened species are to be protected and if their full potential is to be realized before many of these species, and the possibilities they offer, become extinct. In 2010, the updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) of the United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) included as its first target (Target 1) the need for “an online flora of all known plants.” Bearing this in mind, in January 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., representatives from four institutions—the Missouri Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, all members of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation—took the initiative to mee...