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How many species of seed plants are there?
Author(s) -
Scotland Robert W.,
Wortley Alexandra H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/3647306
Subject(s) - floristics , taxon , plant species , biology , ecology , botany
Recent estimates of the number of described species of seed plant have varied by as much as 62%. The underlying methodology of these estimates is characterised and discussed. We present a revised figure for the number of seed plants based on estimating rates of synonymy in a sample of recently monographed taxa. We conclude that some recent figures overestimate the number of described seed plant species by more than 200,000. This discrepancy is explained by an overreliance on checklists and floristic studies that underestimate synonymy rates.