GLOBAL PLANT INVENTORY CUTS 600,000 SPECIES RECORDS
Baku, September 20 (AZERTAC). The inventory of plants known to science worldwide has been cut by more than 600,000 species, according to BBC News.
Many plants have been named more than once, so for the past two years, scientists have been developing an accurate record of the world`s plants.
The ongoing study involves UK and US researchers, who expect the final number of recorded species appearing on the Plant List to be closer to 400,000.
The list, to help plant conservation, will be published later this year.
“Without accurate names - authoritatively determined - understanding and communication about global plant life would descend into inefficient chaos,” said Stephen Hooper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew - one of the organizations involved in the project.
In partnership with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Kew Gardens have been working on the project, which aims to provide a working list of all plants species in an effort to support plant conservation around the world.
It involves taking records from existing plant databases and producing a single, global inventory that removes duplications and errors - something that is not available at the moment.
The latest developments were outlined during the fourth Global Botanic Gardens Congress, which was held in Dublin in June.
The researchers involved in the Plant List are aware that is not without its own problems.
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