Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas.
Nigel C A PitmanTomomi SuwaCarmen Ulloa UlloaJames MillerJames SolomonJuliana PhilippCorine F VriesendorpAbigail Derby LewisSinem PerkPierre BonnetAlexis JolyMathias W ToblerJason H BestJohn P JanovecKevin C NixonBarbara M ThiersMelissa TuligEdward E GilbertRafaela Campostrini ForzzaGeraldo ZimbrãoFabiana Luiza Ranzato FilardiRobert TurnerFernando O ZuloagaManuel J BelgranoChristian A ZanottiJurriaan M de VosEduardo Luiz Hettwer GiehlC E Timothy PaineRubens Texeira de QueirozKatya RomolerouxEverton Hilo de SouzaPublished in: Nature plants (2021)
Field photographs of plant species are crucial for research and conservation, but the lack of a centralized database makes them difficult to locate. We surveyed 25 online databases of field photographs and found that they harboured only about 53% of the approximately 125,000 vascular plant species of the Americas. These results reflect the urgent need for a centralized database that can both integrate and complete the photographic record of the world's flora.