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First global plant list available online

The English Oak, Quercus robur. (RBG Kew)
The English Oak, Quercus robur. (RBG Kew)

The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London have completed the first comprehensive list of world plant species.

The Plant List is available online, and includes the scientific names of all known land plant species.

Missouri Botanical Garden director Peter Wyse Jackson says the list will provide an invaluable resource for research and for the protection of endangered species.

“It does provide for the very first time a comprehensive overview of what plants are on the planet, and provides us with the essential scientific basis on which we can plan conservation actions that are so urgently needed.”

Wyse Jackson says The Plant List will serve as the starting point for an online database of world flora, which will include information on the status of plants, their geographical distributions, and descriptions.

There is no charge to access the list, which is available for anyone to view at www.theplantlist.org.