Euro+Med-Checklist Notulae, 2

This is the second of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. The instalment deals with the families Amaranthaceae, Boraginaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Labiatae, Orobanchaceae, Papaveraceae, Portulacaceae, Ranunculaceae, Vitaceae; Amaryllidaceae, Araceae, Cyperaceae, Gramineae and Potamogetonaceae. It includes new country and area records, taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Amaranthus, Bothriochloa, Carex, Consolida, Corrigiola, Cyperus, Festuca, Fumaria, Heliotropium, Jacobaea, Klasea, Lobularia, Nigella, Orobanche, Papaver, Phelipanche, Pistia, Portulaca, Potamogeton, Spergula, Sternbergia, Teucrium and Vitis, and the validation of names in Amaranthus, Festuca and Spergula

Euro+Med-Checklist Notulae, 14

This is the fourteenth of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Apocynaceae, Compositae, Crassulaceae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, Leguminosae, Nyctaginaceae, Onagraceae, Orobanchaceae, Rubiaceae, Solanaceae and Umbelliferae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Acalypha, Bupleurum, Carex, Datura, Epilobium, Eragrostis, Galium, Leontodon, Mirabilis, Nerium, Orobanche, Phelipanche, Rhinanthus, Saccharum, Sedum, Trifolium, Tripleurospermum and Willemetia

Euro+Med-Checklist Notulae, 15

This is the fifteenth of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Amaranthaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Cactaceae, Campanulaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, Cyperaceae, Dipsacaceae, Leguminosae, Lentibulariaceae, Molluginaceae, Montiaceae, Onagraceae, Orobanchaceae, Pinaceae, Plantaginaceae, Polygalaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Umbelliferae and Violaceae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Acacia, Amaranthus, Bupleurum, Campanula, Carex, Claytonia, Dysphania, Epilobium, Erigeron, Galium, Gelasia, Hieracium, Lathyrus, Lomelosia, Lonicera, Mollugo, Nothoscordum, Opuntia, Orobanche, Picea, Plantago, Polycarpon, Polygala, Rubus, Scorzoneroides, Utricularia, Veronica, Vicia and Viola, and a correction to a previous notula for Trifolium pachycalyx in Greece

Euro+Med-Checklist Notulae, 16

This is the sixteenth of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Caryophyllaceae, Compositae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, Iridaceae, Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Portulacaceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae and Umbelliferae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Bromus, Datura, Daucus, Erigeron, Euphorbia, Iris, Minuartia, Paspalum, Portulaca, Sida and Vigna, and a new combination in Prunus

Placing taxonomists at the heart of a definitive and comprehensive global resource on the world's plants

It is time to synthesize the knowledge that has been generated through more than 260 years of botanical exploration, taxonomic and, more recently, phylogenetic research throughout the world. The adoption of an updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2011 provided the essential impetus for the development of the World Flora Online (WFO) project. The project represents an international, coordinated effort by the botanical community to achieve GSPC Target 1, an electronic Flora of all plants. It will be a first‐ever unique and authoritative global source of information on the world's plant diversity, compiled, curated, moderated and updated by an expert and specialist‐based community (Taxonomic Expert Networks – “TENs” – covering a taxonomic group such as family or order) and actively managed by those who have compiled and contributed the data it includes. Full credit and acknowledgement will be given to the original sources, allowing users to refer back to the primary data. A strength of the project is that it is led and endorsed by a global consortium of more than 40 leading botanical institutions worldwide. A first milestone for producing the World Flora Online is to be accomplished by the end of 2020, but the WFO Consortium is committed to continuing the WFO programme beyond 2020 when it will develop its full impact as the authoritative source of information on the world's plant biodiversity

Contributions to the biodiversity of Vietnam – Results of VIETBIO inventory work and field training in Cuc Phuong National Park

VIETBIO [Innovative approaches to biodiversity discovery and characterisation in Vietnam] is a bilateral German-Vietnamese research and capacity building project focusing on the development and transfer of new methods and technology towards an integrated biodiversity discovery and monitoring system for Vietnam. Dedicated field training and testing of innovative methodologies were undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park as part and with support of the project, which led to the new biodiversity data and records made available in this article collection. VIETBIO is a collaboration between the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN), the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM) and the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN), the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), the Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE), as well as the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB); all Vietnamese institutions belong to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). The article collection "VIETBIO" (https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.coll.63) reports original results of recent biodiversity recording and survey work undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park, northern Vietnam, under the framework of the VIETBIO project. The collection consist of this “main” cover paper – characterising the study area, the general project approaches and activities, while also giving an extensive overview on previous studies from this area – followed by individual papers for higher taxa as studied during the project. The main purpose is to make primary biodiversity records openly available, including several new and interesting findings for this biodiversity-rich conservation area. All individual data papers with their respective primary records are expected to provide useful baselines for further taxonomic, phylogenetic, ecological and conservation-related studies on the respective taxa and, thus, will be maintained as separate datasets, including separate GUIDs also for further updating

Caveats of fungal barcoding: a case study in Trametes s.lat. (Basidiomycota: Polyporales) in Vietnam reveals multiple issues with mislabelled reference sequences and calls for third-party annotations

DNA barcoding using the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) has become prevalent in surveys of fungal diversity. This approach is, however, associated with numerous caveats, including the desire for speed, rather than accuracy, through the use of automated analytical pipelines, and the shortcomings of reference sequence repositories. Here we use the case of a specimen of the bracket fungus Trametes s.lat. (which includes the common and widespread turkey tail, T. versicolor) to illustrate these problems. The material was collected in Vietnam as part of a biodiversity inventory including DNA barcoding approaches for arthropods, plants and fungi. The ITS barcoding sequence of the query taxon was compared against reference sequences in GenBank and the curated fungal ITS database UNITE, using BLASTn and MegaBLAST, and was subsequently analysed in a multiple alignment-based phylogenetic context through a maximum likelihood tree including related sequences. Our results initially indicated issues with BLAST searches, including the use of Frairwise local alignments and sorting through Total score and E value, rather than Percentage identity, as major shortcomings of the DNA barcoding approach. However, after thorough analysis of the results, we concluded that the single most important problem of this approach was incorrect sequence labelling, calling for the implementation of third-party annotations or analogous approaches in primary sequence repositories. In addition, this particular example revealed problems of improper fungal nomenclature, which required reinstatement of the genus name Cubamyces (= Leioirametes), with three new combinations: C. flavidus, C lactineus and C. menziesii. The latter was revealed as the correct identification of the query taxon, although the name did not appear among the best BLAST hits. While the best BLAST hits did correspond to the target taxon in terms of sequence data, their label names were misleading or unresolved, including [Fungal endophyte], [Uncultured fungus], Basidiomycota, Trametes cf. cubensis, Lenzites elegans and Geotrichum candidum (an unrelated ascomycetous contaminant). Our study demonstrates that accurate identification of fungi through molecular barcoding is currently not a fast-track approach that can be achieved through automated pipelines

Euro plus Med-Checklist Notulae, 11

This is the eleventh of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Anacardiaceae, Asparagaceae (incl. Hyacinthaceae), Bignoniaceae, Cactaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Ericaceae, Gramineae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Orobanchaceae, Polygonaceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae and Staphyleaceae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Bidens, Campsis, Centaurea, Cyperus, Drymocallis, Engem, Hoffmannseggia, Hypopitys, Lavandula, Lithraea, Melilotus, Nicotiana, Olimarabidopsis, Opuntia, Orobanche, Phelipanche, Phragmites, Rumex, Salvia, Schinus, Staphylea, and a new combination in Drimia.Peer reviewe

Euro plus Med-Checklist Notulae, 11

This is the eleventh of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Anacardiaceae, Asparagaceae (incl. Hyacinthaceae), Bignoniaceae, Cactaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Ericaceae, Gramineae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Orobanchaceae, Polygonaceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae and Staphyleaceae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Bidens, Campsis, Centaurea, Cyperus, Drymocallis, Erigeron, Hoffmannseggia, Hypopitys, Lavandula, Lithraea, Melilotus, Nicotiana, Olimarabidopsis, Opuntia, Orobanche, Phelipanche, Phragmites, Rumex, Salvia, Schinus, Staphylea, and a new combination in Drimia