The catalogue of seed plants in Yunnan Province Chen Jiahui1*, Deng Tao1, Zhang Daigui2, Yue Jipei1, Zhou Zhuo1, Sun Lu1, Li China Scientific Data Yanbo1, Li Wenqing1, Shi Mingming1, Sun Hang1* Vol.3, No.1, 2018 1. Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, P. R. China; 2. College of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Jishou University, Jishou 416000, P. R. China ARTICLE DOI: * Email: [email protected]; [email protected] 10.11922/csdata.2017.18.zh DATA DOI: Abstract: Species catalogue is the basic biota data of a natural geographical 10.11922/sciencedb.489 region or administrative division, and is the premise of biodiversity research, SUBJECT CATEGORY: Biological sciences conservation and rational utilization. However, due to continuous advances RECEIVED: of plant taxonomy and systematics, as well as different standpoints of September 28, 2017 taxonomists, botanical references have adopted a variety of taxonomic RELEASED: systems and treatments. Species catalogue therefore needs continuous October 27, 2017 updates. This study is based on data collected from taxonomic references PUBLISHED: ranging from monograph, herbarium to field investigation, including Flora February 28, 2018 of Yunnan, Checklist of Yunnan Seed Plants, Flora of China, among others. After rigorous data processing and review, we archived the Catalogue of Seed Plants in Yunnan Province (version 2016). As the most authoritative and accurate data set of seed plants in Yunnan so far, this catalogue is expected to facilitate the research, conservation, and rational utilization of seed plants, providing bases for biodiversity management and relevant policy-making. The data set contains information on 16,064 species, covering 2,392 genera and 253 families of seed plants in Yunnan Province. These include 113 species of gymnosperms (including infraspecies, or 105 species excluding infraspecies) in 25 genera and 9 families, and 15,951 species of angiosperms (including infraspecies, or 14,433 excluding infraspecies) in 2,367 genera and 244 families. The data set consists of four parts of data: family name in Latin, family name in Chinese, scientific name and Chinese name. Keywords: Yunnan; seed plants; catalogue Dataset Profile Title The catalogue of seed plants in Yunnan Province Chen Jiahui, Deng Tao, Zhang Daigui, Le Jipei, Zhou Zhuo, Sun Lu, Li Data authors Yanbo, Li Wenqing, Shi Mingming, Sun Hang Data corresponding Sun Hang ([email protected]); Chen Jiahui - 1 - authors ([email protected]) Geographical scope Yunnan Province (E97°31′～106°12′, N 21°08′～29°15′) Data volume 6.79 MB Data format *.pdf Data service system <http://www.sciencedb.cn/dataSet/handle/489> Cataloguing of Yunnan Biota, Yunnan Provincial Department of Environmental Protection (2016) (530007081508006); Service project of special research institutes of Kunming Institute of Botany, Sources of funding Chinese Academy of Sciences; Plant Big Data Platform and iFlora Project of Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIB2016005). This data set covers 16,064 species of seed plants in 253 families and 2,392 genera (including infraspecies), among which 113 species in 9 families and 25 genera (including infraspecies) are Dataset composition gymnosperms, and 15,951 species in 244 families, 2,367 genera (including infraspecies) are angiosperms. The data set includes information on the plants’ family name in Latin, family name in Chinese, species name in Latin, and species name in Chinese. 1. Introduction Due to its unique geographical location, complex topography and diverse ecological environments, Yunnan Province is home to abundant plants and is known as “Kingdom of the Plants”. Being the intersection zone of the world’s three biodiversity hotspots, namely Eastern Himalaya, Indo-Burma, China’s Southwest Mountains,1–3 the place has attracted extensive attention worldwide. According to the comprehensive biodiversity evaluation criteria proposed by Wan Bentai et al.,4 Yunnan should be ranked among the "abundant". Nationwide, Yunnan is among the top for biodiversity cataloging research, and is an area highly concerned by botanists and environmentalists.5 As biodiversity investigation and research advanced in recent years, numerous new taxa in Yunnan have been discovered and published. While most of them are new species, some are new genera, and some are even elevated to new families according to research advances, such as Borthwickiaceae.6 In recent years, approximately 20 new species in Yunnan were discovered or described each year. With advances in plant taxonomy and systematics, biologists proposed an angiosperm APG system (I-IV) and a new system of gymnosperm based on molecular phylogenetics.7–8 However, debates continue on whether a classification system should be mainly based on molecular or morphological evidence. Meanwhile, due to continuous advances in plant taxonomy, systematics and species cataloging, the scope of families, genera and species are being re-delimited by - 2 - floras such as Flora of Yunnan and Flora of China, which then adopted different plant systems. Varied plant systems and taxonomic treatments are likely to cause inconvenience or even confusion to researchers in life science, agriculture, forestry, medicine, environmental science, as well as to government managers. As plant catalogue is the basis of plant research and conservation, it is important to re-catalogue the plants of Yunnan based on the latest advances on plant taxonomy and systematics. In this study, we integrated the latest advances in plant taxonomy and systematics, consulted taxonomists’ opinions, and re-catalogued the seed plants of Yunnan based on floras such as Flora of China and Flora of Yunnan. A data set of seed plants in Yunnan was compiled – the Catalogue of Seed Plants in Yunnan Province (hereinafter referred to as "CSPY"). 2. Data acquisition and processing method 2.1 Data source The raw data of CSPY were mainly collected from Flora of Yunnan and Checklist of Yunnan Seed Plants. Other sources include: (1) Flora of China, Chinese Seed Plant Dictionary, etc., which recorded plant distribution in Yunnan; (2) latest classification revisions, advances in molecular phylogeny, and new taxa or species discovered in Yunnan since 1984; (3) other publications containing seed plant records in Yunnan, such as local floras, natural reserve biodiversity investigation reports, regional biodiversity monographs (such as The Seed Plants in Subnival Area of Hengduan Mountain), etc.; (4) herbariums of the following institutions: Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KUN); Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (PE); Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CDBI); Institute of Life Sciences, Sichuan University (SZ); Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (HNWP); Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden (HITBC); Yunnan University (YNKU); Southwest Forestry University (SWFC), etc., and some online databases such as Chinese Virtual Herbarium (CVH, www.cvh.ac.cn), National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII, http://www.nsii.org.cn), Chinese Field Herbarium (CFH, http://www.nature-museum.net); and (5) recent field expedition outcomes and expert opinions/advice on specific taxa. We also collected synonyms of the plants’ scientific names not listed in the above-mentioned floras, mainly from Dictionary of Families and Genera of China, The Families and Genera of Angioserms in China: A Comprehensive Review, and other taxonomy-related journals. We also included the name of the species wrongly recorded as distributed in Yunnan and of those unrecorded ones with actual distribution in Yunnan. In addition, we have corrected misspelled names of the species (mainly records from - 3 - Flora of Yunnan, Flora of China, and local floras or monographs) (e.g., Sigesbeckia is misspelled as Siegesbeckia). All of the above-mentioned data have been included for subsequent processing. 2.2 Methods and criteria of data processing (1) Synonym processing We used the following databases for synonym matching and processing: Tropicos (http://www.tropicos.org), The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org), Species 2000 China Node (http://www.sp2000.cn/joaen/index.php), and Flora of China (http://www.efloras.org/flora_page.aspx?flora_id=2). We first searched species names against these databases for possible synonyms. We then manually checked all the synonyms and the unmatched names carefully. A full checklist of seed plants in Yunnan was therefore achieved, coupled with a set of advice on anomaly treatment for further expert review. (2) Taxonomic system selection We delimited the scope of family and genus based on the latest achievements in plant taxonomy and systematics, and hence adopted the APG IV system9 for angiosperm, and the Flora of China system for gymnosperm. (3) Expert opinion as the golden rule Considering taxonomists were experts of a specific plant taxon, we tended to value their opinions over others when treating plant species of their specialization. However, reasons were required when they disagreed on our proposed treatments. (4) Treatment of new species recorded in Flora of Yunnan In Flora of Yunnan, some new species were named and described. For these species, we referred to the original description in the flora to decide whether the new species was legitimate or not. All illegitimate species have been removed. (5) Principles for