2016/05/20 by Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, James W. Byng · 42 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Bryophyte Studies and Records #Plant and animal studies #Plant Parasitism and Resistance
paper · pdf · doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1
openalex publication_date 2016/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have counted the currently known, described and accepted number of plant species as ca 374,000, of which approximately 308,312 are vascular plants, with 295,383 flowering plants (angiosperms; monocots: 74,273; eudicots: 210,008). Global numbers of smaller plant groups are as follows: algae ca 44,000, liverworts ca 9,000, hornworts ca 225, mosses 12,700, lycopods 1,290, ferns 10,560 and gymnosperms 1,079. Phytotaxa is currently contributing more than a quarter of the ca 2000 species that are described every year, showing that it has become a major contributor to the dissemination of new species discovery. However, the rate of discovery is slowing down, due to reduction in financial and scientific support for fundamental natural history studies.