Trees of India Version 1: Standardization to Records in World Flora Online and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, with matches in GlobalTreeSearch and GlobalUsefulNativeTrees

The Trees of India (ToI, Version-I) includes data on 3708 tree species distributed across 35 states/union territories of India. The database is based on systematic review of 313 literature sources published from 1872-2022.This compendium is available via Figshare and was described by Mugal et al. 2023:

• Khuroo, Anzar Ahmad; Mugal, Muzamil Ahmad; Wani, Sajad Ahmad (2023). ToI, Ver.-I : Trees of India, Version-I. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23226281.v1
• Mugal, M.A., Wani, S.A., Dar, F.A. et al. Bridging global knowledge gaps in biodiversity databases: a comprehensive data synthesis on tree diversity of India. Biodivers Conserv 32, 3089–3107 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02659-y

Here I provide direct and fuzzy matches for taxa listed with accepted plant names in World Flora Online (version 2023.03; Borsch et al. 2020) and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP version 10; Govaerts et al. 2021). Matching was done in R through the WorldFlora package (Kindt 2020). The taxonomic standardization process was similar to the one completed during the preparation of the third major release of the Agroforestry Species Switchboard and when preparing the GlobalUsefulNativeTrees database (GlobUNT; https://worldagroforestry.org/output/globalusefulnativetrees).

After matching species with the WCVP, information was compiled on the native distribution documented in the WCVP for level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions that correspond to India, including India (IND), Assam (ASS), West Himalaya (WHM), East Himalaya (EHM), Laccadive Is. (LDV), Andaman Is. (AND) and Nicobar Is. (NCB). Also included after matching with the WCVP is information on the geographic area, lifeform and main biome. Similar information is available when searching for species from Plants of the World Online.

Where a matching species was found in GlobalTreeSearch (Beech et al. 2017; https://tools.bgci.org/global_tree_search.php; accessed on 28th June 2023) filtered for India, the species name in GlobalTreeSearch is shown. Note that GlobalTreeSearch documents the native country distribution of tree species.

Where a matching species was found in the GlobalUsefulNativeTrees database (GlobUNT, version 2023.11) filtered for India, the species name in the GlobUNT database is shown. GlobUNT has been described in the following publication: Kindt et al. (2023) GlobalUsefulNativeTrees, a database of 14,014 tree species, supports synergies between biodiversity recovery and local livelihoods in restoration. Sci Rep 13, 12640. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39552-1.

See the metadata for information on versions.

• Borsch, T., Berendsohn, W., Dalcin, E., Delmas, M., Demissew, S., Elliott, A., Fritsch, P., Fuchs, A., Geltman, D., Güner, A., Haevermans, T., Knapp, S., le Roux, M.M., Loizeau, P.-A., Miller, C., Miller, J., Miller, J.T., Palese, R., Paton, A., Parnell, J., Pendry, C., Qin, H.-N., Sosa, V., Sosef, M., von Raab-Straube, E., Ranwashe, F., Raz, L., Salimov, R., Smets, E., Thiers, B., Thomas, W., Tulig, M., Ulate, W., Ung, V., Watson, M., Jackson, P.W. and Zamora, N. (2020), World Flora Online: Placing taxonomists at the heart of a definitive and comprehensive global resource on the world's plants. TAXON, 69: 1311-1341. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12373
• Govaerts, R., Nic Lughadha, E., Black, N. et al. The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Sci Data 8, 215 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00997-6
• E. Beech, M.Rivers, S. Oldfield & P. P. Smith (2017)GlobalTreeSearch: The first complete global database of tree species and country distributions, Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 36:5, 454-489, DOI: 10.1080/10549811.2017.1310049
• Kindt, R. 2020. WorldFlora: An R package for exact and fuzzy matching of plant names against the World Flora Online taxonomic backbone data. Applications in Plant Sciences 8(9): e11388. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps3.11388

The developments of this dataset and GlobUNT were supported by the Darwin Initiative to project DAREX001 of Developing a Global Biodiversity Standard certification for tree-planting and restoration.