Herbaria are a major frontier for species discovery

摘要: Despite the importance of species discovery, processes including collecting, recognizing, and describing new are poorly understood. Data presented for flowering plants, measuring quantitatively lag between date a specimen was collected first time when it subsequently described published. The data from our sample published 1970 2010 show that only 16% were within five years being time. description remaining 84% involved much older specimens, with nearly one-quarter descriptions involving specimens >50 y old. Extrapolation these results suggest that, estimated 70,000 still to be described, more than half already have been stored in herbaria. Effort, funding, research focus should, therefore, directed as examining extant herbarium material collecting field.