Total Numbers of Accepted Species

354,639 All Species
13,106 Ferns and Lycophytes
928 Gymnosperms
9,774 Basal Angiosperms
70,236 Monocotyledons
260,595 Dicotyledons

Numbers automatically counted during each database import

Only full species counted; hybrids and infrasubspecific taxa (subspecies, varieties etc.) not included!

 

Included: 6.850 currently recognized taxa of uncertain status, tagged as "provisionally accepted" - in average about 50% of them will later keep their status as accepted. Almost half of the provisionally accepted names (2.652) are microspecies in Rubus.

Included: 13.520 microspecies mostly in apomictic genera: Ranunculus auricomus agg. (Ranunculaceae) (941), Rubus fruticosus agg. (Rosaceae) (3.172), Alchemilla (Rosaceae) (695), Sorbus s. l. (Rosaceae) (213), Hieracium and Pilosella (Asteraceae) (5.271), Taraxacum officinale agg. (Asteraceae) (2.389), Limonium (530) and others (182).

Between 700 and 1.500 new species are described each year and subsequently registered in IPNI (trend seems to decline!).

Therefore between 352.000 and 357.000 (including microspecies) is the correct number of currently recognized higher plant species (past 1753), with about 500 - 1000 added each year. About +/- 10.000 tolerance exists, based on differing species concepts (lumping vs. splitting). The real number is probably closer to 352.000 because there still remain some doubtful taxa waiting to be synonymized.

Lugadha et al. (2016) arrive through "extrapolation" at a total of 390.000: clearly too high and nowhere within our "bottom-up", checklist-based numbers.

The total number of non-fossil, higher plant species - including the undescribed ones - will probably not exceed 400.000 by much.