Name and synonymy resources
We work with collaborators around the globe to maintain authoritative resources of plant and fungal nomenclature and classification. Find the correct name and taxonomic classification of a species you are working on. Retrieve other names and publication information for that species.
Plant and fungal taxonomy
World Checklist of Vascular Plants
Contains accepted names and over 1,020,000 synonyms for more than 343,000 plant species. It is the most comprehensive and actively curated dataset on plant taxonomy, created in collaboration with scientists from around the globe. Taxonomic information from WCVP is used in Plants of the World Online, Kew’s online resource providing images, uses, descriptions, distribution data for plant species.
Species Fungorum
Contains accepted names for over 160,000 synonyms for more than 149,000 fungal species. It is the longest running, most comprehensive and actively curated datasets on fungal taxonomy, created in collaboration with scientists from around the globe.
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
Covering about half of the plant families from WCVP (encompassing around 140,000 species) that have been peer reviewed and supplemented with distribution data and bibliographic references that indicate their taxonomic history. We are working to complete reviews of all families at which point WCSP will be discontinued as a separate resource and its contents incorporated within WCVP.
Plant and fungal nomenclature
The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) and Index Fungorum (IF) provide scientific names, and information on where they were published, who published them and if they comply with the rules set out in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN, Shenzhen code; San Juan Chapter F). For accepted names of a species, please use the taxonomic resources described above.
