Checklist of the flowering plants of the island of Rodrigues, Indian Ocean

Claudia Baider1

1 The Mauritius Herbarium, RE Vaughan Building, MSIRI compound, 80835, Reduit, Mauritius

Corresponding author(s): Claudia Baider (mauritiusherbarium@gmail.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Baider C (2018): Checklist of the flowering plants of the island of Rodrigues, Indian Ocean. v1.1. The Mauritius Herbarium. Dataset/Checklist. https://cloud.gbif.org/bid/resource?r=rodrigues_checklist&v=1.1

Abstract

This dataset is the checklist of the native flowering species of the island of Rodrigues, Indian Ocean. This checklist is prepared by The Mauritius Herbarium, using information from the ‘Flore des Mascareignes’and newer published literature. It lists the valid name of recognised native flowering species following APG IV (2016). It includes possible native species - those species that include Mauritius in their range of distribution and are known not to have been introduced. Next versions are going to include vernacular names, known synonyms used in the Mascarenes and origin (endemic, native, probably native), and source (publication citation).

This databasing effort has been funded by BID Africa Call 2017, grant BID-AF2017-SMA_0316 (https://www.gbif.org/project/aRCxBBF1BYU2C0us62ea4/getting-the-plants-to-all-dissemination-of-information-from-the-collection-of-the-mauritius-herbarium.)

This first version of this checklist is a step towards a comprehensive updated and curated list of the native flowering plants species of the island of Rodrigues. The most recent flora of Rodrigues is being published under the collaboration of Mauritius, France and the UK, under series ‘Flore des Mascareignes”. The first volume of the series was published in 1976, with three volumes in preparation (Poaceae and Cyperaceae that are expected soon, and Orchidaceae). 

It is expected that an update and curated list will support the scientific community, the Mauritius Government (Rodrigues is part of the Republic of Mauritius) and also the general public. Rodrigues is one of the most ecologically devasted islands in the world,and has one of the most threatened flora in the world, therefore good quality information is essential to decision makers and conservationist.

Keywords: Checklist, Angiosperms, Magnoliophyta, Basal angiosperms, Core angiosperms, Rodrigues

Project details

Project title: Checklist of the flowering plants of the island of Mauritius, Indian Ocean
Personnel: Claudia Baider
Funding: BID Africa Call 2017, grant BID-AF2017-0316-SMA
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Island of Rodrigues, Republic of Mauritius, Indian Ocean

Data published through GBIF: https://cloud.gbif.org/bid/resource?r=rodrigues_checklist

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: This checklist covers the native flowering plants recorded for the island of Mauritius. The core taxa considered are species only. All taxa follows APG IV (2016) for families, and genus and species follows the Flore des Mascareignes (Bosser et al 1976-onwards), expect when supersede by more recent literature. Species within the Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Orchidaceae are based on drafts of the Flore des Mascareignes. Some taxon are at genus level either because they have been recognise as a different species but the material available is poor for a proper description or they are currently being described.

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Island of Rodrigues
Coordinates: 19°46'57.98''S and 19°39'30.52''S Latitude; 63°18'5.13''E and 63°30'25.72''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 1753 - 2018

Methods

Method step description: After selecting a native species using literature cited above, its name and authority is stored in BRAHMS. Taxon name and authority are than validated using multiple online resources as specified above.
Study extent description: Recorded native flowering plants of the island of Rodrigues
Sampling description: Information for include a species as native is sampled manually from the Flore des Mascareignes (Bosser et al 1976-onwards) and newer publications. Other sources as previous floras of Rodrigues(Balfour 1877), monographs and other scientific literature are also used. The database is constructed in BRAHMS v7.
Quality control description: Taxon name and authority derived from the Flore des Mascareignes (Bosser et al 1976-onwards) were validated against Tropicos (http://www.tropicos.org), IPNI (http://www.ipni.org), GBIF (http://www.gbif.org/), WCSP (http://wcsp.science.kew.org/) or recent scientific publications. 

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Checklist of the flowering plants of the island of Rodrigues, Indian Ocean
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://cloud.gbif.org/bid/archive.do?r=rodrigues_checklist
Publication date of data: 2019-01-28
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-12-31
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Balfour IB (1877) Aspects of the phænogamic vegetation of Rodrigues, with descriptions of new plants from the island. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 16 (89): 7-25.

Bosser J, Cadet T, Guého J and Marais W (1976-onwards) Flore des Mascareignes: La Réunion, Maurice, Rodrigues. 26 vols. Mauritius, Francce, MSIRI/Kew/ORSTOM-IRD.