Format: ORAL

Eckhard von Raab-Straube

Freie Universität Berlin, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin, Germany

Euro+Med PlantBase (E+M), a long-term project founded in the year 2000, has developed into a well-known standard resource for information on systematics, nomenclature and distribution of vascular plants and bryophytes in Europe and the Mediterranean region. At present, E+M contains more than 45,000 taxa, over 150,000 scientific names, nearly 150,000 common names in more than 40 languages, and ca. 380,000 source-referenced distribution records. The data are open access and can be retrieved through the Euro+Med Data Portal (https://europlusmed.org/), online in its present form since 2020. E+M provides a permanently updated taxonomic backbone and a dynamic checklist for native and alien plants in Europe, the Caucasus, the circum-Mediterranean countries and the Macaronesian archipelagos. Distribution is given for areas which correspond to all countries and most larger islands of the region. E+M is currently maintained by an informal consortium of participating European institutions, with the secretariat at the Botanic Garden Berlin since 2004. The editorial team of E+M continuously updates the systematic treatments of the checklist and adds new or corrects existing records. Initially based on Flora Europaea and integrating information from all taxonomic and floristic literature sources from the area, E+M is the most comprehensive resource on accumulated historical and actual floristic data at country level of the Euro-Mediterranean region. It keeps track of the newest publications in plant systematics and evolution, nomenclature and floristics, thus ensuring that the database is up-to-date in every respect. At present, approximately 200 taxa a year are added which are described as new to science from the E+M area. E+M also contributes taxonomic and distribution data to the World Flora Online (WFO) and links to other major online resources, thereby serving as a gateway to European and Mediterranean flora portals.