Format: ORAL

Victoria Sosa

Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología AC, Xalapa, Mexico

Mexico is a megadiverse country with an elevated diversity of species of vascular plants. A comprehensive Flora that includes all of the vascular plants distributed in Mexico does not yet exist. Electronic Floras have demonstrated the value of a compendium based on existing knowledge and published Floras, checklists and revisions. The objective here is to summarize and evaluate the taxonomic and digital resources and the bioinformatic tools needed to develop an online Flora for the vascular plants of Mexico, as well as to discuss its content. Organization of this project will follow World Flora Online. It will be based on approximately 5.3 million specimens deposited in Mexican herbaria, with an inter-operational portal to other biodiversity platforms. The name assigned to this online flora is eFloraMEX. The main challenges to completing this Flora are building the team, training taxonomists, digitizing the specimens for most of Mexican herbaria and obtaining the required long-term funding.