Western Australian Flora Statistics 2008

This page provides the user with a set of standard statistics on the size, diversity and endemism of the Western Australian vascular flora as at 1st June 2008.
Back to current floristics page.

Vascular Flora Statistics - June 2008

Analysis of the size of vascular plant divisions for various categories of name
Category Pteridophytes Gymnosperms Monocots Dicots Total
Total names A 141 34 3591 15511 19277
Non-current names B 36 10 1035 3937 5018
Current names C 105 24 2556 11574 14259
Current taxa D 98 24 2412 10608 13142
Current species E 96 24 2250 9600 11970
Manuscript names F 0 0 39 335 374
Phrase names G 0 0 211 975 1186
Published species H 96 24 2024 8464 10608
Published alien species I 8 7 345 811 1171
Published native species J 88 17 1679 7653 9437

Data sourced on 1st June 2008. Compare with the 2009 figures or with the 2007 figures.

A - total number of vascular plant names in the database
B - number of synonymous, excluded or misapplied names (ie. plant names no longer in current use, at least in WA)
C - number of currently accepted plant names (ie. includes the species-level name when infra-species exist)
D - number of currently accepted taxa (ie. excludes the species-level name when infra-species of that taxon exist)
E - number of currently accepted species (ie. only the species-level names, excludes any infra-species names)
F - number of proposed but unpublished species (ie. informal names proposed on specimens or in manuscripts)
G - number of assigned but unpublished species (ie. informal names assigned to specimens for further analysis)
H - number of formally published species names (ie. formally published names described in botanical literature)
I - number of published naturalised alien species (ie. formally published names of weed species occurring in WA)
J - number of published species native to Western Australia (ie. formally published names of native WA species).

2008 Highlights

For the vascular plants, a brief comparison of the 2008 with the 2007 data shows:
  • the addition of 808 names to the Census of Western Australian Plants database;
  • a decrease (-65) in the number of manuscript names in current use, down to 374, most likely due to the excellent publication output in the last year combined with the conversion of many manuscript names to phrase names as part of the Australian Plant Census project;
  • a concomitant increase (+90) in the number of phrase names in current use, up to 1186;
  • a significant increase in the number of published species, up 234 (214 native and 20 alien) to 10,608 species, due in part to the publication of two issues of the Science Division journal Nuytsia late last year, including the special BCI-SOS 'banded ironstone' issue.

Compiler’s Note

While the current contents are manual concatenations of census data, or static tables drawn from recent published works, it is intended that future versions of this page will contain live flora statistics drawn directly from the constantly maintained datasets held at the Western Australian Herbarium. At that time we would also seek to disseminate the standard logic behind the accurate calculation of these statistics. In this way, not only will the latest figures be available at all times, but the correct methodology for calculating and applying those figures will become better understood.

Compiled by Alex Chapman; last updated on 13 June 2008.

Related content

Did you notice?

There is, in general, a diminishing relationship between figures in subsequent rows of the table, as figures in each category are subtracted from the ones above.
    Eg. in each column: A - B = C.


Having trouble deciding ...

... the most appropriate data for your purpose? The highlighted rows are the recommended figures if you need:

  • to cite the actual number of known vascular plant entities in WA D, or
  • a conservative estimate of the number of well-documented vascular plant species H.

'Green's Census'

For those familiar with Green, J.W. (1985) Census of the vascular plants of Western Australia 2nd ed., WA Herbarium, Perth and subsequent supplements, the following four PDF tables are presented in the style of Green's statistical summaries. They provide further details corresponding to row H in the above table. Data also sourced on 1st June 2008.