Western Australian Flora Statistics

This page provides the user with a set of standard statistics on the size, diversity and endemism of the Western Australian vascular flora.

Current Statistics - Vascular Flora - June 2009

Analysis of the size of vascular plant divisions for various categories of name
Category Pteridophytes Gymnosperms Monocots Dicots Total
Total names A 141 35 3635 15720 19531
Non-current names B 36 11 1062 4111 5210
Current names C 105 24 2573 11609 14311
Current taxa D 98 24 2430 10661 13213
Current alien taxa    8 7 352 832 1199
Current native taxa    90 17 2078 9829 12014
Current species E 96 24 2271 9669 12060
Manuscript names F 0 0 39 264 303
Phrase names G 0 0 222 1000 1222
Published species H 96 24 2035 8569 10724
Published alien species I 8 7 343 818 1176
Published native species J 88 17 1692 7751 9548

Notes

Data sourced on 1st June 2009. Compare with the 2008 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F - number of proposed but unpublished species (ie.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G - number of assigned but unpublished species (ie.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).

2009 Highlights

For the vascular plants, a brief comparison of the 2009 with the 2008 data shows:

Other Collections Statistics

Data sourced on Monday, 1 June 2009. Other core statistics often required for citation in various works include the number of:


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 3 June 2009.