DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4b8gthtd1
title: Data from: The patterns of vascular plant discoveries in China

description: Aim 1. To understand geographic patterns of species discovery by examining
 the effect of growth form, range size, and geographic distribution on
 discovery probability of vascular plant species in China. 2. To find out
 which taxa harbor the largest number of undiscovered species and where
 those species locate. 3. To find out the determinants of province-level
 mean discovery time and inventory completeness. Location: China Methods We
 compiled the discovery time and province-level geographic distributions of
 ~31000 vascular plant species described between 1753 and 2013 from Flora
 of China. We used a Cox proportional hazard model to determine the
 biological and geographic correlates of discovery probability.
 Accumulation curves of species discoveries were fitted by a logistic
 discovery model to estimate inventory completeness of different growth
 forms and of different provinces. We then used linear regression to
 identify the determinants of mean discovery time, and beta regression to
 identify the determinants of inventory completeness. Results We found that
 species with larger range size and distributed in northeastern part of
 China have a higher discovery probability. Coastal species were discovered
 earlier than inland species. Trees and shrubs of seed plants have the
 highest discovery probability while ferns have the lowest discovery
 probability. Herbs have the largest number of undiscovered species in
 China. Most undiscovered species will be found in southwest China, where
 three global biodiversity hotspots locate. Spatial patterns of mean
 discovery time and inventory completeness are mainly driven by the total
 number of species, human population density in an area, latitude and
 longitude of a province. Main conclusions Socio-economic factors primarily
 determine the discovery patterns of vascular plants in China. Undiscovered
 species are most likely to be narrow-ranged, inconspicuous endemic species
 such as herbs and ferns, which are prone to extinctions and locate in
 biodiversity hotspots in southwestern China.
description: Description time, genus-level growth form and province-level
 geographic distributions are collected from Flora of China (2013;
 http://www.efloras.org/). Other geograhic variables including longitude,
 latitude, coastal distribution and range size are derived from
 province-level distributions.
description: genus: genus name of the species. species:
 scientific name of the species. date: the first
 description time of the species. If a species was previously published in
 another name but later recognized as a synonym, the description time of
 the synonym was used. growthform.genus: the dominant
 genus-level growth form of the species. If a genus have species with
 different growthforms, the most common growthfrom among the species is
 used. For simplicility of analysis, epiphytic and epilithic plants are
 merged to the group of herbs, bamboos and palms are merged to the group of
 shurbs, palm trees is merger to the group of trees.minlon, meanlon,
 maxlon: minimum, mean and maximum longtitude of a species range derived
 from its province-level distributions. minlat, meanlat,
 maxlat: minimum, mean and maximum latitude of a species range derived from
 its province-level distributions. coast: whether the
 species' distribution includes a coastal province.
 rangesize: the geographic range size (km^2) of the species
 calculated from its province-level distribution. from
 'heilongjiang' to 'hainan' are the province-level
 presence index of the species: 1 indicates the species is distributed in
 the province, NA indicates not in the province