DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j6q573n89
title: Data from: A taxonomic revision of the African genus Desplatsia Bocq. (Malvaceae - Grewioideae) with identifiers

description: A taxonomic revision of Desplatsia Bocq. (Malvaceae s.l., subfamily
 Grewioideae, tribe Grewieae) based on 810 herbarium specimens is
 presented. Desplatsia is a genus of trees and shrubs found in tropical
 West and Central Africa and is characterised by subulately divided
 stipules, the absence of an androgynophore, stamens that are fused to a
 tube at the base, and large and distinctive fruits that are dispersed by
 elephants. Four species are recognized (D. subericarpa, D.
 chrysochlamys, D. dewevrei and D. mildbraedii) and 12 species names are
 placed into synonymy, two of which have been put into synonymy for the
 first time: D. floribunda and D. trillesiana. All four species are locally
 abundant and their conservation status is assessed as Least Concern (LC).
 A key to the species, full species descriptions, illustrations, a specimen
 citation list and distribution maps are provided.
description: Herbarium specimens of <i>Desplatsia</i> held at BM,
 BR, E, K, M, and P were studied on visits to those herbaria. In addition
 digital images of specimens were examined from  HBG, L, U and WAG,
 altogether representing 810 specimens. Herbarium acronyms follow Index
 Herbariorum (Thiers, continuously updated). All material cited was seen
 either as a specimen in a herbarium or as an image. Where possible, the
 specimens are cited using a stable HTTP URI (Hypertext Transfer Protocol
 Uniform Resource Identifier) hyperlink to the Index Herbariorum herbarium
 code in brackets after the collection number (following Hyam et al.
 2012). Morphological characters are described and
 measurements taken from dried herbarium material and from field
 information given on herbarium labels (when possible). This is
 supplemented by information from the species descriptions in the Flora of
 Tropical East Africa (Verdcourt and Mwachala 2009). Flowering and fruiting
 periods given are based on information from herbarium specimen
 labels. The terminology in the descriptions follows
 Harris & Woolf Harris (1994). The keys and
 descriptions were prepared in a way to include as many vegetative and
 field characters as possible to make the key useful not only to herbarium
 taxonomists, but also to field botanists. Plant
 material studied is listed per country, then alphabetically per collector
 under each species. Localities are cited as given on the herbarium
 specimen labels. If no geographical coordinates were available, these
 localities were determined using the online Global Gazetteer version 2.3
 (http://www.fallingrain.com/world/). Data cleaning was performed by checking location data for potential errors by plotting the collection sites on country maps. Data points in the ocean, in countries that did not match the country given on the herbarium sheet or from locations that the collector is known not to have collected from during the time period given were corrected following Hijmans <i>et al.</i> (1999). Whenever an accession seemed doubtful, the coordinates were checked against the location given on the specimen sheet and discrepancies resolved.Phenetic morphological criteria to delimit species have been chosen for this study. Species are separated by a discontinuity in characters (Crisp & Weston 2010). Proposed IUCN conservation assessments were assigned following the IUCN categories and criteria version 3.1 (IUCN 2012) and distribution data based on georeferenced specimens as given in the present publication. Extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO) were calculated using GeoCAT (Bachman et al. 2011). Full, formal assessments will be submitted to IUCN. Orcid and wikidata person identifiers and plant names identifiers ( International Plant Names Index IPNI Identifier) were added to selected records of the data that were submitted to the Dryad data repository.
description: Orcid identifiers and wikidata people identifiers were only added
 to a limited number of collectors' names as a proof of concept. Due
 to the time required to find the remaining identifiers the identifier
 columns are not complete for each collector.