Introduction

The Korean Peninsula, located in Northeast Asia, takes an important place in the global distribution of biodiversity, characterized by a wide variety of habitats, various eco‐regions and high species richness, and has attracted the attention of experts in plant diversity and distribution since long before. Until 1945, when Korea had been a colony of Japan, its plant diversity was partly studied and published by foreign scholars (Palibin, 1899–1901; Komarov, 1901–1907; Nakai, 1909, 1911; Mori, 1922).

It was not until 7 August 1947, when President Kim Il Sung had initiated personally the project to complete a Flora after Korean liberation, and the national investigations and studies on plants by Korean botanists started. So, the first Collection of Korean plant names (To & al., 1955), containing 2689 species, 667 varieties and 14 forms belonging to 167 families and 913 genera of ferns and seed plants, was published in 1955. This brought together all the information about native species gathered throughout the country and references published on plant species of the Korean Peninsula, which has been of great significance in fixing Korean names of species with scientific names and distribution of each species. After that, the 3‐volume Korean pictorial book of flora was published in three consecutive years from 1956, which was the first illustrated work with brief descriptions and figures of plant species (To & al., 1956–1958). In 1964, the improved Collection of Korean higher‐plant classification (Ri, 1964), containing 3009 species, 4 subspecies, 1048 varieties and 86 forms belonging to 235 families and 1050 genera, was published, which was based on over 50,000 herbarium specimens and literature references including the Floras of different countries of the world.

Based on these achievements and successive investigations and research of the botanists from Kim Il Sung University, the Botanical Institute of the State Academy of Sciences and the Central Botanical Garden, the first Flora Coreana (7 volumes plus appendix), taking the form of a complete Flora, was published until 1979 (Im & al., 1979). This Flora includes descriptions, parallel keys and 2300 original pictures of 3064 species and 973 infraspecific taxa belonging to 76 orders, 172 families, and 936 genera. Meanwhile, Korean sporophytes (9 volumes), a species list of fungi, algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes, was published up to 1991, in which the latter two groups were recorded in volumes 8 and 9, respectively (Kim & Hwang, 1991; Hwang, 1991). After that, an enlarged Flora Coreana was published (9 volumes and appendix) (Im & al., 2000), in which 10 new species and 60 previously unrecorded species were newly added; more than 800 taxa were revised, and auxiliary units such as subfamilies, tribes and sections for complicated and large taxa (Ranunculaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae, etc.) were set. Most of the arrangement of the orders and families followed the system of Engler (Engler & Prantl, 1887–1915).

The process of preparing and revising the Flora extended over scores of years, provided a foundation to systematically classify the country's plant resources and was effectively used in various fields such as biodiversity conservation, education, etc. What lies ahead is to complete the Korean Flora with the groups of liverworts, mosses and pteridophytes added.

In general, hardcopy Floras need a long time for preparation and publication, have a limited circulation and deficiencies in updating and communicating data. For example, in the Flora Coreana (Im & al., 1996), only 7 species in Magnolia L. (Magnoliaceae Juss.) have been recorded; therefore, 8 other species, 4 varieties, 1 form and 18 cultivars in the Korean Peninsula cannot be identified using this Flora. Additionally, some character states in the key sometimes cannot be identified in specimens in particular seasons, and in some cases, the key might be misleading. Moreover, there are cases in the Flora in which the same character or character state is described in different terms, or there are some technical terms that students and amateurs find difficult to understand.

In recent years, new techniques including polythetic keys, image discrimination, DNA barcoding, etc. are used for identifying plants with the help of rapid developments in IT, which requires digitization and provision of a database for all information on plants. This resulted in the development of eFloras. eFloras make plant identification and browsing of data easier, and thus provide many people with easy access to information on plant resources. In this respect, creating an eFlora is part of the process of implementing the Catalogue of Life (CoL) and World Flora Online (WFO) projects. So, a general and authorized eFlora is in preparation all over the world, helping in the evaluation of protection of global plant diversity. In this context, scientists from many countries attended the XIX International Botanical Congress (Shenzhen, China) to present their research findings (e.g., Lange, 2017; Singh, 2017; Smissen & al., 2017; West & Knapp, 2017).

中文翻译：

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朝鲜民主主义人民共和国的eFLORA项目：现状和前景

介绍

朝鲜半岛位于东北亚，在生物多样性的全球分布中占有重要地位，其特点是生境多样，生态区域多样，物种丰富度高，自那以后就引起了植物多样性和分布专家的关注。很久之前。直到1945年韩国成为日本的殖民地为止，外国学者对其植物的多样性进行了部分研究和出版（Palibin，1899年至1901年； Komarov，1901年至1907年； Nakai，1909年，1911年； Mori，1922年）。

直到1947年8月7日，金日成总统亲自发起了朝鲜解放后完成植物区系的项目，韩国植物学家开始了对植物的国家调查和研究。因此，1955年出版了第一本韩国植物名称集（To和al。，1955年），其中包含2689种，667个变种和14种形式，分别属于167属蕨类和种子植物的167科。有关在全国各地收集的本地物种的信息，以及在朝鲜半岛植物物种上发表的参考文献，这对于用科学名称和每个物种的分布来确定韩国物种名称具有重要意义。之后，韩国植物志三卷画集该书自1956年起连续三年出版，这是第一本带有简要说明和植物物种图鉴的插图作品（To＆al。，1956-1958年）。1964年，出版了改进的《韩国高等植物分类集》（Ri，1964年），该分类集基于50,000多个标本馆标本和文献参考，包括世界不同国家的动植物。

基于这些成就以及对金日成大学，国立科学院植物研究所和中央植物园的植物学家的连续调查和研究，第一本植物志Coreana（7卷加附录）以全文的形式Flora，直到1979年才出版（Im等，1979）。该植物群包括描述，平行键以及3064个物种和973亚种下的生物分类的2300张原始图片，这些生物属于76个目，172个科和936个属。同时，朝鲜孢子体（9卷）是真菌，藻类，苔藓植物和蕨类植物的物种清单，一直出版到1991年，其中后两组分别记录在第8卷和第9卷中（Kim＆Hwang，1991年）。; 黄（1991）。之后，出版了扩大版的植物志（9册和附录）（Im等人，2000年），其中新增加了10个新物种和60个以前未记录的物种。修订了800多个分类单元，并设置了辅助科目，如亚科，部落和复杂和大型分类单元的科（毛an科，菊科，禾本科等）。订单和家庭的大多数安排都遵循Engler的制度（Engler＆Prantl，1887–1915）。

植物区系的准备和修订过程长达数年之久，为系统地对该国的植物资源进行分类奠定了基础，并在生物多样性保护，教育等各个领域得到了有效的利用。添加了艾蒿，苔藓和蕨类植物。

通常，硬拷贝Floras需要很长时间进行准备和发布，发行量有限，并且在更新和传达数据方​​面存在缺陷。例如，在植物区系（加拿大）中（Im等，1996），木兰中只有7种。L.（Magnoliaceae Juss。）已被记录；因此，无法使用该植物群识别朝鲜半岛的其他8个物种，4个变种，1个形式和18个品种。此外，有时在特定季节的标本中无法识别出钥匙中的某些字符状态，并且在某些情况下，钥匙可能会产生误导。此外，在《植物志》中，有时用不同的术语描述相同的角色或角色状态，或者有些技术术语使学生和业余爱好者难以理解。

近年来，借助于信息技术的快速发展，包括聚乙烯密钥，图像识别，DNA条形码等在内的新技术被用于识别植物，这需要数字化并提供有关植物所有信息的数据库。这导致了eFloras的发展。eFloras使工厂识别和数据浏览更加容易，从而使许多人可以轻松访问工厂资源信息。在这方面，创建eFlora是实施生命目录（CoL）和在线世界花卉（WFO）项目的过程的一部分。因此，全球范围内正在准备授权的通用eFlora，以帮助评估对全球植物多样性的保护。在这种背景下，来自许多国家的科学家参加了第十九届国际植物大会（深圳，2017 ; 辛格，2017年; Smissen等人，2017年；West＆Knapp，2017年）。