We synthesize published botanical information for the flora of Africa to address multiple questions, including the following: How many species of vascular plants are there in Africa? How are the species distributed among different phylogenetic clades or taxonomic groups of vascular plants and different geographic regions across Africa? How complete are species lists derived from open-access online sources at various spatial scales? And at what spatial scales might species lists derived from open-access online sources be used to address macroecological and biogeographic questions for the flora of Africa? We used eight open-access online botanical databases and 188 regional, national, and local floras and checklists of vascular plants to generate species lists for sampling areas at various spatial scales examined in this study. Africa harbours at least 65,414 native species of vascular plants. Using the online botanical databases examined in this study to generate country-level or larger species lists, the completeness of the resulting species lists will be typically >90%. The completeness of species lists derived from geo-referenced occurrence records available online was 36.6, 53.1 and 72.1%, respectively, at the spatial scales of 100 km × 100 km, 200 km × 200 km, and 300 km × 300 km.

我们综合已发表的非洲植物群植物信息来解决多个问题，包括以下问题：非洲有多少种维管植物？这些物种在非洲不同的维管植物系统发育进化枝或分类群以及不同地理区域之间是如何分布的？来自不同空间尺度的开放获取在线资源的物种列表有多完整？来自开放获取在线资源的物种列表可以在哪些空间尺度上用于解决非洲植物群的宏观生态和生物地理学问题？我们使用了 8 个开放访问的在线植物数据库和 188 个区域、国家和地方植物群和维管植物清单，为本研究中检查的不同空间尺度的采样区域生成物种列表。非洲拥有至少 65,414 种维管植物本地物种。使用本研究中检查的在线植物数据库生成国家级或更大的物种列表，生成的物种列表的完整性通常 > 90%。在 100 公里 × 100 公里、200 公里 × 200 公里和 300 公里 × 300 公里的空间尺度上，从在线可用的地理参考发生记录中得出的物种列表的完整性分别为 36.6、53.1 和 72.1%。