The patterns of vascular plant discoveries in China

Botanical discovery has a long journey of revelation that contributes unparalleled knowledge to shape our understanding about nature. Plant discovery in China is an immanent part of that journey. To understand the patterns of plant discoveries in China and detect which taxa and areas harbor most numbers of undiscovered species, we analyzed the discovery times of 31093 vascular plant species described in Flora of China. We found that species with larger range size and distributed in northeastern part of China have a higher discovery probability. Species distributed on the coast were discovered earlier than inland species. Trees and shrubs of seed plants have the highest discovery probability and ferns have the lowest discovery probability. Herbs hold the largest number of undiscovered species in China. Most undiscovered species are found in southwest China, where three global biodiversity hotspots locate. Spatial patterns of mean discovery year and inventory completeness are mainly driven by the total number of species and human population density in an area and whether the area is coastal or not. Our results showed that socio-economic factors dictate the discovery patterns of vascular plants in China. Undiscovered species are mostly narrow-ranged, inconspicuous endemic such as herbs, which are prone to extinctions and locate in biodiversity hotspots in southwest China. We suggest that the future effort on plant discovery in China be prioritized in southwest China.