Bridging Knowledge Gaps in African Plant Diversity: Insights from the NaijaFLO Project

Although Africa harbours extraordinary biodiversity, our understanding of its plant diversity is limited by the Linnean shortfall (species yet to be described or properly documented) and the Wallacean shortfall (incomplete knowledge of species distributions). These “dark spots” limit our capacity to conduct robust biogeographical analyses, assess extinction risks, and design effective conservation strategies.

We present the database of vascular plants of Nigeria (NaijaFLO) as a best-practice example for overcoming such shortfalls. NaijaFLO is based on a comprehensive, expert-verified, and curated checklist of all vascular plants reported from Nigeria, developed at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in collaboration with an international team of editors. It integrates multiple taxonomic sources (IPNI, POWO, WFO, LCVP, WP, APD) and herbarium vouchers to validate occurrences and classifications. Covering more than 7,700 taxa across 235 families and over 1,870 genera, NaijaFLO provides authoritative information on taxonomy, nomenclature, distribution status, and growth form. The database is publicly accessible via the iDiv PlantHub and will be mirrored on GBIF under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

Curated national and regional plant databases, grounded in herbarium specimens, are critical tools to close biodiversity knowledge gaps in Africa. By standardising names, verifying distributions, and linking data to global infrastructures, projects such as NaijaFLO demonstrate the potential to illuminate biodiversity dark spots, support conservation planning, and strengthen Africa’s role in global biogeography. Building stronger herbaria, training young scientists, and fostering transnational collaboration are essential steps to ensure that such efforts scale across the continent.