World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions

The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions is a standard of the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases (TDWG) that sets out an agreed system for describing plant distributions, approximately down to country level. It defines geographic places at four scales:

1. continental;
2. regional or sub-continental;
3. "Botanical Country", which generally equates to a political country, but may split very large countries, or omit outlying areas; and
4. "Basic Recording Units". These are only used for large countries, and are used to subdivide into states or provinces on purely political grounds.

Principles of organization

The scheme is particularly aimed at taxonomic databases. It represents a compromise between political and botanical divisions. All boundaries either follow a political boundary (country boundary, province boundary, etc.), or coast lines. The scheme aims to follow botanical tradition, in terms of the categories of works like the Flora Europaea, Flora Malesiana, or Med-Checklist.

For those desiring a more botanical classification, the document endorses the floristic provinces classified by Takhtajan.

Top level

The scheme defines nine botanical continents: Europe, Africa, Asia-Temperate, Asia-Tropical, Australasia, Pacific, Northern America, Southern America and Antarctic.

Acceptance

Works using the scheme include the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, published by Kew Gardens; and the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References

• Brummitt, R. K. (2001). World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions: Edition 2. International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tdwg/TDWG_geo2.pdf. Retrieved 2006-11-27.