Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH

Study Extent

The database includes the occurrence records of the alien (invasive as well as non-invasive naturalized species) plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens that have been deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal. The specimens were collected from different part of Nepal by Nepalese and foreign researchers.

Sampling

Using the checklist of alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured.

Quality Control

Identification of plants were confirmed by taxonomic experts of the project team. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point. Entire data were managed in Darwin Core Standard format.

Method steps

1. Using the checklist of the alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point.
   Data were captured by research assistants. The raw data were checked for uniformity of the format and accepted scientific names including author citation. Entire data was managed in Darwin Core Standard format in the template that was available online in GBIF. OccurrenceID was designed by combining institution code (i.e. KATH), district code (two letters for each district; for example KT for Kathmandu district) and bar code number with colon in between them. We considered 75 districts in Nepal (In current system the number of districts is 77 but all the herbarium collections mentioned district according to 75 district system). In situation when district was not known and geographic coordinates were absent, we used ‘NP’ (which stands for ‘Nepal’) instead of district code in the OccurrenceID. We mentioned ecological regions (eastern Nepal, central Nepal and western Nepal) under the heading of ‘stateProvince’ and district name under ‘county’ in the DwC format. Before starting publication, the database was validated and inconsistencies identified during validation were fixed by checking raw data and original specimens. When data was ready, we communicated with data hosting institution which has installed Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT). Earlier to this, we registered the organization as data published in GBIF.

Flowering plants that are naturalized in Nepal

1. Tracheophyta
   common name: Flowering plants rank: phylum

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