Montgomery is excited to announce a new online resource for cycads — www.cycadlist.org — the official World List of Cycads Website.
Cycad biology is a very active field — with new discoveries from ongoing fieldwork, increasing data about cycad diversity, and vigorous efforts to conserve these amazing plants, the need for an up-to-date list of accepted cycad species is greater than ever.
The World List of Cycads is regularly published in the Proceedings of the International Cycad Conferences. These World List papers summarize accepted species names along with synonyms, dubious names and illegitimate names in a single place — this facilitates greater coordination among the world’s cycad researchers by providing a common taxonomic framework.
Most importantly, vital conservation efforts rely on good taxonomy. The IUCN (World Conservation Union) uses the World List of Cycads to inform the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which is used by governments, land managers and biologists worldwide.
Seeing this clear need for reliable taxonomy, in 2011 the Cycad Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission agreed that a frequently updated and searchable online version of the World List would be a valuable resource for cycad researchers and conservationists alike. The new website allows for immediate updates to reflect changes in cycad nomenclature and taxonomy, provides advanced search capabilities within a user-friendly interface, and supplies extensive links to primary source information.
The online World List of Cycads is designed and managed by Michael Calonje, with nomenclature editors Leonie Stanberg and Dennis Stevenson.
