EpiList 1.0: a global checklist of vascular epiphytes

Epiphytes make up roughly 10% of all vascular plant species globally and play important functional roles, especially in tropical forests. However, to date, there is no comprehensive list of vascular epiphyte species. Here, we present EpiList 1.0, the first global list of vascular epiphytes based on standardized definitions and taxonomy. We include obligate epiphytes, facultative epiphytes, and hemiepiphytes, as the latter share the vulnerable epiphytic stage as juveniles. Based on 978 references, the checklist includes >31,000 species of 79 plant families. Species names were standardized against World Flora Online for seed plants and against the World Ferns database for lycophytes and ferns. In cases of species missing from these databases, we used other databases (mostly World Checklist of Selected Plant Families). For all species, author names and IDs for World Flora Online entries are provided to facilitate the alignment with other plant databases, and to avoid ambiguities. EpiList 1.0 will be a rich source for synthetic studies in ecology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology as it offers, for the first time, a species-level overview over all currently known vascular epiphytes. At the same time, the list represents work in progress: species descriptions of epiphytic taxa are ongoing and published life form information in floristic inventories and trait and distribution databases is often incomplete and sometimes even wrong. Since the epiphytic growth blends into soil-rooted growth and vice versa, the inclusion or exclusion of particular species in the current list will sometimes be contentious. Thus, initiating a well-founded discussion was one of the motivations for compiling this database; our list represents 31,311 hypotheses on the life form of plant species, and we welcome feedback on possible omission or erroneous inclusions. We release these data into the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero license waiver. When you use the data in your publication, we request that you cite this data paper. If EpiList 1.0 is a major part of the data analyzed in your study, you may consider inviting the EpiList 1.0 core team as collaborators.

Automated summary

Epiphytes account for approximately 10% of all vascular plant species globally, with EpiList 1.0 being the first global list of vascular epiphytes based on standardized definitions and taxonomy, including over 31,000 species. This list provides a valuable resource for synthetic studies in ecology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology, offering a species-level overview of all known vascular epiphytes.