wcvpdata provides a local R interface to the World Checklist of
Vascular Plants (WCVP), a comprehensive global database of accepted
plant names and their synonyms maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew. This package bundles standardized snapshots of the WCVP taxonomic
and geographic distribution data (Version 15, January 2026), enabling
large-scale botanical research and biodiversity analysis directly in R —
without requiring repeated downloads or internet access.
The WCVP database was initiated in 1988 by Rafaël Govaerts and has grown into an international collaborative programme with editors, compilers, and reviewers from around the globe.
You can install the latest development version of wcvpdata from GitHub with:
# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("PaulESantos/wcvpdata")
# From r-universe
install.packages("wcvpdata",
repos = c(
"https://paulesantos.r-universe.dev",
"https://cloud.r-project.org"
)
)If you use wcvpdata, please cite the snapshot of the database you used and the paper describing WCVP.
You can find out how to cite these by running:
print(citation("wcvpdata"), bibtex=TRUE)
#> wcvpdata redistributes snapshots of the WCVP database. We, therefore,
#> encourage you to cite the snapshot version and the WCVP data paper:
#>
#> Govaerts R (ed.). 2026. WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants.
#> Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
#> https://doi.org/10.34885/nswv-8994 [v15 accessed 06 Jan 2026].
#>
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#>
#> @Manual{,
#> title = {WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.},
#> author = {Rafa"{e}l Govaerts},
#> year = {2026},
#> note = {version 15, accessed 06 Jan 2026},
#> doi = {10.34885/nswv-8994},
#> }
#>
#> Govaerts, R., Nic Lughadha, E. et al. The World Checklist of Vascular
#> Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant
#> diversity. Sci Data 8, 215 (2021).
#> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00997-6
#>
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#>
#> @Article{,
#> title = {The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity},
#> author = {Rafa"{e}l Govaerts and Eimear Nic Lughadha and Nicholas Black and Robert Turner and Alan Paton},
#> journal = {Scientific Data},
#> year = {2021},
#> volume = {8},
#> number = {215},
#> doi = {10.1038/s41597-021-00997-6},
#> }