Lisbon - U.S. and Britain scientists have found that more than half of the plants are repeatedly ranked in the "Dictionary of Life '.
For three years the researchers studied plants and concluded that many had been classified more than once with different names, which meant that more than half of plant species known to date have been taken off the list which lists all species .
Instead of one million, the number of existing species on Earth change to 400 000. Any repetition was already a suspicion of scientists. According to the curator-assistant in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Alan Paton, “on average, a plant can have two or three different names”.
The repetitions are so common that the tomato, for example, has 790 different names, there are 600 different names for the oak and its varieties.
The overall results should not be published before the end of the year. So far, the team of scientists has identified 301 000 species accepted, validated 480 000 aliases and has a value around 240 000. “The list is far from perfect, but it is the right one that exists", said Eimear Nic Lughadha, member of the team of scientists.
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