title: Influence of biological and social-historical variables on the time taken to describe an angiosperm.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  By convention, scientific naming of angiosperm species began in 1753; it is estimated that 10-20% of species remain undescribed. To complete this task before rare, undescribed species go extinct, a better understanding of the description process is needed. The South American Cerrado biodiversity hotspot was considered a suitable model due to a high diversity of plants, habitats, and social history of species description.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomized sample of 214 species (2% of the angiosperm flora) and 22 variables were analyzed using multivariate analyses and analysis of variance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Plants with wide global distributions, recorded from many areas, and above 2.6 m were described significantly earlier than narrowly distributed, uncommon species of smaller stature. The beginning of the career of the botanist who first collected the species was highly significant, with an average delay between first collection and description of 29 yr, and between type collection and description 19 yr; standard deviations were high and rose over time. Over a third of first collections were not cited in descriptions. Trends such as scientific specialization and decline of undescribed species were highlighted. Descriptions that involved potential collaboration between collectors and authors were significantly slower than those that did not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results support four recommendations to hasten discovery of new species: (1) preferential collecting of plants below 2.6 m, at least in the Cerrado; (2) access to undetermined material in herbaria; (3) fieldwork in areas where narrow-endemic species occur; (4) fieldwork by knowledgeable botanists followed by descriptive activity by the same.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, Postal Code 4457, CEP 70910-970, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
authors.forename: Evelin K S
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Cavallin
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, Postal Code 4457, CEP 70910-970, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cássia B R
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Munhoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB UK.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, Postal Code 4457, CEP 70910-970, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Villarroel
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, Postal Code 4457, CEP 70910-970, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil cproenca@unb.br.
authors.forename: Carolyn E B
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Proença
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D001901:Botany; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: botanical nomenclature; history of botany; new species; plant collecting; plant conservation; plant taxonomy