Names in the FRDBI for the 20th Century

Cumulative number of current names

This chart shows the cumulative number of current accepted names in the database each for each year. The number of 'current' names in the database is about 13,000. Although it must be stressed that a number of synonyms remain in the data-set.

Number of new current names added per year

Based on the same data this chart shows the number of new current names for each year (i.e. new species and species not previously recorded in the UK). This has remained more or less steady in the early part of the century at about 60 new names per year. Since 1960 there has been a steady increase to a current level of about 200 new names per year.

Again these figures are distorted by the presence of synonyms. In fact it is likely that synonymous use of names was higher in the early part of the century.