Missouri Botanical Garden , St. Louis, Missouri, USA (chuck.miller@mobot.org)
Since its origin in 1982 Tropicos has been Missouri Botanical Garden’s primary data repository for taxonomic information and the primary working tool of its taxonomic researchers. All taxonomists at MBG and their supporting staffs are required to record their working nomenclatural and taxonomic data in Tropicos. Although earlier in its history this may have required strong encouragement, the achievement of a “critical mass” of nearly a million taxa in Tropicos has now become a carrot for MBG’s taxonomists because most of the data needed is already present. Further, Tropicos provides support for multiple independent projects each with individual taxonomic concepts/decisions while retaining a shared pool of nomenclatural data. As a result the processes of creating floras, checklists, catalogs and monographs at MBG now critically rely on Tropicos. This presentation will discuss some of the ways in which a centralized taxonomic data repository can be used to support the development and publication of taxonomic treatments.