Plant taxonomic species and their role in the workflow of integrative species delimitation

Summary The species of classical taxonomy are examined with a view to their future role in integrative taxonomy. Taxonomic species are presented as the products of a cyclic workflow between taxonomists and biologists in general, and as the essential means to express the results of evolutionary biological research in a cognitive form which can be widely understood outside the systematics research community. In the first part, the procedures underlying the formation and structure of classical species taxon concepts are analysed and discussed, and this involves some passing reference to mental concepts as understood by cognitive psychologists. The second part considers the need for methodological advances in classical taxonomy in the form of computational modelling. It is argued that in order to accomplish this, species taxon concepts will need to be expressed as computable matrices in parallel to their conventional form, expanding their role in integrative taxonomy, facilitating the feedback from evolutionary biological research and potentially accelerating the update and modification of their delimitation as knowledge increases. The third part treats another, more immediate methodological issue: some kinds of data already produced by taxonomic revisions could be provided as standard online outputs but are not yet part of the canonical published format. The final part consists of a discussion of the gradually emerging global online framework of taxonomic species and its importance as a general reference system. A glossary of terms is provided.