Using the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy to prepare and publish a treatment for the Caryophyllales Network: an online synthesis of the Nepenthaceae

The Caryophyllales Network strives to assemble an online dynamic synthesis of the order Caryophyllales, uniting the current knowledge about the phylogeny of the order with up-to-date information on the individual taxa contained. Capturing taxonomic data and the decision processes involved in the definition and circumscription of the taxa requires highly complex specialized software. The Caryophyllales Network uses the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy for that purpose. In the context of the online treatment of the family Nepenthaceae, we describe the steps taken to assemble the database, the interaction with other electronic sources, the links with the World Flora Online initiative, and the prospects for the maintenance and further development of the Nepenthaceae segment of the Caryophyllales database. Nepenthaceae constitute an example of a family with a relatively recent flora treatment (Flora Malesiana, published in 2001), which to a large extent covers its total range of distribution, but with further species subsequently described as new to science in mostly regional treatments, and with an analysis of relationships and species limits on the basis of evolutionary methods just emerging. A snapshot of the current state of the database is provided as an annotated checklist in PDF format in the Supplementary Material online, which includes 176 species and nine naturally occurring named hybrids and treats 435 species and infraspecific names.