Pillon Yohan auteur aut IRD Chase M. W. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants, encompassing several times as many species as birds or mammals. Because of their diversity, charisma, and threats from overcollection and habitat loss, they are a key group in conservation. Nevertheless, preservation of this group is plagued by taxonomic problems, particularly in Europe, where new taxa are actively being described. We used a checklist of orchids to compare the taxonomic treatment of this family between Europe and neighboring areas to search for geographical patterns. Numbers of invalid, infraspecific, and hybrid names are significantly higher in Europe than in surrounding areas. Recognition of numerous and poorly circumscribed orchid taxa is a serious obstacle to their conservation because rare, poorly defined species may be prioritized for conservation over taxonomically "good" species. This phenomenon may be the result of the popularity of orchids in Europe. We believe that more taxonomic effort should be made in other areas of the world (e.g., the tropics) and on less charismatic groups. specialized conservation geopolitical bias orchidaceae taxonomy taxonomic inflation 076 21 1 263-265 2007 0888-8892 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010037850 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00573.x 0888-8892 [F A010037850] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010037850 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2007/03/010037850.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2007-03-30 2022-04-22 fdi:010037850 fre