Species taxonomic status in WFO differs from status according to WFO as returned by TNRS

[ojalaquellueva]

Reported by Christopher Johnson (c.johnson AT unibas.ch):

Entering "Ranunculus glacialis L." on TNRS with family classification = WFO and only WFO checked yields "Synonym" with the accepted name "Beckwithia glacialis". However, entering "Ranunculus glacialis L." on WFO directly shows that it is an accepted name.

Conversely, entering "Beckwithia glacialis" on TNRS with family classification = WFO and only WFO checked yields "Accepted". However, entering "Beckwithia glacialis" on WFO directly shows that it is a synonym of "Ranunculus glacialis L.".

[ojalaquellueva]

Issue replicated. Consulted TNRS via web interface: https://tnrs.biendata.org. Consulted WFO via url: http://www.worldfloraonline.org/.

[ojalaquellueva]

Taxonomic status returned by TNRS for species "Ranunculus glacialis L." accurately reflects content of WFO data extract (v.2019.05) as imported to the TNRS on 17 Jul 2020:

cd /home/bien/tnrs/data/db/wfo
grep "Ranunculus glacialis" classification.txt

Returns:

wfo-0000461034  217323-2    Ranunculus glacialis    SPECIES     L.  Ranunculaceae   Ranunculus  glacialis               Sp. Pl. 553 1753    Synonym wfo-0000561740      2012-03-23  2012-03-23  http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2524023
wfo-0000461035  77069401-1  Ranunculus glacialis var. gelidus   VARIETY     (Kar. & Kir.) Finet & Gagnep.   Ranunculaceae   Ranunculus  glacialis   gelidus var.        Bull. Soc. Bot. France 51: 307 1904 Synonym wfo-0000460511      2012-03-23  2012-03-23  http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2524024
wfo-0000464756  217325-2    Ranunculus glacialis var. chamissonis   VARIETY     (Schltdl.) L.D.Benson   Ranunculaceae   Ranunculus  glacialis   chamissonis var.        Amer. Midl. Naturalist 40: 226 1948 Synonym wfo-0000561741      2012-03-23  2012-03-23  http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2529101
wfo-0000742302  217324-2    Ranunculus glacialis subsp. camissonis  SUBSPECIES      (Schltdl.) Hultén   Ranunculaceae   Ranunculus  glacialis   camissonis  subsp.      Acta Univ. Lund. n.f., 40(1): 753 1944  Synonym wfo-0000561741      2012-03-23  2012-03-23  http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2891178

Note wfo-0000461034 "Ranunculus glacialis L." listed as synonym of wfo-0000561740. Grepping wfo-0000561740:

grep wfo-0000561740 classification.txt

references (among other lines):

wfo-0000561740  30240249-2  Beckwithia glacialis    SPECIES wfo-4000004296  (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve    Ranunculaceae   Beckwithia  glacialis               Acta Horti Gothob. 20: 142 1956 Accepted            2012-03-23  2012-03-23  http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2672304

[ojalaquellueva]

Not a bug. Difference is due to TNRS database being out of sync with source database. All source data is stored locally within the TNRS; sources are not consulted in real time. Local caching is a design feature that provides much faster performance and enables restructuring of source data to a common schema that better supports key TNRS features. Infrequent updates of the TNRS is a deliberate policy that enables archiving of all previous versions of the TNRS for reproducibility. However, increased frequency of updates (up to 4x / yr) should be possible and reduce the degree to which the TNRS gets out of sync with its sources.

[ojalaquellueva]

Changing label from Bug to Enhancement (=feature request). Enhancement would be greater frequency of updates, to about 4X per year. This will require some coding to ensure that all access points (API, R package and web interface) can be updated automatically and quickly, without the need for extensive manual interventions currently required.

[ojalaquellueva]

Short term fix: update WFO content in the TNRS database with WFO v.2022.07.

[ojalaquellueva]

Issue resolved with update of TNRS to app version 5.2, database version 4.4 on 2024-01-17. TNRS now uses WFO version v.2023.06.