South African Plant DNA Barcode Checklist and Gap Analysis

A checklist of South African plant species and their DNA barcoding status, compiled from the Barcode of Life Database and GenBank. The dataset contains 931,476 barcode records for South African species, with 52% publicly available. It was authored by Mahlatse M. Kgatla and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Conducting taxonomic gap analyses for DNA barcoding based on species checklist comparisons.
• Assessing geographic representation of barcoded species across South African provinces.
• Evaluating metadata quality for barcode sequences based on discrepancies between GenBank and BOLD records.
• Prioritizing future barcoding efforts for underrepresented groups like plants and fungi.

Strengths

• Includes 931,476 barcode records for South African species, providing a substantial quantitative baseline.
• Explicitly quantifies taxonomic representation, noting plants are underrepresented at 16.1%.
• Compares data from two major public repositories, BOLD and GenBank.
• Covers a 20-year literature review period from 2003 to 2023.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the source platforms, with some provinces having very low BIN counts.

Provenance

Source

Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) and GenBank.

Collection Method

Gap analysis comparing verified species checklists with barcoded sequences from public databases.

Time Range

Literature review covers 2003–2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-21 18:00:11; freshness should be verified.

Geography

South Africa, with analysis at the provincial level.