Curating an online checklist for Erica L. (Ericaceae): contributing to and supporting global conservation through the World Flora Online

To support the work of the Global Conservation Consortium for and update the checklist in the World Flora Online (WFO), we have curated the taxonomic backbone in the WFO by expanding it to include updated nomenclatural information from the International Plant Name Index, missing names present in the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA), and from the "International register of heather names" database, a data source not readily available online. The result is the most robust database of names to date, including 851 species, 111 subspecies, 244 varieties, and 2787 synonyms, which is a reliable reference for initiatives such as the identification aid, conservation prioritisation, and gap analyses. We disambiguate common orthographic variants within the database and present an overview of these. We also comment on the correct orthography of Guthrie & Bolus and Dulfer and the validity of E.G.H.Oliv. are discussed, and the use of Benth. for a South African species rather than Link, which is here regarded as insufficiently known and of uncertain application, is clarified.