HiDaFernPT: Historical data of spore availability for 121 fern and lycopod taxa in Portugal (1926–2013)

Abstract

Species phenology is being altered by ongoing climate changes with yet underappreciated consequences for ecological processes and ecosystem stability. Contrary to what happens with some key life events of flowering plants, comparatively little information exists about fern and lycophyte phenology and how it is affected by the current climatic changes. In part, this stems from the lack of long-term datasets. Here we provide information on the collection day and site of the spores of 121 native and introduced fern (Polypodiopsida) and lycopod (Lycopodiopsida) taxa for the Index Seminum of the Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra. Spores were collected from spontaneous and cultivated individuals across Portugal between 1926 and 2013. The database includes 3383 curated records with information on the species, or infraspecific taxa (including authority), and are fully georeferenced and provided with a confidence interval for the collection site. Taxonomy was first curated manually by in-house botanists and then harmonized according to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) backbone taxonomy. The data are released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) license.