LinnBase: A 1753 Native-Range Baseline for Invasive Plants
A map showing where plants were originally found in 1753 to help biologists track invasive species.
A georeferenced dataset built from the native-locality statements in the digitized 1753 treatments, giving invasion biologists and regulators a citable pre-globalization snapshot of where plant species were first recorded as native.
Concept
Every treatment in the 1753 work closes with a locus natalis — a statement of where the species grows (Habitat in America, in India, and so on). LinnBase extracts these locality statements from the digitized treatments, georeferences them against historical place-name gazetteers, and publishes one machine-readable native-range record per species: where the plant was documented as native at the very start of scientific recording. The first focused product is a set of invasion-history dossiers for plants that are invasive today, pairing each species' 1753 native-range statement with its current invaded range — for example Mimosa pigra, described in 1753 with a New World origin and now a damaging invasive in Rwanda and tropical Asia. The wedge is a single deliverable: a defensible, standardized, citable historical anchor for native-versus-introduced determinations.
Why now
The new dataset [0] makes the locis natalibus a structured, extractable element of each digitized treatment for the first time, so a 1753 baseline can be built from one standardized monograph rather than scattered literature. Older corpus paper [3] documents Mimosa pigra's invasive success in Rwanda — exactly the old-baseline-versus-new-range comparison the dataset enables, since the species' original 1753 treatment records its American origin. Invasive-species compendia and agencies currently lack a single-source historical anchor for native-range claims.
Written by GLM · 9 Oct 2026
AI assessment
A highly focused, evidence-backed data product that transforms a specific historical dataset into a high-value regulatory anchor for invasive species management.
- Evidence strength 5/5
- The idea directly leverages a newly digitized, structured dataset of Linnaeus's 1753 treatments, specifically utilizing the 'locis natalibus' field as described in the source.
- Market pull 4/5
- Regulatory bodies like USDA APHIS and the IUCN have a high, ongoing need for defensible, citable evidence to justify invasive species designations and quarantine measures.
- Novelty & moat 3/5
- While it shares a data source with ProtologueCheck, it pivots from taxonomic verification to a distinct regulatory and ecological application (invasion history dossiers).
- Feasibility 5/5
- The core data is already digitized; the MVP requires only georeferencing against historical gazetteers and pairing with current range data, which is a straightforward data engineering task.
- Wedge clarity 5/5
- The 'invasion-history dossier' is a sharp, specific deliverable that provides immediate value to a clear user without requiring a complex platform.
- Simplicity / focus 5/5
- The product is a single, well-defined dataset/report service with no over-scoped feature creep.
Scored by Gemma 4 · 9 Oct 2026. Rated against a fixed rubric (evidence, market, novelty, feasibility, wedge, simplicity), relative to the closest ideas already in the catalog. A prior estimate to compare ideas before real-world signal arrives.
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Who benefits
- CABIorganization
CABI's Invasive Species Compendium builds datasheets that must state a species' native range; a standardized 1753 baseline gives its editors a citable historical anchor instead of ad hoc literature searches.
- IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Grouporganization
The ISSG maintains global invasive-species databases; a machine-readable 1753 native-range layer strengthens the historical basis of its records.
- USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantineorganization
APHIS weed risk assessments depend on native-range information; a citable historical baseline supports screening decisions for plants under evaluation.
- GBIForganization
GBIF aggregates distribution records but has little pre-modern temporal depth; a 1753 baseline layer adds a documented historical dimension for participating datasets.
Research it builds on
- International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation2026 · 563 citationsAll ideas from this paper →
- Species plantarum: exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestasLinnaeus, Carolus · 2026 · 188 citationsAll ideas from this paper →