The Crucial Role of Plant Taxonomy in Ensuring the Biodiversity Sustainability: Insights from the Pharmaceutically Significant Genus Paris (Melanthiaceae)

Abstract

Taxonomy, primarily focused on systematically exploring, documenting, and characterizing global or regional biodiversity, represents a fundamental scientific discipline for biodiversity conservation and sustainability. However, it has encountered significant developmental constraints and academic marginalization in recent decades, resulting in a notable decline in proficient taxonomists as well as substantial gaps in taxonomic knowledge. In order to call for widespread attention and recognition of the increasing demands to revitalize and advance taxonomy, this article presents a comprehensive review that emphasizes the detrimental impacts of taxonomic knowledge gaps on the conservation and sustainable use of Paris (Melanthiaceae), a monocotyledonous genus hosting remarkable pharmaceutical significance and scientific importance. Overall, the conservation of threatened Paris species as well as the standardization of the cultivation of medicinal Paris species encounter numerous obstacles due to the scarcity of taxonomic expertise and presence of taxonomic knowledge gaps. These findings provide robust empirical evidence highlighting the crucial importance of taxonomy in biodiversity conservation and sustainability, thereby justifying the appeal to resurgence and advancement within this scientific discipline.

1. Introduction

The maintenance of biodiversity is essential for the optimal functioning of global ecosystems, upon which human life critically depends [1,2,3,4,5]. Regrettably, global biodiversity has been subjected to an escalating threat from human activities, encompassing urbanization, deforestation on a global scale, overexploitation of wild plants and animals, and expansion of agricultural lands, as well as climate change over centuries [6,7,8]. Consequently, it is estimated that we are currently witnessing the loss of species at a rate up to 1000 times higher than the natural background extinction rate [9]. Mounting evidence demonstrates that the depletion of biodiversity poses an imminent and severe threat to ecosystems while impeding progress in economic and social environment [10,11,12,13]. Therefore, conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity emerge as imperative for both human life and environmental sustainability.

Biodiversity conservation necessitates a comprehensive and holistic operational framework [14], wherein the documentation and characterization of global and regional biodiversity serve as crucial foundations [15,16,17]. Taxonomy, as a scientific discipline, is dedicated to the discovery, description, nomenclature, and classification of diverse biological taxa on Earth and to the investigation of their relationships, thus playing an indispensable role in the exploration, documentation, and characterization of regional and global biodiversity [16,18,19]. Given its critical role in biodiversity conservation, novel modern technologies, such as DNA sequencing techniques, have been extensively employed in taxonomic studies to enhance the robustness and precision of species delineation and taxonomic revision [19,20,21,22,23]. Nevertheless, taxonomy has witnessed a decline in popularity worldwide, accompanied by significant reductions in funding resources over the past few decades, thereby impeding the development and progress of this scientific discipline and resulting in a sharp decrease in well-trained taxonomists as well as extensive taxonomic knowledge gaps [24,25,26,27,28].

Theoretically, the ongoing recession and marginalization of taxonomy is likely to result in a limited exploration and comprehension of either global or regional biodiversity, thereby exerting a detrimental impact on the sustainability and conservation of biodiversity. To ensure the effective conservation of biodiversity, there is an increasing appeal to foster the resurgence and ensure the high-quality advancement of this scientific discipline [19,27,28,29,30,31]. To facilitate the widespread attention and acceptance of this appeal within the academic community, it is imperative to present empirical evidence that highlights the formidable challenges arising from the dearth of taxonomic expertise. Here, we present a comprehensive review that highlights the detrimental impacts of taxonomic knowledge gaps on the conservation and sustainable utilization of the genus Paris L. (Melanthiaceae Batsch ex Borkh.), a monocotyledonous plant lineage with significant pharmaceutical significance and conservation concerns. This provides compelling empirical evidence to showcase the dispensable role of taxonomy in ensuring the sustainability of global biodiversity.

2. Pharmaceutical Significance and Scientific Importance of the Genus Paris

The monocotyledonous genus Paris (Melanthiaceae) represents a morphologically distinctive lineage within angiosperms and possesses significant pharmaceutical importance [32,33,34,35]. According to the latest and most comprehensive taxonomic revision based on multidisciplinary evidence [36,37,38,39,40,41], the genus consists of 26 species (

Table 1. Geographic distribution and elevation ranges of currently recognized Paris species.

Species	Longitude Range (°E)	Latitude Range (°N)	Elevation Range (m)
P. bashanensis	101.762–110.812	29.138–32.880	1400–2750
P. caobangensis	98.998–114.603	18.795–29.553	300–2900
P. chinensis	98.835–122.402	18.579–39.079	150–2800
P. cronquistii	101.632–108.812	22.679–29.138	200–1950
P. delavayi	102.111–115.866	24.161–32.332	700–2900
P. dunniana	106.699–109.732	18.591–25.416	400–1100
P. fargesii	103.018–121.639	22.049–31.884	500–2100
P. forrestii	82.183–101.718	20.783–30.120	600–3200
P. incompleta	38.080–45.720	40.830–45.050	600–2000
P. japonica	136.771–139.966	35.616–38.785	1000–2100
P. lancifolia	101.744–121.639	22.484–36.921	1100–2300
P. liiana	98.835–108.316	21.734–25.137	1200–2200
P. luquanensis	102.585–102.733	25.940–26.569	2300–2800
P. mairei	87.904–106.291	24.509–33.313	1800–3500
P. marmorata	86.730–101.992	25.744–28.958	1500–3100
P. polyphylla	81.760–110.041	23.360–36.061	1100–2800
P. qiliangiana	103.628–110.812	31.034–34.145	720–1140
P. quadrifolia	−0.266–108.000	40.066–70.366	50–1600
P. tetraphylla	129.960–143.310	32.000–44.820	200–1400
P. thibetica	85.266–104.395	25.275–35.717	1600–3600
P. vaniotii	102.111–112.691	24.998–31.590	700–3000
P. verticillata	85.364–145.855	29.138–60.716	600–3600
P. vietnamensis	98.420–111.547	20.667–24.900	600–2000
P. xichouensis	104.679–105.115	22.750–23.391	1200–1500
P. yanchii	99.305	25.891	2300–2800
P. yunnanensis	94.006–109.997	20.783–30.075	1000–3200

) of rhizomatous herbaceous perennials (Figure 1) with a wide geographic distribution across temperate and subtropical regions of Eurasia, predominantly found in China and the Himalayas [35]. The majority of species within this genus, particularly those with thick rhizomes, have long been used as traditional medicinal herbs in China, the Himalayas, and Northern Indochina for their remarkable efficacy in treating a diverse range of ailments [33,35,42]. The therapeutic utilization of medicinal Paris species has been extensively documented in the ancient Chinese Materia Medica literature, dating back to at least two thousand years ago, with the earliest mention found in the Shenlong Materia Medica Compendium [33]. The phytochemical investigations conducted thus far have isolated and identified over 200 specialized metabolites from Paris species, encompassing steroidal saponins, phytoecdysones, flavonoids, and triterpenoid saponins [35,43,44]. The pharmacological studies unveiled that steroidal saponins (Figure 2) are the predominant biologically active ingredients of Paris species, which manifests significant hemostatic [45,46,47], antimicrobial [48,49,50], and antitumor activities [51,52,53,54,55,56]. Drawing upon the traditional knowledge documented in the ancient Chinese Materia Medica literature and incorporating the findings of contemporary phytochemical and pharmacological investigations, a total of 92 pharmaceuticals and health products have been developed in China, utilizing processed rhizomes from medicinal Paris species as their primary raw materials [35,57]. Among them, the famous Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), namely, the “Yunnan Baiyao” series pharmaceuticals that demonstrate commendable analgesia and wound healing effects, as well as the gynecological hemostatic plant medicine called “Gong Xue Ning” capsule, are the most prominent perspectives.

Within angiosperms, the genus Paris have garnered considerable attention due to the possession of exceptionally giant genomes (

Table 2. Genome sizes of Paris species.

Species	1C Value (pg)	Species	1C Value (pg)
P. bashanensis	29.38 [35]	P. luquanensis	64.60 [35]
P. caobangensis	64.13–65.30 [35]	P. mairei	55.96 [35]
P. chinensis	55.34 [35]	P. marmorata	70.36 [35]
P. cronquistii	63.44 [35]	P. polyphylla	54.22 [61]
P. delavayi	61.79 [35]	P. quadrifolia	50.52 [61]
P. dunniana	59.98 [35]	P. tetraphylla	40.75 [61]
P. fargesii	60.83 [35]	P. thibetica	51.30 [35]
P. forrestii	55.37–87.27 [35]	P. vaniotii	55.38–60.80 [35]
P. incompleta	42.25 [61]	P. verticillata	31.21 [61]
P. japonica	152.23 [58]	P. vietnamensis	62.90 [35]
P. lancifolia	50.13–54.80 [35]	P. yanchii	53.75 [35]
P. liiana	52.98–59.14 [35]	P. yunnanensis	50.80–57.72 [35]

). For instance, Paris japonica (Franc. & Suto.) Franch., the largest eukaryotic genome holder [41,58,59], is a member of this genus. Despite possessing the minimum documented genome in this genus, Paris bashanensis Wang & Tang exhibits a significantly larger genome size (1 C = 29.38 pg) [35] compared to the average genome size observed in angiosperms [60,61]. Therefore, the genus Paris also represents a plant lineage that has attracted scientific interest in exploring the evolutionary and genetic mechanisms underlying the formation of large genomes [61]. Given the aforementioned pharmaceutical significance and scientific importance of the genus Paris, it is imperative to prioritize the conservation of Paris species and adopt a rational approach towards exploiting their natural resources for pharmaceutical purposes.

3. The Scarcity of Taxonomic Expertise Exacerbates the Risk of Extinct for Extant Paris Species

Serving as the raw materials for various commercial pharmaceuticals and health products, Rhizoma Paridis, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, is derived from the processed rhizomes of Paris chinensis Franch. and Paris yunnanensis Franch., which are consistently recognized as “medicinal Paris” by the China Pharmacopoeia Committee [62]. Prior to the 2000s, the pharmaceutical industrial completely relied on wild-harvested Rhizoma Paridis for product manufacturing [63]. It is worth noting that the diagnostic traits utilized for species delineation, including leaf, flower, fruit, and seed morphologies, exhibit significant intraspecific plasticity and interspecific resemblance [32,33,64], which presents challenges in accurate species identification in the absence of well-trained taxonomists. Due to the scarcity of taxonomic expertise among professionals involved in the collection of medicinal plants and trade of relevant plant products, almost all Paris species characterized by thick rhizome were indiscriminately harvested from their natural habitats and subsequently sold in various markets [35,57,65,66,67]. Notably, the natural propagation and population growth rate of Paris species is generally characterized by a significantly slow pace, as the process of transitioning from seed germination to flowering typically requires a minimum duration of three or four years [33,35,63]. As revealed by previous studies, plant species with slow growth rates generally tend to exhibit a higher susceptibility to overexploitation [68,69]. The substantial demand for raw materials (approximately 3,000,000 kg per annum in China) from the pharmaceutical industry inevitably led to the excessive exploitation of not only medicinal Paris species but also their congeners characterized by thick rhizomes [35,57,67]. Consequently, the natural populations of these Paris species occurring in China and neighboring countries have experienced rapid depletion, resulting in a scarcity of raw materials within the pharmaceutical industry [35,42,67,70].

At present, the conservation status of the majority of Paris species is significantly critical (

Table 3. Conservation status of Paris species evaluated with IUCN Red List criteria [71].

Species	Conservation Status	Species	Conservation Status
P. bashanensis	Vulnerable	P. mairei	Vulnerable
P. caobangensis	Vulnerable	P. marmorata	Vulnerable
P. chinensis	Vulnerable	P. polyphylla	Vulnerable
P. cronquistii	Vulnerable	P. qiliangiana	Vulnerable
P. delavayi	Vulnerable	P. quadrifolia	Least Concern
P. dunniana	Endangered	P. tetraphylla	Least Concern
P. fargesii	Vulnerable	P. thibetica	Vulnerable
P. forrestii	Vulnerable	P. vaniotii	Vulnerable
P. incompleta	Least Concern	P. verticillata	Least Concern
P. japonica	Least Concern	P. vietnamensis	Vulnerable
P. lancifolia	Vulnerable	P. xichouensis	Critically Endangered
P. liiana	Vulnerable	P. yanchii	Critically Endangered
P. luquanensis	Critically Endangered	P. yunnanensis	Vulnerable

). With the exception of five species (P. bashanensis, Paris incompleta M. Bieb, Paris quadrifolia L., Paris verticillata M. Bieb., and Paris tetraphylla A. Gray) characterized by elongated and slender rhizomes, and one species (P. japonica) with a thick rhizome, the remaining twenty species characterized by the presence of thick rhizomes and restricted distribution to China, and some other countries of the Himalayan region, and Northern Indochina, are classified as threatened taxa according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature [71] Red List Criteria [35]. With respect to these threatened Paris species, the harvesting of their rhizomes for commercial and therapeutic purposes has commonly led to a significant decline of their natural population sizes, with the reduction rate exceeding 50% within the past decade. As a result, three species, i.e., Paris luquanensis H. Li, Paris xichouensis (H. Li) Y. H. Ji, H. Li & Z. K. Zhou, and Paris yanchii H. Li, L. G. Lei & Y. M. Yang, with extremely small wild population sizes and restricted distributions, are categorized as critically endangered; one species (Paris dunniana Lévl) with severely fragmented distributions is identified as endangered; and 16 species, i.e., Paris caobanensis Y. H. ji, H. Li & Z. K. Zhou, P. chinensis, Paris croquistii (Takht.) H. Li, Paris delavayi Franch., Paris fargesii Franch., P. forrestii, Paris lancifolia Hayata, Paris liiana Y. H. Ji, Paris mairei Lévl, P. mormorata Stearn, Paris polyphylla Smith, P. qiliangiana H. Li, J. Yang & Y. H. Wang, Parsi thibetica Franch., Paris vietnamensis (Takht.) H. Li, and P. yunnanensis, are classified as vulnerable [35,72]. The proportion of threatened species within the genus Paris is remarkably high, with 81% species currently recognized as such. This ratio stands out when compared to the evaluation of threatened species by IUCN [73] across various angiosperm lineages (i.e., 30–40%), indicating that the genus Paris faces an elevated risk of species extinction compared to the majority of angiosperm genera. This implies that without the implementation of more effective conservation measures, some threatened species within their natural habitats may face imminent extinction, leading to a significant decline in the species diversity of this pharmacologically valuable and scientific important plant group. To mitigate the peril of their extinction, all these species have been encompassed in China’s List of National Key Protected Wild Plants [72].

The findings indicate that the primary threat imposing extensive extinct risk to extant Paris species is the overexploitation of their natural populations. Apart from the two medicinal Paris species defined by pharmacopoeia, the majority of congeneric species with thick rhizomes have also been implicated in this issue, as the indiscriminate collection of their rhizomes for therapeutic and commercial purposes has also resulted in the overexploitation of their natural populations. The identified threats to the genus Paris provide compelling empirical evidence, highlighting the detrimental impacts of inadequate taxonomic expertise on the sustainable utilization and conservation of wild plant resources. Refraining from addressing this knowledge gap will inevitably present an identical peril to an increasing number of plant lineages that similarly hold significant importance for human health and the livelihood of local communities in the future.

Notably, phytochemical investigations have revealed substantial variations in the chemical constituents within the rhizomes of different Paris species [35,43,67], indicating that the indiscriminate utilization of processed rhizomes from various species is likely to present significant challenges for quality control within the pharmaceutical industry, thereby resulting in inconsistent therapeutic effects of manufactured pharmaceuticals and herbal products. Accordingly, the implementation of stringent control and monitoring measures, specifically targeted at mitigating the indiscriminate collection and trade of diverse Paris species from wild populations, is imperative for the conservation of endangered Paris species, as well as for ensuring the efficacy and safety of relevant pharmaceuticals and herbal products [35,57,72]. To achieve this objective, a comprehensive, high-resolution, and taxonomically well-curated reference library has been recently established in China, which enables accurate identification of medicinal and threatened Paris species and facilitates effective authentication of related plant products (e.g., processed rhizomes, commercial seeds, and seedlings), by employing high-throughput sequencing technologies to generate complete plastomes and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) arrays as the molecular tags [57]. Previous studies demonstrated that the availability of precisely identified voucher specimens is essential for the establishment of a comprehensive, high-resolution, and taxonomically well-curated reference library for using molecular tags to facilitate accurate species identification [74,75,76,77,78]. The successful establishment of such a reference library for the utilization of high-throughput sequencing technologies in the accurate identification of medicinal and threatened Paris species provides further substantiation for the critical role of taxonomic expertise in biodiversity conservation and sustainability.

Overall, groundbreaking academic progress towards adeptly addressing the deficiencies in taxonomic expertise will significantly bolster the implementation of in situ conservation and management strategies, thereby safeguarding the natural populations of threatened plants with enhanced efficacy. Moreover, pursuing ex situ conservation strategies is essential for reinforcing the protection of these threatened species beyond their native habitats, by establishing safeguard populations and supplying individuals for potential future re-introductions to rehabilitate wild populations. Generally, both botanical gardens and seed banks serve as remarkably effective approaches for the ex situ conservation of endangered plants, and the enduring preservation of living plants and their seeds plays a pivotal role in ensuring species persistence and facilitating breeding programs. To achieve this objective, the comprehensive collection of precisely identified living plants and seeds is critically important. Consequently, enhancing expertise in plant taxonomy will significantly facilitate the effective conservation of threatened plant species.

4. Taxonomic Knowledge Gap Poses Obstacles to the Standardized Cultivation of Medicinal Paris

The commercial cultivation of overexploited plant species is frequently proposed as an effective strategy to meet the increasing market demand while simultaneously safeguarding wild populations of threatened plants [79,80,81,82,83,84,85]. In response to the scarcity of raw materials in the pharmaceutical industry, rather-large-scale commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species has been implemented in China and neighboring countries since the early 2000s, providing a sustainable alternative to the utilization of wild populations [35,42,63,67]. Furthermore, due to the substantial market demand and attractive price point, the commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species holds significant potential for economic profit generation and offers a viable means for alleviating rural poverty. As such, active encouragement for the commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species is prevalent in mountainous areas throughout southwestern China [35,67]. In the initial phase of commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species, their natural populations have experienced intensified harvesting pressure due to extensive collection of wild-sourced propagules for artificial propagation [67]. However, since 2000, the development of artificial pollination and seed propagation technologies in China has led to a gradual shift towards using seeds and seedlings collected from cultivated parental plants instead of relying on wild propagules, which has effectively mitigated the need for further harvesting harvest propagules from the wild since around 2015 [35]. The findings demonstrate that commercial cultivation has made a significant contribution to the conservation of both medicinal and threatened Paris species in China.

Unfortunately, many professionals engaged in the commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species ignore and lack taxonomic expertise and skill, as they have received poor training in the field of plant taxonomy. This knowledge gap has led to the indiscriminate introduction of almost all Paris species with thick rhizomes from the wild, followed by their cultivation in various plantation sites; such arbitrary introduction has inevitably inflicted damage on natural populations of threatened Paris species, particularly those characterized by extremely small population sizes and restricted distributions [35,67]. As a consequence of arbitrary introduction, some Paris species were introduced to an area with significantly different climate and environmental conditions compared to their original habitats; due to their ecological maladaptation, many individuals failed to survive in these introduced habitats [35,67]. On the other hand, the practice of artificial pollination is commonly employed to enhance the seed yield in the commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species, which also likely facilitates interspecific outcrossing among most Paris species characterized by thick rhizomes and synchronized flowering phenology [33,67]. Under such situations, although several Paris species suffering from arbitrary introduction can still persist and flourish, the intermingling of diverse congeneric species introduced from various regions may augment the probability of interspecific hybridization. As revealed by previous studies, interspecific hybridization, in particular between common and rare plant species, has great potential to result in the extinction of rare species [86,87]. Consequently, these findings suggest that the arbitrary misguided Paris introduction, which is associated with a scarcity of taxonomic expertise among professionals engaged in the commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species, would inevitably pose a great threat to the survival of the majority of extent Paris species and relevant pharmaceutical products.

Notably, the standardized cultivation of medicinal plants aims to produce profitable raw materials with superior quality and therapeutic properties from plantations, thus playing a pivotal role in ensuring the stringent quality control standards required by the pharmaceutical industry [88,89]. Consequently, the standardized cultivation of medicinal plants with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) has been strongly advocated and globally embraced; this significant practice emphasizes the fundamental criterion of ensuring the purity of medicinal plant propagules, including seeds, seedlings, and their parental individuals [88,89]. Considering the significant variations in the chemical constituents observed within the rhizomes of different Paris species [35,43], the aforementioned arbitrary introduction would also impose a substantial obstacle to the GAP standardized cultivation of medicinal Paris species and have adverse impacts on the quality control in the pharmaceutical industry.

Furthermore, the taxonomic confusion regarding the species delimitation of several species within the genus Paris also presents a considerable hindrance to the GAP standardized cultivation of medicinal Paris species. Within the genus Paris, the extensive intraspecific morphological plasticity contributes significantly to high levels of interspecific resemblance in morphological characteristics [32,33,64]. As a result, species delimitation solely based on morphological characteristics poses numerous challenges and controversies. For instance, P. chinensis and P. yunnanensis, which are designated as the botanic sources for Rhizoma Paridis [62], have also encountered this taxonomic knowledge gap. Since their original description by Franchet [90], there has been many controversies surrounding the taxonomic rank of the two taxa. Handel-Mazzetti proposed that their morphological characteristics bear a great resemblance to those of P. polyphylla, thereby reducing them as two conspecific varieties, namely, Paris polyphylla Smith var. chinensis (Franch.) Hara, P. polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (Franch.) Hand.-Mazz., within the latter species [91]; this taxonomic treatment was subsequently supported by Hara [32] and Li [33], as well as Liang and Soukup [34]. However, Takhtajan contended that distinct morphological characteristics exhibited by both P. chinensis and P. yunnanensis justify their reinstatement as separate species from the conspecific varieties of P. polyphylla [64]. The longstanding taxonomic confusion was resolved by recent phylogenomic studies, which revealed the dispersal positions of both P. chinensis and P. yunnanensis from P. polyphylla in the phylogenetic tree topologies, thereby providing robust evidence to recognize them as distinct species [37,38,39,40,92,93]. Additionally, phylogenomic analyses have also demonstrated that the previously defined species boundary of P. yunnanensis encompasses two morphologically similar yet genetically distinct lineages with non-overlapping distribution ranges; as a result, the identification and description of the so-called “high-stem P. yunnanensis” as a novel species were conducted [38]. The recent nuclear phylogenomic investigation inferred from transcriptome data has revealed that the speciation of P. liiana can be attributed to an interbreeding event between P. yunnanensis and the stem lineage ancestor of P. caobangensis and P. vietnamensis, thereby providing robust evidence supporting the taxonomic treatment recognizing P. liana as an independent species [93]. As the accurate delineation of species boundaries is a fundamental prerequisite for effectively addressing issues related to species conservation and exploitation [18,94,95], the resolution of the long-standing taxonomic confusion regarding the species delimitation of P. chinensis and P. yunnanensis provides significant potential to enhance strategies for the conservation and sustainable utilization of these pharmaceutically important plants.

The commercial cultivation of medicinal Paris species has been established since the early 2000s, with P. yunnanensis being cultivated on a large scale in southwestern China to provide raw material for pharmaceutical and health product manufacturing [35,63,67]. Due to the taxonomic ambiguity surrounding the species delimitation of P. yunnanensis mentioned above, extensive cultivation of P. liiana has been conducted as a result of previous misidentification as P. yunnanensis, subsequently leading to frequent adulteration of its seeds, seedlings, and processed rhizomes with those of P. yunnanensis; consequently, the GAP standardized cultivation of P. yunnanensis is compromised by this problematic operation [92]. To address this issue, a PCR-free authentication system has been developed, utilizing the genome skimming approach to generate complete plastomes and nrDNA arrays as molecular tags for detecting adulteration of commercial seeds, seedlings, and processed rhizomes of P. yunnanensisis with P. liiana [92].

5. Conclusions and Suggestions

Despite the pivotal role of taxonomy in biodiversity conservation, the progress and development of this scientific discipline have been significantly constrained and marginalized in recent decades, thereby resulting in a sharp decline in well-trained taxonomist and substantial taxonomic knowledge gaps [24,25,26,27,28]. Given the potential adverse consequences for global or regional biodiversity conservation and sustainability resulting from the ongoing recession and marginalization of taxonomy, there is an increasing call for the resurgence and advancement of this scientific discipline with a focus on high-quality researches [19,27,28,29,30,31]. The monocotyledonous genus Paris exhibits distinctive morphologies within angiosperms and possesses significant pharmaceutical significance and scientific importance. The conservation and rational exploitation of this plant lineage, however, encounter numerous obstacles due to the presence of taxonomic knowledge gap. Specifically, the lack of taxonomic expertise among many professionals engaged in the collection, commercial cultivation, and trade of medicinal plants has led to uncontrolled harvesting and arbitrary introduction of nearly all Paris species with thick rhizomes from their natural habitats [35,57,65,66,67]. These problematic practices not only pose a significant threat to the survival of most existing Paris species but also have considerable adverse impacts on quality control in the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, the taxonomic ambiguity regarding the species delimitation of several species within the genus Paris, such as P. yunnanensis, poses a significant obstacle to the GAP standardized cultivation of medicinal Paris species. Collectively, the findings offer robust empirical evidence supporting the crucial significance of plant taxonomy in biodiversity conservation and sustainability, thereby justifying the call for the resurgence and advancement of this scientific discipline with an emphasis on high-quality research [19,27,28,29,30,31]. Accordingly, enhancing taxonomic accuracy and robustness, as well as disseminating taxonomic expertise, are imperative for the conservation and sustainability of economically significant plant lineages. These measures can effectively mitigate the indiscriminate harvesting and arbitrary introduction of wild plants while promoting standardized cultivation practices in accordance with GAP guidelines to ensure quality control in the manufacturing of relevant pharmaceutical industrial products.

For addressing the aforementioned issues, molecular techniques for identifying Paris species and authenticating relevant plant products have been developed in recent years; these employ high-throughput sequencing technologies to generate genome-scale data as molecular markers [57,92]. These advancements significantly contribute to enhancing the efficacy and safety assurance of pharmaceuticals and health products that utilize Rhizoma Paridis as their raw materials, while also contributing to conservation efforts for threatened Paris species, indicating that the effective resolution of certain issues resulting from the taxonomic knowledge gap can be achieved through the utilization of modern technology. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate additional cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in order to effectively address persistent issues and promote innovation in the field of taxonomy. These advancements will contribute to the widespread recognition and appreciation of this scientific discipline in both society and academia, thereby effectively mitigating its decline and marginalization.