Distribution data of Rhododendron species in China

Data processing methods and steps: the distribution data of Rhododendron species analyzed in this study included over 70,000 records, covering China and adjacent countries. These data were obtained from online databases, including the Chinese Virtual Herbarium (CVH, cvh.ac.cn), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, gbif.org), Biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountains (BHM, hengduan.huh.harvard.edu/fieldnotes/), the herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KUN, groups.kib.cas.cn/kun/), as well as from field surveys conducted by several research groups and collection teams of Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBOWS) over the past two decades.

We used Flora of China (FOC, iplant.cn/foc) and Plants of the World Online (POWO, powo.science.kew.org) for species name standardization and correction. To ensure data validity and accuracy, incomplete geographic information, duplicates, cultivated plants, and specimen records from urban botanical gardens, parks, and museums were removed. Specimens with odd distribution points and conflicting identifications (e.g., identical collector and collection number but different species names) were re-identified. Only one record per grid cell was retained for each species to avoid uneven sampling.