The Trail Companion

Winter 2002

Photographers Needed to Document California Plants

The Calflora database needs your help to fill out the database of California plants. As of January 10, 2002, they

have 23,488 photos of 3,543 California plants (46%)
need photos for 4,117 additional plants (54%).

They hope to add at least 202 additional species by May 2002. They would also like additional photos that show all parts of a plant and the variation within species. They are especially looking for photos of diagnostic (key) characters that help to identify species.

Calflora (www.calfora.org) is a comprehensive database of plant distribution information for California. The database is a collaborative project of USDA Forest Service, the UC Berkeley Digital Library Project, the United States Geological Survey, the UC Davis Information Center for the Environment, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and others. It features three databases: a species database, an occurrence database, and a nomenclature database. The species database is searchable by common and scientific names, as well as by family. Searches can also be limited by geographic area, life form, elevation, native/non-native, rare/non-rare, and plant community. Many of the entries have multiple photos, making the database a useful tool for identifying mystery plants, particularly in conjunction with guidebooks.

Editor's note: Common names (being what they are) may not appear in the database. The species names are taken from Munz' A California Flora and Supplement (1958 and 1968) and Skinner and Hick's CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California (1994) - names in the Jepson Manual (1993) may vary!