Phytogeographic, taxonomic, nomenclatural and related data
BONAP’s vascular plant phytogeographic, taxonomic, nomenclatural and related data fields were published in August, 1999 on a CD-ROM entitled the Synthesis of the North American Flora. This work also provided a complete update of the second edition of Dr. Kartesz's 1994 Timber Press publication, A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, Volumes 1 & 2.. Data found within the Synthesis served as national standards for many federal government agencies, and had provided the data backbone for the U.S.D.A. Natural Resources Conservation Service's PLANTS Database, as well as for the central database of NatureServe, most of the Natural Heritage Programs, the Canadian Provincial Conservation Data Centres, and many other public and private groups.Over the past ten years these data have undergone exhaustive scrutiny and revision in preparation for the forthcoming publication, which is planned for release in the spring of 2010.
County-level data
Building upon the 240,000 state or equivalent records that were published within the 1999 publication, BONAP is now maintaining county-level phytogeographic data for all U.S. states. For these states, it will be possible to produce county-level listings for all plant taxa. The county level data, which will be included within the 2010 publication, are based upon nearly four million vouchered records. To see a small sample of the nearly 30,000 maps, please see the phytogeography updates page.
Vouchering data for state- and equivalent-level phytogeographic records
BONAP is working collaboratively with numerous curators, floristicians, and others to provide voucher location data for each accepted taxon found within the 70 state- or equivalent-level areas as well as the approximately 3,100 U.S. counties that we treat. We and our collaborators are documenting occurence data by searching state-level repositories, which will be followed by regional and national repository searches. By applying this strategy, we hope to provide incentives for state curators to secure voucher collections for all taxa occurring within their own states or equivalent areas. Please contact Dr. John Kartesz for additional details.
Plant identification
In our effort to build a continental plant identification system, BONAP now maintains several thousand character-state morphological attribute fields for the entire North American vascular flora. The character-state matrix include fields such as flower color, flower season, petal number, leaf position, leaf type, plant habit, type of armament, etc. A major effort is underway to edit the morphological files for all plant species found within North America north of Mexico, from which detailed descriptions and specialized random-access keys will be produced.
BONAP has recently completed draft-level random access keys for all 1,749 North American genera (all genera found within North America north of Mexico, excluding those restricted to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and/or the U.S. Virgin Islands), and hopes to complete the species keys within the next few years. However, BONAP has completed a family key to the flowering plants for the continent based upon scores of character traits that are fully populated for their representative families. The polyclave or random-access key included within BONAP's forthcoming 2010 publication, can be used in connection with nearly a quarter of a million images. The resulting product (a visual polyclave) will function by using a series of whole-plant illustration (as many as 60 per screen) in concert with morphology. At any point along the identification process, the user may display a series of images and make a tentative identification by matching an unknown plant with the images. In most cases, with only a few morphological choices, along with the selection from a display of images, an unequivocal identification can be made.
Photographs and illustrations
BONAP is working with botanists and plant photographers across the continent to acquire color slides for all of the approximate 33,000 plant taxa in North America north of Mexico. Nearly 250,000 photographs and/or illustrations have already been assembled for this purpose. We welcome the participation of individual photographers who may be interested in assisting with this effort by submitting their slides. Each contributor will retain full copyright and ownership of their slides, and each slide selected will be credited to its contributor. Since both the slides and pen-and-ink illustrations will be used exclusively for future editions of the Synthesis, they will not be available to the general public, nor for any other purpose without written permission from the photographer! We welcome interested individuals to contact BONAP.For a sample of some of BONAP's pictures, please see BONAP Image Gallery by Jessie M. Harris.
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