The Flora of Virginia will describe more than 3,500 taxa in 200 families, with 1,400 illustrations. The Flora will make it easier to identify Virginia plants. But it will also have great applied value.
It will:
Provide baseline information on the state’s plant resources—important information for educators, scientists, land-use planners, and amateur naturalists.
Be an essential diagnostic tool for monitoring environmental change in Virginia, including shifts in species distribution, vegetational responses to climate change, behavior of non-native species, and extinctions.
Include new discoveries for the state and incorporate state-of-the-art biosystematics from the latest approaches in field botany and molecular taxonomy.
Engender deeper respect for the beauty and diversity of Virginia’s plant resources and strengthen the scientific basis for conservation measures.
Here are some of the people who’ll use the Flora.
Botanists
Virginia has a rich tradition of botanical exploration, but to identify a Virginia plant can require the use of four or more floras written for another state or region. To characterize the plant community of a site, an ecologist might have to consult 10,000 pages of text!
Most floras are out of date. Since 1985, 50 plant species have been discovered in Virginia, some of which may be new to science. Many species are obscure and difficult to identify using the current literature. And recent advances in genetics have revealed intriguing taxonomic relationships. For hundreds of our plants the scientific name has changed for this and a variety of other reasons. The Flora of Virginia, which will incorporate these developments, will be a very welcome addition to the Virginia botanist’s tool kit.
Feel the frustration of co-author Chris Ludwig as he attempts to identify, without a Virginia flora, just a small number of specimens from Lee County.
Decision makers
Effective decisions on zoning, regulation, legislation, and open-space conservation must be reached using reliable, complete information. Because Virginia does not have a flora, decisionmakers’ understanding of the state’s vegetation and landscape is compromised. So, therefore, are their decisions on land use, conservation, and business. The Flora will supply the most current and accurate information available.
Students and educators
Without a Virginia flora, those studying or teaching botany in the state are disadvantaged. The content and format of the Flora of Virginia have been conceived to help educators introduce Virginia plants to students.
Classroom activities are planned that will use the Flora. Activities will be keyed into Virginia’s standards of learning and welcoming the educational approach urged by Richard Louv in his Last Child in the Woods.
Also, the Flora’s Internet presence will be strengthened. Resources will incude photographs and drawings illustrating many species and depicting plant habits and special characters. And forums will be created for educators and other users of the Flora.
See how the Flora will be useful to teachers seeking botanical approaches to meeting Virginia’s Standards of Learning for science.
Herbaria
A herbarium is an archive of plant specimens, preserved, identified, and mounted, for study and plant identification. Most herbaria are affiliated with universities or museums, and the Flora Project has made extensive use of the herbaria at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, Longwood University, and the University of North Carolina.
The Flora of Virginia likewise is going to be a key reference at herbaria, even those in other states.
Virginians
Pollution, a burgeoning population, habitat destruction and fragmentation, and invasive species affect us all, but efforts to solve these problems are diminished by lack of knowledge. The Flora will help make Virginians aware of the plants they encounter daily—including the problematic ones. In doing so, it will foster respect for the beauty and diversity of Virginia’s flora, respect vital to conservation of the plant life that sustains us all.