The Missouri Botanical Garden has completed a 26-year effort to document the state's native plants.
The three-volume Flora of Missouricontains illustrations, plant distribution maps, and a detailed description of each species, including its taxonomy, uses, and conservation status.
This encyclopedic work updates the original Flora of Missouri, first published in 1963 by the late Julian Steyermark.
The Missouri Department of Conservation collaborated on the revised edition.
In addition to providing a comprehensive reference for scientists, land managers and gardeners, the books will serve as a guide to another Botanical Garden project, the Seed Bank, which aims to collect and preserve the seeds of all the native plants of Missouri by the end of the decade.
“The success of the Seed Bank hinges on our ability to correctly identify the plants species we encounter in the field,” said Seed Bank manager Ginger Allington. “This book will be an asset to this project because it provides up-to-date and detailed information on the most important plant families in Missouri.”
Some information from the flora of Missouri project is also being made available through an online database.
Follow Véronique LaCapra on Twitter: @KWMUScience
