The People Behind the FNA

Botanists from around the world are working on a massive project to record the vegetative history of North America (north of Mexico) and Greenland. They are examining two centuries of floristic literature and herbarium specimens, and supplementing the results with modern-day field work. The conclusion will be thirty volumes of descriptive and biological information on the over twenty thousand native and naturalized plants of the continental region.

Over nine hundred scientists are working on the Flora of North America project. Since 1983 the editorial headquarters for the project has been at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Eight volumes have been published with a goal set to complete the remainder by 2011.

It takes a certain character to become a botanical collector or taxonomist. In an article published in the Riverfront Times, Kristen Hinman takes a look at some of the characters involved.

Links:

• Flower Power, a somewhat ribald look at researchers invloved in the Flora of North America Project from the Riverfront Times


• The Flora of North America Project

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:44 PM on February 8, 2005

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