Calflora NEWS
NEWS Updated October 30, 2023    Click for details
2023 October 27 John Malpas, a member of Calflora staff, received this year's Jake Sigg award for vision and dedicated service in protecting California’s wildlands from invasive plants. At the 2023 Cal-IPC Symposium, October 25 - 27, CSU Chico. John Malpas and Cynthia Powell
2023 September If you have a Calflora observation with photos, you can use Plant Observation Entry to ask PlantNet for an ID. details
2023 April Are you having a problem with a Calflora application, or do you have a suggestion? Make a GitHub account and submit a bug report.
You can also view reports submitted by other users.
details
2023 February Trainings offered by Calflora.
2022 October Great Places to view California native plants:
2022 June In Advanced Search for Plants v. 0.91 you can view (and download) any of 45 species attributes. details
2021 May Introducing the Photo Essay, a kind of report that can be generated from either Observation Search or My Observations. All photos for each observation are included. details
Users' comments and corrections on observation records are an important part of quality control. Read about how the process works: details
How to obscure an observation record. details
How to draw a polygon in Calflora map applications. VIDEO
Observation Search demonstration VIDEO
What Grows Here? demonstration VIDEO
Email alerts -- be notified by email when new observations arrive.
Need help with plant identification from a photo?
Join the PLANT ID HELP group.
Calflora on social media:   Facebook    LinkedIn    Twitter    YouTube    details
More News For more information, please contact Calflora support.

 
Applications
Searching for Plants
What Grows Here?

What Grows Here? (WGH) can display a thorough plant list for a chosen area of the state. Select the area by moving and zooming the map, or draw a polygon, or choose a polygon from a background layer, such as the boundary of a park.

To find a named location in California, open LOCATION, and enter the name. When you choose from the list of matching names, the map will jump to that place.


WGH provides some interesting ways to visualize plant data -- for instance, displaying the locations of several plants on the map at the same time, assigning a different icon to each plant. A set of plant - icon assignments is called a palette.

For example, here are fifteen commercially available, low-water native perennial grasses displayed in What Grows Here? starting near Santa Barbara. Move the map to where you live, and discover which of these grasses grow wild near you.

More Examples of Custom Palettes:

Red and white alder locations in Northern California
(Hint: move the map to a new location, and press the button)

Common North Coast native plants, starting in Fort Bragg

Bay Area Manzanitas, starting in Oakland

Asclepias species (milkweeds), starting near Redding,


HELP

RELEASE NOTES



Icons and Palettes
To view the locations of a plant on the map, you have a choice of various colored icons. The default icon is a blue point:

A palette is a set of plant - icon assignments. As you choose icons to display various plants in the results, you are implicitly making a custom palette. Custom palettes can be saved and used again.


Here is an example:

Red and white alder locations:


Advanced Search for Plants
This application provides for combinations of search criteria not available from the regular Search for Plants, such as:
  • Does USDA PLANTS recognize the name?
  • Can it tolerate a soil pH of 4.0?
  • Does it bloom in January?


May, 2015. This application will also search for the plants found in a county, with a selectable level of evidence (the minimum number of observations of the plant in the county). So for instance, you could search for plants for which there are at least five observations in Del Norte County.



Calochortus plummerae
Plummer's mariposa lily
© 2015 Kristin Sabo

Search for Plants
The classic Calflora home page search interface.



 
Searching for Observations

Observation Search
to search for observations with the help of a Google Map. This application shows contributed photos when they are available.

It is possible to limit the geographical extent of the search to
  • the visible map area
  • a drawn search polygon (the same as What Grows Here?)
  • the boundary of a background polygon, such as a park
  • a county (check Tools / Advanced Form)

 

Ceanothus gregii var. perplexans, cupped leaf ceanothus, San Diego Co. © 2011 Sherie Hubble


Other Data Sources: In addition to showing records contributed directly to Calflora, Observation Search can also show specimen records from the Consortium of California Herbaria, and observation records with photos from iNaturalist.

Symbology. Open TOOLS / Symbology to control which colored icons are used to represent points on the map. There are two themes available: Plant Name and Management Status. DETAILS



HELP




Recent native plant observations with photos

Erisimum capitatum,
Wallflower
Santa Clara Co.
© 2012 Guy Riddle

Watching weeds:
Bay Area Weeds
Southern California Weeds

Observation Detail
In Observation Search when you click on the ID of an observation, a menu appears. Click detail in this menu to go to the Observation Detail page. Here is an example:
Mary Conway's record of Eriogonum umbellatum var. polyanthum

This page shows basic information about the record. If you are signed into Calflora as a contributor, you can open COMMENTS to read others' comments on the record, or add your own comment. Click on the Observer PROFILE to see basic information about the contributor.

If the contributor added photos to the record, they appear on the right hand side of this page. If you are signed into Calflora as a contributor, you will see a "Like" link under each photo. Click the link once to "like" the photo.

If you click on location-closeup, you will go the Plant Distribution application for this plant, showing the location of this observation record. This is an easy way to see if there are other observations of the same plant nearby.

Click on the Plant Observation Entry link to see all of the information the contributor added to this record. (Plant Observation Entry is the observation editor application.)

To view this observation in its spatial and ecological context, there are two links at the bottom of the page. The What Grows Here? link shows which other plants grow near the location of this observation. The Observation Search link shows other observations that have been made near the location of this observation.








© 2018 Mary Conway
Map Background Layers
The various mapping applications can show a number of background layers, or polygon sets.

These include Accumulated Temperature, Growing Season, December Low, July High, and Temperature Range (all derived from data from the Prism Climate Group) and various soil factors (eg. pH, Salinity) from the NRCS SSURGO database.

HELP


With the Annual Precipitation layer showing, click on the map to see the annual preciptation at that point.

Annual precipitation: 31 inches



 
Entering Observations
Observer Pro Smart Phone Application
for Android and iOS devices.
ANDROID iOS
Get the Observer Pro app from Google Play
(search for "Calflora")

About the app

Full Documentation

Get the Observer Pro app from iTunes
(search for "Calflora Observer Pro")

About the app

Full Documentation

  • v. 2.0.132 released May, 2019

  • v. 2.0.126 released November, 2018
    • Symbology: From History / MAP, you can choose how the points indicating historical records will be colored. For instance, by plant name, or by management status.

  • v. 2.0.121 released September, 2018

  • v. 2.0.111 released November, 2017
    • As an Indenpendent, you can load your own list of historical records
    • A map interface shows the bounding box for each offline map cache

  • v. 2.0.95 released April, 2016
    • The map has a scale bar
    • Polygons of historical records are visible

  • v. 2.0.76 released April, 2015
    • View historical records
    • Make new assessments of historical records

  • v. 2.0.48 released April, 2014 (first public version)
  • v. 1.5.4 released May, 2019
    • Take photos from the gallery (picking up coordinates and date) OR from the camera.
    • When you try to refresh without network connectivity, you will get a warning.

  • v. 1.4.1 released October, 2018

  • v. 1.3.4 released June, 2018

  • v. 1.3.3 released April, 2018
    • Works on a wifi only iPad, with an external GPS receiver (Bluetooth connected)

  • v. 1.3 released December, 2017

  • v. 1.1.2 released June, 2017

  • v. 1.0 released April, 2017 (first public version)




  • Help and Support for using Observer Pro

    My Calflora / Preferences / Using Observer Pro as an Independent

    An external GPS device is highly recommended for increasing accuracy. See this article:
    Using an External Bluetooth GPS Receiver with a Smartphone or Tablet

    Calflora Field Methods

    Define your own plant lists for use in the smart phone applications.


    Plant Observation Entry (POE)
    to view, enter or edit a plant observation record.

    Photos can be uploaded directly from your computer to become part of your observation record. If your photo is already on the web you can add the URL of the photo to an observation record.

    If you have a geotagged photo, and you add it to a new record, POE will extract the location and the date from the photo. DETAILS



    Multiple Photo Upload
    to transform photos of plants into observations. If a photo is geotagged, the software will pick up the location.
    Mentzelia laevicaulis, Giant Blazing Star, near Susanville © 2011 Orrin Winton
    Survey / Checklist Entry
    to enter a survey or a checklist (many plants observed at one location).


    Observation Upload
    to upload an entire dataset directly into the database.

    Copy and paste from a spreadsheet, or upload a shapefile. During the process, you assign fields in the dataset being uploaded to fields in the Calflora database.

    HELP

    When you upload a shapefile, the server will take it apart and return the data to this application. Then you assign the attributes from the shapefile to database fields.


    Contributor Services
    Email Alerts
    You can be notified by email whenever new observation records show up in the database. For instance, you might want to be alerted when any new observation of a certain plant shows up in a certain area.

    To set up an alert, first use Observation Search to search for the plants you are interested in, in the area you are interested in.

    Then open TOOLS / SAVED SEARCHES, and save your search by name.

    Then go to My Calflora / Alerts. You will see the search you just saved in the table of AVAILABLE SEARCHES. Click on that search, and choose whether you want the alert every week or every month.

    See also the My Calflora Help page


    Here is an example of an alert, sent on September 1, 2016, for
    Observations of Mimulus species with photos:

    Here are 3 records that have been added or modified in the past month.
    Mimulus guttatus,  Yellow monkey flower
    Butte County
    David popp, 2016-08-26 (modified on 2016-08-27)
    Mimulus lewisii,  Lewis' monkey flower
    Madera County
    R. Adam Chasey, 2016-08-29
    Mimulus primuloides var. primuloides,  Primrose monkeyflower
    Madera County
    R. Adam Chasey, 2016-08-05 (modified on 2016-08-26)
    Here are all matching records for your alert.


    If you are interested in weeds, take a look at the Regional Priorities for Invasive Plant Management group which Cal-IPC has set up. Priority plant lists have been developed for several regions. You can access these plant lists, and the corresponding saved searches, from the Regional Priorities group home page.

    If you are a member of the group, you can use any one of these saved searches as an email alert.

    Comment on Observations
    There is a comment system for observations. If you are registered as a contributor, you can add a comment on any observation record.

    If you come across an observation where the plant identification looks wrong, or it seems like the plant is growing in someon's garden, put a comment on it! You will be helping with Calflora's overall quality control.

    From My Calflora / Comments, you can look up all the comments you have made, or all the comments others have made about your observations.

    Informed comments can be a helpful source of feedback to the person responsible for an observation.

    For legacy observation data (where the observer is no longer accessible), comments help Calflora get erroneous records out of public view.

    Customize your Calflora Experience
    My Calflora / Preferences:
    If you have added photos to your Calflora observations, you can choose to let others use your photo according to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). This only applies to photos attached to published observations..

    You can also specify your own center point for observations. This becomes the starting point for various applications, including Plant Observation Entry, My Observations, and Observation Search. (If you haven't specified a center point, these applications start near Fresno.)

    If you belong to groups, you can specify a default group for all new observations you make with a phone app.

    You can also ask to be notified by email when there is new activity in one of your groups, or when there are new comments about your records.


    Jepsonia paryi, Parry's jepsonia, near Flores Peak, Orange Co. © 2011 Ron Vanderhoff
    My Observations
    to review, edit and publish your observations.


    Plant List Definition
    Use this application to define your own plant lists to be used in search applications (Observation Search, What Grows Here?) and the phone applications.

    Cut and paste a list of plant names from anywhere. The application accepts older scientific names, and resolves them to current Calflora names.

    (As of November, 2018) If you enter just a genus in a plant list, it will be resolved to all native plants in that genus.

    Certain special purpose plant lists are available for all users.

    The Monarch Nectar plant list is a work in progress. If you are aware of other wild plants that Monarchs use for nectar, anywhere in California, native or not, please write to us.



    HELP



    Press Illustrated Plant List for a printable version of a list -- three photos for each plant.




    Monarch caterpillar on narrowleaf milkweed, Asclepias fscicularis, © 2016 Glen Schneider
    Observation Download
    to search for and download observations in a variety of formats.

    Shapefiles are available as an Output Format. Choose from Shapefile: point, Shapefile: line, or Shapefile: polygon.

    HELP




    Search for records of a particular plant, set Output Format = KML and press Download File to view the results in Google Earth. If there are any lines or polygons in the results, you will be able to see them in Google Earth.

    Example: Saccharum ravennae (ravennagrass) including lines and polygons from UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve.


     
     
    Searching for Places
    Great Places  to view California native plants
    The Great Places application shows places in California which are particularly good for viewing native plants. The search page shows the number of acres and the density (native species per acre) for each place.

    If you have already made a bunch of observations with photos in a particular area, then that area would probably make an excellent Great Place.


    The places can include both wild locations and gardens where natives have been planted. There are three component applications: a home/search page, a page about a particular place, and an editor for adding a new place page.


    White's Hill Open Space, Marin County


    © 2015 Marin County Parks


    Fern Canyon Area, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

    © 2014 William Flaxington

    Lightning Ridge Nature Trail

    © 2008 Graham Bothwell.
    Place Name Search
    to search for places in California by name, and show them on a map.

    Survey / Checklist Search
    to search through all available checklists and surveys, and show the results on a map.

    Example: Checklists in San Diego County


    Click through to see any checklist as an Illustrated Plant List -- it is printable, and suitable for use as a field guide.



    HELP

    An example checklist:
    Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Barbara County.

     
    Plant Information
    Planting Guide
    Use this application to search for native plants likely to grow well at your chosen location. Click on the map to indicate the location, press SEARCH, and the results will show commercially available native plants appropriate to the elevation, climate and soil of the chosen site.

    If there is an important existing plant at the location, and you want to choose other plants that grow with that plant, open More Criteria and enter the name of the plant.


    When you are seeing a good plant list, you can download it as a spreadsheet or email it to yourself, and then forward it to native plant nurseries to find out what they have in stock.

    The TOOLS menu also includes a Download spreadsheet link. Here is an example:








    Location Suitability
    From the Taxon Report page for the plant, click on the link to go to the Location Suitability page. Click on the map to indicate the location of your garden. Scan the third column, "LOCATION VALUES", to see if there are any pink warnings indicating location values outside of the tolerances of the plant.
      If there are warnings, you may want to try a different plant.
    If there are NO warnings, then this plant is compatible with the conditions at your location. As a further sanity check, press
      SEARCH in the map area
    to find out if this plant has been reported growing wild, close to your location. If it does grow close by, this is a good sign that it could do well at your site. (See also the discussion on CNPLX.)

    HELP



    A YouTube VIDEO from Steve Rosenthal (Santa Clara Valley CNPS Chapter) on using Location Suitability
    Taxon Report
    Watch this YouTube VIDEO describing the Taxon Report page.

    The Taxon Report page is now mobile friendly. If you view it on a narrow width device such as a phone or tablet, it will adapt to show the most important information in a single long column.

    The map on the Taxon Report page indicates plant presence by means of points and quads (instead of by colored counties).

    The map shows elevation in colors inspired by a classic USGS map. Mouse over the map to see county names, and click on the map to see all records from that county in Observation Search.

    From the Taxon Report page, there are prominent links to

    Example: the page for Eriophyllum confertiflorum (golden yarrow).


    PlantID.net
    PlantID.net is a website which offers help in identifying wild plants in Calfornia. It has a really good search feature: from the top page, you can enter any of the following:
      county
      plant type (eg. "shrub")
      flower shape
      flower color
      leaf shape
    and the site will find the matching plants. The site has lots of big photos, some of them annotated. This site is the brainchild of Bruce Homer-Smith, and more useful features are coming. For instance, here is an article on Marin Manzanitas.

    The Calflora Taxon Report page also has a link to the PlantID.net page for the same plant, for those plants now covered by PlantID.net. The link is in the More Information section; for instance Arctostaphylos canescens.

    Plant Characteristics and Associations
    This page shows the climate and soil tolerances of a plant (the conditions under which the plant will grow). Press the Location Suitability link on this page to match plant tolerances with the climate and soil factors of a particular location.

    From the Taxon Report page for a particular plant, press the Plant Characteristics link in the center.


    The climate factor, Accumulated Temperature helps to distinguish very hot places from moderately hot places. Also, the factor fomerly known as Warm Months has been recalculated and re-named Growing Season.

    Climate factors are mostly based on data from the Prism Climate Group at Oregon State University. Taken together, they describe the local climate of various locations in California. By extension, the climate tolerances of a particular plant can be inferred from values of the factors at locations where the plant is known to grow.


    Metallic green sweat bee
    © 2007 Gary McDonald

    HELP










    Visualization (shading) of a dramatic change in accumulated temperature: from Mt. San Jacinto to Palm Springs


    This also page shows what other organisms are associated with a plant, both beneficial and pest. Data about native bees and other beneficial insects are from the XERCES SOCIETY.



    EXAMPLES:

    Eriogonum umbellatum, sulphur buckwheat

    Artemisia californica, coastal sage brush


    Beneficial Insects: Those plants known to be particularly attractive to beneficial insects are marked with a butterfly icon.




    Plant Distribution
    indicates the range of a plant by highlighting watersheds where the plant has been observed. It can also show point locations.

    From the Taxon Report page for a particular plant, press the Distribution Grid link.

    The watershed polygons are colored to indicate possible vs. confirmed range. For instance, this page for Vaccinium ovatum, evergreen huckleberry.



    HELP

    This application can show shape data (lines and polygons) when available. The grid is an interesting way to bring point data and shape data together on the same map, at whatever scale.

    Here is an example polygon for a weed in Marin Co.:

    Cytisus scoparius (scotch broom)
    in Corte Madera
    (Marin County Open Space District)
    Bloom Period
    is shown on over 9,000+ Taxon Report pages. (See this note for more about bloom period and the sources of the data.) For example, see this page for Madia elegans.

    An illustrated plant list can also show bloom period, and sort by the bloom start month.

    The Advanced Search for Plants application supports searching by a bloom month; for instance, plants that bloom during June.



    Madia elegans, common Madia
    2011-8-31 Lassen Co. © 2011 Orrin Winton

     

    Calflora on Social Media

    Facebook: Calflora

    LinkedIn: Calflora Users

    Twitter: Calflora

    YouTube

    Note that Calflora posts on these social media sites in order to highlight the work of Calflora contributors and partners, and to introduce users to Calflora tools and features.

    It is our intention that all of the information we post be accurate. If you notice something that appears inaccurate, please contact Calflora support.


     
    Working with Other Organizations
    CNDDB
    The California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB) is a program within the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) that tracks the status and locations of rare plants and animals in California. The CNDDB is used by federal and state agencies, private consultants, and conservation organizations and is an essential tool for evaluating rare species conservation in California. Please visit the CNDDB website for additional information.

    2020 January
    For Calflora contributors who collect rare plant data, and have set the access value of their observations to be either obscured or private, there is a streamlined way to make those observations available to CNDDB:

      In My Calflora / Preferences, open Observation Sharing, and check the box to share original coordinates of obscured records with CNDDB, or check the box to share private records with CNDDB. CNDDB staff have a special way to extract records that have been shared in this way.
    To use the form recommended by CNDDB for rare plant observations, join the Specialty group and use the Rare plants project. This form was updated in January, 2020 -- several free text entry fields have been replaced by drop down entry fields.

     
    Technical Notes

    2020 June:
    Notifications: If you see a red circle with a white number in it next to your name in the upper right corner of the page, it means you have some notifications from Calflora. Click on the red circle to see the notifications. You might be notified, for instance, when someone comments on one of your records.

    2019 August:
    Rare Plant Rank Updates: Calflora is now receiving quarterly rare plant information from the California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB) instead of from the CNPS Inventory. This information includes which plants have a California Rare Plant Rank, and in which quadrangles those plants have been observed.

    2019 February:
    SSL / HTTPS: All Calflora pages work only under the HTTPS protocol.

    2018 September:
    SSL / HTTPS: All Calflora pages work under the HTTPS protocol. Some pages (when a user might be reading or writing secure information) only work under the HTTPS protocol. We are headed in the direction of having most Calflora pages served through HTTPS most of the time. If you are viewing a page through the insecure HTTP protocol, and your browser calls out the page as being "Not Secure", click on the EDIT - SIGN OUT link in the upper right of the page, and then click Go to the secure version of this page.

    If you are not signed in, the link in the upper right is called SIGN IN - REGISTER.

    Registration: Before September 27, 2018, there used to be a choice when you registered with Calflora -- you could choose to register as as a contributor, or not. This caused confusion, particularly when people tried to use the phone applications without having registered as a contributor.

    As of September 27, there is no longer a choice -- every new user who registers will be registered as a contributor. If you regsitered as a non-contributor before September 27, then the next time you edit your account, you will be registered as a contributor.

    2018 September:
    Calflora has a new Terms of Service and a new Privacy Policy. The Terms of Service clarifies the relationship between Calflora and its users, and is consistent with modern best practices for websites like Calflora.

    The next time you sign in to Calflora, or make a new account, you will be asked to agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.

    One note: after accepting the terms and signing in, your preference for photo sharing will be set to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). If you do not want this, go to My Calflora / Preferences and change it back to Calflora use only.

    Please write us with any questions.


     

    See also Web Applications for Invasives


    Lewisia redidiva
    Bitter root
    © 2014 Vertin Alvarez
    Silene laciniata ssp. laciniata, cardinal catchfly, San Luis Obispo Co. © 2012 Terrence Gosliner

     
    More News  
     
    2022 July The flora of Fort Ord, Monterey County, in 70 checklists courtesy of David Stryer and associates.
    2022 March Calflora is now serving specimen data from the Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria (CNABH). It is available from the Observation Search application, Other Sources. details
    2022 January County Level Floras
    2021 December The EPA Ecoregions in California application v 0.37 shows locations found in the selected Level IV ecoregion. Each location is a Great Place, and exhibits a concrete example of the flora of that Ecoregion. Example: 85f Diegan Coastal Hills and Valleys.
    2021 November Use the Plant Name Status application to find out which scientific plant names are currently accepted. details
    2021 September Calflora has added 36 new plant names so far in 2021.
    2021 August Generating a regional flora with What Grows Here details
    2021 July In What Grows Here, records whose locations are imprecise are displayed on the map with a white halo around the point. This feature emphasizes that for some records, the point indicates a general area where the plant was found, not a specific location.
    2021 June 11 Calinvasives, Pests and Pathogens v. 0.43
      now tracking 123 emergent plant threats.
    2021 May Calflora is now serving specimen data from the Consortium of California Herbaria 2 (CCH2). It is available from the Observation Search application, Other Sources. details
    2021 March Add iNaturalist records to Calflora, including subspecies and varieties. details
    2021 March The Plant Range application (formerly Plant Distribution) has two ways of showing potential habitat: by watershed, or by climate model.
    2020 November Observation Search has a new default symbology theme showing Record Type. Open LEGEND above the map to see the legend:

    It is now possible to search for questionable records and records where the Number of Plants is zero.

    2020 May Drawing a polygon in Calflora map applications VIDEO
    2020 January Plant List Definition v. 2.0: check whether any plant names in an existing plant list have changed.
    2020 January Overview of Calflora Map Applications VIDEO
    2020 August New on the Taxon Report page: a link to the Biota of North America (BONAP) Distribution Map showing North American distribution by county
    2020 June A Short History of the Calflora Database
    2020 June If you see a red circle with a white number in it next to your name in the upper right, it means you have notifications.
    2020 May The May Photo Contest happened, this year with a twist:
    Any observation submitted during May, 2020 counts as an entry. It does not matter when the photo was taken.
    details
    2020 April Home learning with Calflora in the era of COVID-19 Letter
    2020 January If you make observations of rare plants, there is a new CNDDB recommended form for the Rare plants project, Specialty group. details
    2020 January Use the Shape Editor to assemble a multi polygon from simple polygons, or to split a multi polygon into simple polygons. details

    2019 November
    Geoff Burleigh's complete collection of native plant photos
    are now available: 8,000 photos / 2,000 observations.
    Thanks to Steve Hartman and the Los Angeles/Santa Monica Mountains CNPS Chapter
    2019 September Calinvasives, Pests and Pathogens
      a database of emergent plant threats, v. 0.42
    2019 September Calflora receives updated Rare Plant Rank information directly from CNDDB. details
    2019 August You can obscure the location of a plant observation with Plant Observation Entry. details
    2019 August Adding a point location in Plant Observation Entry. VIDEO
    2019 August Observation Search has a new column set called Basic + Accuracy
    -- useful for comparing the error radius of various observations.

    details

    2019 July

    Calflora map applications show stream names, and can highlight the course of streams -- from the California Streams dataset, California Department of Fish and Widlife.
    2019 June The May 2019 Photo Contest is complete!
    Congratulations to Sue Graue, Ron Vanderhoff, and Jeff Bisbee.

    winning photos
    2019 May 15-16 Calflora training for the CNPS Mojave Chapter, Yucca Valley
    Calflora tools for CNPS users
    details
    2019 April The Planting Guide
    Find locally appropriate native plants for a planting site -- limit the results to plants that grow with an existing plant.
    VIDEO
    2019 April SSURGO SOIL DATA shown on Calflora maps updated to the latest (October 2018) version. details
    2019 March The Monarch Nectar plant list just updated courtesy of the Xerces Society. These are plants suitable for a garden or restoration project.

    Here is a What Grows Here? search showing commercially available nectar plants growing wild near Irvine, Orange Co. Move the map to your location, and find Monarch nectar plants that grow nearby.


    Monarch caterpillar on Asclepias fscicularis, © 2016 Glen Schneider
    2019 February About Map Layers   (Map Layer HELP) VIDEO
    2019 January Using Observer Pro as an Independent, several sets of historical records can be loaded at the same time. details
    2018 September The Observation Detail page has links to show the spatial and ecological context of an observation.
    2019 February The California Protected Areas Database layer (CPAD) has been updated to the December, 2018 version (available on all Calflora map applications). details
    2018 September Calflora has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. details
    2018 October The Google Maps 'cinemascope' button (AKA fullscreen toggle) now works in all Calflora map applications. Press the button in the upper right of the map.
    2018 October There is a new edit icon in many Calflora applications, a violet crayon:
    2018 August Great Places to view California native plants:
    Chips Creek, Plumas National Forest
    Thanks to Alaine Arslan
    2018 July There are new color options for the background layers in Calflora map applications.

    2018 June The iOS Observer Pro app version 1.3.4 is available from iTunes. details
    2018 June Plant Observation Entry: Add a geotagged photo to a new record, and POE will extract the location and the date from the photo.
    details
    2018 June 22 Calflora training in Mammoth Lakes
    collecting, importing, exporting, and using Calflora data
    details
    2018 June 20 Calflora training in South Lake Tahoe (free)
    Calflora Tools for Invasive Plant Tacking
    details
    2018 June The May 2018 Photo Contest is complete! details
    2018 April Great Places to view California native plants:
    2018 March If you have added photos to your observations, you can let others use your photos according to a Creative Commons license. details
    2018 March Volunteer Opportunites If you have some time and a botanical inclination, we need your help. details
    2018 February How to add wild plant observations to Calflora with Plant Observation Entry (POE), the web application. VIDEO
    2018 February On the Dynamic Plant Lists for State Parks and National Parks page,
    there are now two links per park: possible and confirmed.
    details

    2018 January
    Great Places to view California native plants:
    Here is a recent Great Place from Alaine Arslan: North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve
    2017 November First release of Calinvasives, Pests and Pathogens
      a new database of emergent plant threats
    2017 November v. 2.03 of the Plant Distribution application   indicates the range of a plant by highlighting watersheds where the plant has been observed. (See these Design Notes for a further explanation.)
    2017 August Here is an interesting feature of Great Places:
    Various places can be compared by DENSITY, meaning the number of distinct native species per acre. The Forrest Deaner Native Plant Botanic Garden in Benicia is the current leader.
    2017 July The Shape Editor has improved polygon generating capabilites.
    2017 June The May 2017 Photo Contest is complete!
    2017 May CNPS releases Online Inventory version 8-03
    developed by Calflora with the CNPS Inventory team
    details
    2017 April 24 Calflora training at Santa Clara Valley Water District, San Jose
    collecting, importing, exporting, and using Calflora data
    details
    2017 January 25 Calflora training at Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary, Santa Ana Mountains
    collecting, importing, exporting, and using Calflora data
    details

    2016 December
    Great Places to view California native plants:
    Here is a recent Great Place from Keir Morse:
    Iron Mountain and Ellie Lane Trails, Poway
    2016 November

    An analysis of how many plants tolerate each soil pH
    6.5 is the pH tolerated by the most plants.
    2016 October   There is now a link to a Calscape plant page from the Calflora Taxon Report page.
    This is a great way to get landscaping information about the plant.

    2016 October
    Great Places to view California native plants:
    Here is a recent Great Place from Keir Morse:
    Cactus Spring Trail, Santa Rosa Mountains
    2016 October   Plant Pallete for a Vegetative Screen, Sebastopol Charter School
    Using Calflora tools to choose locally appropriate native plants.
    webpage
    2015 November Using What Grows Here? to find local milkweed (Asclepias) species details
    2015 October Location Suitability: will a native plant do well at your location? details
    2015 October Applications for Invasive Plants:
    all about early detection targets, weed groups, etc.
    details
    2015 August Search for Plants (the Calflora home page) details
    2015 May  A video describing the Taxon Report page VIDEO
    2015 April Group Observations: show only the most recent record
    when there are several records describing a population
    details
    2015 February Each Calflora contributor should use their own account. details
    2015 January   In the news:
    Management of Biological Invasions (2015) Volume 6, Issue 3: 231-241

    The San Francisco Bay Area Early Detection Network
    Mark Frey, Mike Perlmutter, Andrea Williams, Dan Gluesenkamp
    article
    2015 January Botanizing with Calflora
    a workshop at the CNPS Conservation Conference
    outline
    2014 October   Weed Manager: Resources, Applications, and Techniques
    a description of each Weed Manager application now available
    details
    2014 April  The Taxon Report page: a new map details
    2013 November  Groups and Comments:
    email notification of group activity and comments on your records
    groups
    comments
    2013 October  Climate and soil background layers in various map applications details
    2013 March  What Grows Here? 2.0 released
    details
    2012 December A crosswalk from TJM2 names to USDA PLANTS names, and vice-versa details
    2012 October   Cynthia Powell, new GIS Project Manager at Calflora
    2012 August   Best Plants, Best Practices 1.0 released details
    2011 November   150 new State Park checklists details
    2011 October   Cynthia Powell, Cal-IPC: 137,000 records! details
    2010 December CNPS releases Online Inventory 8th Edition,
    developed by Calflora with the CNPS Inventory team
    details

    Historical Notes  
     
    Is Calflora being taken over by weeds? September, 2011

    Summary of 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005

    Contributor Hall-of-Fame October, 2009

    Testimonials April, 2003

    Goals And Achievements February, 2003

    A Short History of Calflora