Calflora - FAQ

Calflora only has geographic and ecological distribution information on vascular plants that are native (indigenous) or naturalized (growing, reproducing and persisting in the wild without human intervention) to the political borders of California. Calflora DOES NOT contain information on plants that are growing with human intervention (generally: being watered, sheltered or cared for in some way) These include gardens, manicured parks, or strictly agricultural weeds. If the plant you are looking for is not native or naturalized in California, it will not be in Calflora. This includes plants such as tulips, daffodils, rosemary, lemon trees, or any strictly horticultural plant growing in California. You may also have a mis-spelling or spelling variation of the plant's name. (see the section on Common Names below.)

Q: Can you give me more information about a particular California plant?

All the information available through Calflora and the CalPhotos collection is available on the web. So your search results represent everything that we have available to the public. We do not have a physical library of information to refer to or experts available for public services. Our research primarily concerns the use of already-digitized botanical information, including images, location, and collection information. Calflora does not currently contain information on medicinal, ethnobotanical, toxicological, horticultural, physiological, or economic topics. As such, our staff botanist is not generally available to provide library research services for the public.

The California Academy of Sciences, Biodiversity Resource Center has an excellent reference staff for general questions.

If there is additional information you are looking for on the web, you will need to consult other sources such as the Internet Directory for Botany. You can also try joining the California Native Plant Discussion Group administered by Greg McCann. Please remember that most botanical information remains available only in printed form, and may require your effort in retrieving it.

Q: Can you add me to the announcements email list?

We send out an email of changes and updates to the Calflora and CalPhotos web pages about four or five times a year, as changes dictate. If you would like to be on the mailing list for these announcements, please email us here: CONTACT with your request and email address.

Q: How can I grow California Poppies? (or some other plant)

Neither Calflora nor the CalPhotos collection currently have information on horticulture or growing California native plants. There are many, many other sources of information for growing California native plants (mostly books). You may wish to consult a gardening book such as Sunset Western Garden Book or the California Native Plant Society Booksales. You can also try joining the California Native Plant Discussion Group administered by Greg McCann.

Q: I have this plant; can you tell me what it is?

Trying to figure out what a plant is based on an email description is often very, very difficult. Some plant species can only be told apart (reliably) by nearly microscopic details. If you seriously want to get a plant identified, there are several places you can try.

If your plant was growing in the wild, you can try your local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Botanical Garden, or herbarium (to find your local California herbarium, search Index Herbariorum, and use "CA" for state).
You can also try joining the California Native Plant Discussion Group administered by Greg McCann.
If your plant was NOT growing in the wild, you should try asking at your local plant nurseries or Botanical Garden.
The UC Davis Herbarium also offers plant identification services to the public for a fee.

Q: I am looking for a plant by the common name of ...? or do you know a common name for this plant?

Common names, unlike scientific names, are not regulated or managed by any one body. Thus, many common names are idiosyncratic. There are many common names that are:

identical, but refer to different plants...
different, but refer to the same plant...
used frequently in one location, but have never been heard of just a few miles away...
and some plants simply do not have any common name.

Calflora has collected common names from some major sources, but it is nearly impossible to collect all the common names that exist for all California plants. If you can not find a plant by common name that you are sure is in California, you will probably need to find out the scientific name for it first, then try searching Calflora. We hope in the near future to standardize the common names we do have. (according to guidelines such as Common Names for Vascular Plants: Guidelines for use and application Kartesz & Thieret, Sida 14(3):421-434. 1991.) Scientific Names can be translated using the experimental California Plant Synonymy table.

Q: I think there is an error in the Calflora occurrence database. Who should I contact to correct it?

The occurrence database is collection of information from many different sources. Just as in a real library, you generally wouldn't report an error in a book to the librarian, rather you would report the error to the author or editor. If you find an error in the Digital Library Calflora occurrence database, please contact the data provider for that dataset with the specific information about that record, and send a copy here: CONTACT.

Q: How do I cite a reference to your online database?

Please reference all photographs, documents, or database information that you use within your document. For general references that refer to aggregated information in Calflora the citation format follows the following: (recommended by the library staff at the California Academy of Sciences)

EXAMPLE 1: General Reference

  Calflora: Information on California plants for education, research 
     and conservation. [web application]. 2000.
     Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database [a non-profit organization]. 
     Available: http://www.calflora.org/.
     [Accessed: Oct 10, 2000]

For citing specific information (i.e. the elevation range, a particular report) the reference should include not only the Calflora Project but also the actual source of the information as elaborated in the the Calflora documentation. For photos, be sure to include the photographer's name. It is best to include the URL address for the data so that the exact query can be duplicated.

EXAMPLE 2: Specific Reference

 
  The Calflora Database. [web application]. 2000.
     Taxon report for Erythronium helenae
     Distribution data from Dean W. Taylor Herbarium Specimens. 
     http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-taxon=Erythronium+helenae
     [Accessed 20 December 1998]

The exact date of information access is important, since the database is continually updated.

Q: Where can I find a source for California plants, seeds, etc?

If you are looking for sources for garden material, your local nursery can order many California native plants from their supplier. There are also many specialty mail-order seed and plant catalogs for California native plants. Check out some of the collected lists for gardening supplies for sources. (such as the Internet directory for botany) You can also try joining the California Native Plant Discussion Group administered by Greg McCann.

If you are looking for sources for material for botanical study and experiments, you will probably want to contact one of California's many Botanical Gardens or Herbaria, who can help you locate live material and file the appropriate permits for collection of wild material. A list of Californian botanical gardens is available from the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. Herbaria can be located through Index Herbariorum (enter CA for state)

Q: Why isn't the California Plant Synonymy table available for download?

The Name translation table is a product of extensive research and hard work by Fred Hrusa. Fred plans on publishing this information in book and possibly database form as a comprehensive synonymy list for California. Fred has generously allowed Calflora access to his data for online use. Calflora has modified this data beyond which Fred intended, and thus takes responsibilities for omissions and inaccuracies in the results. Please address particular questions here: CONTACT . Fred can be contacted at gfhrusa@cdfa.ca.gov.

Q: What is the relationship of Calflora to CalPhotos and the Berkeley Digital Library Research Project?

Calflora is an independantly funded and run non-profit organization dedicated to providing information about California wild plants in useful forms to the public. Calflora partners with individuals, organizations, and agencies to further this mission. The Berkeley Digital Library Project is a research project in the Computer Science Division of UC Berkeley, and has for several years used environmental information as a testbed for developing new computer science technologies. Together, we have found a fruitful collaboration in image, spatial, temporal, and scientific information management that has greatly benifited both organizations. Calflora works under a agreement to share information and data resources with DLP. CalPhotos is a project of the Digital Library Project for the duration of their research program.