Did you know that there lots of ways to find information about California's wild plants on Calflora, besides the simple species query page?

One new example is the Dynamic Observation Query.

You can use this new query page to search the Calflora observation database by one or more attribute -- for instance, location. You can also use it to query by the characteristics of the plants observed -- for instance, lifeform, or status (is it a weed? is it rare?).

This query is dynamic: When you view the results, you can always return to your original query to refine your parameters and run it again. Further, it is integrated with the Calflora Map Viewer: If you invoke the map viewer from this query page, you can return to the query page from the map viewer to refine the query.

This query can also produce a species list from a set of observations.

Here's an example: Cal-IPC weeds found in Fresno County, grouped by family, with photographs.

But this is just one, new query tool. The Overview of Calflora Queries page describes this and the many other ways you can look for information on Calflora.

Don't forget that thanks to a generous gift, new and renewing personal subscriptions to Calflora are free in 2006 (though of course, our survival remains dependant on the generosity of donations from folks like yourself). You can also obtain free access to Calflora from any public library and on many college campuses ( contact us for information on adding your location to the list).

(To keep Calflora alive, we're still asking folks to subscribe for a fee if they use Calflora for their professional work, but our mission is to make the data at Calflora available, not to raise money -- we're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If the professional fee is too steep for your organization, please contact us so we can find a way to make Calflora affordable to you.)

And as always, we're eager to hear how we can make Calflora better serve your interests in California's wild plants.

Sincerely,