Calflora is not a taxonomic authority; Calflora relies on the scientific community for plant taxonomy. Calflora follows taxonomic treatments and accepted names in the Jepson eflora (JEPS) as its primary authority. Calflora also follows other taxonomic authorities (see references below), tracking:

1. which names are accepted by each authority and
2. which alternate names (synonyms) have been or still are used by each authority.

Altogether there are more than 34,000 records of accepted and alternate scientific names from these institutions.

• The Jepson eFlora (JEPS).

• USDA PLANTS. Taxonomic treatments follow the Flora of North America north of Mexico.

• The CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. This is a list of ~ 2500 rare plants. Certain names are accepted by CNPS which are synonymized by the other authorities.

• Plants of the World Online (POWO), from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

• iNaturalist (iNat). iNaturalist uses POWO preferred names for most taxa, but sometimes uses names not accepted in POWO.

• Other taxonomic references (OTHER), including the authors of newly discovered plants.

  In Calflora, Alternate Name Source OTHER is used when the alternate name (aka synonym) comes from a source outside the main standardized taxonomic authorities that Calflora normally cites, such as:

  • Regional floras or checklists
  • Scientific publications not part of the main taxonomy
  • Older botanical literature
  • Expert contributions or manual additions by Calflora staff

New Plant Names: Botanically savvy users can ask Calflora to add new published taxon names that are not yet in JEPS. If you think Calflora should include a new plant name, please write to us and provide the publication that establishes the new name.

Contradictory Interpretations: Taxonomic authorities do not always agree with each other about what the accepted scientific name should be for a particular plant. For instance, in JEPS, Berberis aquifolium is an accepted name and Mahonia aquifolium is an alternate name for it. In PLANTS, Mahonia aquifolium is an accepted name and Berberis aquifolium is an alternate name for it.

This application allows a user to find out the status of a particular plant name according to the taxonomic authorities mentioned above. It can answer the question:

• Is this name currently accepted,
• or is it an alternate name (aka synonym),
• or was it misapplied at one time to plants in California?

In the Scientific Name box, enter a complete name or a partially specified name using % to match any number of characters. You may enter % more than once. The field is case-sensitive: genus names are capitalized.

Names of Hybrid Species: Binomial names of hybrid species are properly rendered with an × (ascii 215, the multiplication sign) before the specific epithet. For instance,

Quercus ×acutidens.

Because × (ascii 215) is difficult to type, Calflora stores these names with an uppcase X instead. To search for such a name, type an uppercase X directly before the specific epithet:

Quercus Xacutidens.

In the Status box, choose a particular status such as accepted, equivalent, or misapplied.

In the results, this application will show each name that matches the specified name pattern. For each name, it will show which authorities consider the name to be current, and which authorities consider it to be an alternate (synonym) of some other name. When a value such as:

PLANTS + JEPS + POWO

appears in the REFERENCE column, it means that PLANTS, JEPS, and POWO agree on this particular interpretation.

Users who disagree with identification of a plant on a specimen record or an observation record can comment in Calflora and suggest a different name. When you comment on a record in Calflora, if the owner of the record does not respond to the comment within 7 days, that record will be hidden from default search results. Calflora will not change the plant name on any observation or CCH record; that is for the observer or the herbarium to do.

Please see also this article about Comments and Corrections.

Note that if the record is from the CCH, you can also comment on the CCH website. If the record is from iNaturalist, you can also comment on the iNaturalist website.