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Welcome to the Biota of North America website, including the Taxonomic Data Center (TDC) for the North American vascular plant flora, and the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). The website and accompanying CD-ROM, Floristic Synthesis of North America (distributed separately) represent the first comprehensive digital account of the vascular flora of North America north of Mexico. Together, they present a continuously updated assessment of the 33,000 vascular plant taxa recognized for the area.

Among the most important features, the website presents an interactive identification program for the plants of North America, the most current taxonomy and nomenclature for each group, and distribution for each taxon. These works also offer an extensive collection of hundreds of biological attributes that function interactively with all of the unique plant taxa that grow within our area. We fervently hope that these resources will be used by all who are interested in our vascular flora, will set a new standard for floristic botanical studies, and will further our knowledge of the vascular flora of North America.

-JTK

How to Cite the BONAP Websites:

All materials on BONAP website are copyrighted by the Biota of North America Program. Reproduction or use of any material found on this site (e.g., distribution maps, biological attribute information, images, etc.) requires advance written permission from the Biota of North America Program.

Reproduction or use of any photographs requires written permission from the individual photographer.

To cite the contents of the Taxonomic Data Center, please use:

Kartesz, J.T. 2014, and continuously updated. The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). Taxonomic Data Center. (http://www.bonap.net/tdc). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2014. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)]

To cite the contents of NAPA, please use:

Kartesz, J.T.. 2014, and continuously updated. The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). North American Plant Atlas. (http://www.bonap.org/napa.html). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2014. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

John T. Kartesz:

John T. Kartesz is Director of the Biota of North America Program. He is responsible for all the scientific data included within the TDC and NAPA websites. The taxonomy and nomenclature presented here supersedes that of his second edition of his 1994 publication A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, Second Edition, Volumes 1 (Checklist) and 2 (Thesaurus). Timber Press, Portland, and his 1999 Synthesis of the North American Flora (North Carolina Botanical Garden), Chapel Hill. Dr. Kartesz founded the Biota of North America Program (BONAP) nearly fifty years ago. He received his Ph.D. in systematic botany from the University of Nevada at Reno in 1988 and also holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in botany from West Virginia University in Morgantown. His email address is: john_kartesz@yahoo.com.

Acknowledgements:

As mentioned so often in projects of this size, this work could not have been accomplished without the considerable contributions made knowingly, or in many cases posthumously, by the hundreds, if not thousands, of botanists, both professional and amateur, who have devoted their lives to enriching our knowledge of the plants of North America. Their interest and passion, made apparent in their monographs, revisions, regional floras and checklists, photographs and most importantly, in the specimens they so carefully prepared and deposited in research collections throughout the continent, has provided the foundation on which this information is based. We owe them a great debt and hope that the information in the form we provide it here will be at least a small tribute to their dedication and generosity.