Missouri News

Missouri Botanical Garden Completes Encyclopedia Of Missouri's Native Plants

St. Louis Public Radio | By Véronique LaCapra,

Véronique LaCapra

Published August 23, 2013 at 2:15 PM CDT

The Missouri Botanical Garden has completed a 26-year effort to document the state's native plants.

The three-volume Flora of Missouricontains illustrations, plant distribution maps, and a detailed description of each species, including its taxonomy, uses, and conservation status.

This encyclopedic work updates the original Flora of Missouri, first published in 1963 by the late Julian Steyermark.

The Missouri Department of Conservation collaborated on the revised edition.

In addition to providing a comprehensive reference for scientists, land managers and gardeners, the books will serve as a guide to another Botanical Garden project, the Seed Bank, which aims to collect and preserve the seeds of all the native plants of Missouri by the end of the decade.

“The success of the Seed Bank hinges on our ability to correctly identify the plants species we encounter in the field,” said Seed Bank manager Ginger Allington. “This book will be an asset to this project because it provides up-to-date and detailed information on the most important plant families in Missouri.”

Some information from the flora of Missouri project is also being made available through an online database.

Follow Véronique LaCapra on Twitter: @KWMUScience

Tags

Véronique LaCapra

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.

See stories by Véronique LaCapra

Véronique LaCapra

Science reporter Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio documentaries at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France. LeCapra reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2010 to 2016.