Local Flora Project

Local Flora Project

The goal of the Local Flora Project is to understand how the changes in our region over the past 200 years have affected our local flora. As part of the Local Flora Project, the Plant Research Division is developing the Local Flora Database, a long-term project to computerize all the records of plants in the greater Cincinnati area, including Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, past and present.

The Local Flora Project seeks to involve professionals and non-professionals in botany, students and teachers from all parts of the Greater Cincinnati area to use and add to the Local Flora Database. Researchers, teachers, school groups, garden clubs, wildflower groups, or individuals who would like more information or who would like to contribute information to the database are encouraged to contact: lfp@cincinnatizoo.org

Flora Finder

Flora Finder, the Local Flora Project database, is a unique tool for learning about the plants of the Greater Cincinnati area and how the changes in our region over the past 200 years have affected our local flora.

What is in Flora Finder?

• Records of individual plants that were seen at specific times and locations in the Greater Cincinnati area. 
• Currently, there are over 30,000 records.
• Records, so far, have come from the University of Cincinnati Herbarium, the Northern Kentucky University Herbarium and from plant surveys provided by Hamilton County Parks and others. 
• Some of the data comes from herbarium specimens that are over 100 years old.

What can be learned from Flora Finder?

• What plants were in the Greater Cincinnati area?
• When were they found?
• Where were they located?
• Who collected the plants?

 

How do I use Flora Finder?

Use the database to ask questions about our local flora.  You can use the following search criteria:  Species, family, location, collector, and date.  After you search, you will get a list with the results of your search. Click here to search Flora Finder and for further instructions.

Other Resources to Use with Flora Finder

There are also resources available to supplement Flora Finder, including a Junior Plant Scientist Kit, Explorer!, and an outreach program, Green Cincinnati.

The Explorer module of the Junior Plant Scientist series will:

• Describe plant exploration and plant biodiversity
• Describe the role of plant exploration in conservation
• Identify plants as indicators of environmental change, including climate change
• Outline activities that make students explorers of their local environment
• Provide a special section on Flora Finder and the plants in the Greater Cincinnati area

More Information on Ordering.

Note:  For a limited time there are FREE Explorer Kits available to qualified students and teachers, made possible by a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund.  The cost of these kits is regularly $70.  For more information, contact lfp@cincinnatizoo.org.

Note:  For teachers doing projects with Flora Finder or the Explorer! Kit, the Plant Division at CREW has plant presses, guidebooks, and GPS units that can be borrowed, made possible by a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund.  Deposit required. For more information, contact lfp@cincinnatizoo.org.

Be a Part of Flora Finder!

We encourage teachers and students to do projects using Flora Finder.  These might include:

• Survey an area and record the plant species found there.  Use Flora Finder to learn whether those plants were found in that area at an earlier date or if they were found in another part of the Greater Cincinnati area.  If the area you survey is not yet listed in Flora Finder you can be the first to add it to the records.
• Use Flora Finder to look up plants for a certain area of this region.  Do a survey of that area to look for those plants.  You may find species that were seen in that area over 100 years ago.  Send in your results to be added to Flora Finder.

We welcome contributions of information to Flora Finder.  If you do a survey or find a particular plant in a particular location, document that and send to:  lfp@cincinnatizoo.org.  We are interested in knowing the species, the location in which it was found, the date it was found, whether it was producing flowers or fruit/seeds, and who did the observations.  We will review the information and add it to the Flora Finder database.  You or your group will be cited as contributors to the database on this website.

Local Flora Connections and Support

• Information for the Flora Finder database has come from The University of Cincinnati Herbarium, The Northern Kentucky University Herbarium, Hamilton County Parks, Dr. Denis Conover, and the Northern Kentucky University Center for Applied Ecology.

• The Local Flora Project is advised by the Local Flora Advisory Committee, made up of professionals in botany from the Greater Cincinnati area.

• The following organizations have contributed to the Local Flora Project:  The Cincinnati Wildflower Preservation Society; The Town & Country Garden Club; the Garden Club of Cincinnati; ESRI; and Cincinnati Area Geographical Information System (CAGIS).

• Support for making the Flora Finder Database available to teachers and students has come in part from a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund.

• CREW and the Hamilton County Parks are working together to restore one species of our local flora, the Showy ladyslipper orchid (Cypripedium reginae), to Hamilton County.  The Showy ladyslipper has not been recorded from the County since the 1840s.