University of Georgia Herbarium Floristic Inventories

What are plant inventories and why are they important?

Plant inventories, can be defined generally as the recording (census) of all plant species occurring within a particular ecological or geographic area. Inventories are one of the many important services performed by the Herbarium. Two major issues make plant inventories especially relevant: (1) concern for the environment and the need for strategies to manage it and (2) the need for distribution information for use in scientific and government study. Within the state of Georgia, the need for plant inventories is illustrated by the map on the left (click map to enlarge). This map shows the number of species recorded for each county in the state. Some counties are relatively well studied (dark greens) with many species represented, while many others (red, yellow, and light green) are not well explored, have few species recorded as occurring within their boundaries, and are thus in need of more study.

Past and present plant inventories by the UGA Herbarium

As can be seen from the map on the right (click map to enlarge), UGA Herbarium staff and associated graduate students have inventoried areas within many counties of the state (white stars). Several of the explored counties have a relatively high number of species recorded as occurring within their boundaries (see above map). However, many areas within the state (e.g., the Ridge & Valley and the eastern Southern Coastal Plain) are inadequately represented. The lack of collections for such areas of the state further illustrates the need for more plant inventories within the state.