ABOUT THE E-FLORA ATLAS PAGES AND MAPS

Maiden Pink (Dianthus deltoides), photo by Virginia Skilton

1. The Atlas Pages

The purpose of the atlas pages on E-Flora BC is to provide summary information on each species in the province, where this is available, and to centralize other sources of information for each species. Where possible, we provide photos of each species, and a distribution map, and, if available, we also provide additional information on habitat, taxonomy, invasive status, poison status, and much more. Each page also includes "deep" links (species-specific links) to important related databases on the web that provide further information on taxonomy, nomenclature, and range information.

The E-Flora BC atlas pages are dynamic, which means that they do not actually exist. They are produced by our cmputers when a search is requested. Information is extracted by the computers from several databases and displayed in a programed atlas page template. Whenever the databases are updated by our data providers, then the information in the atlas pages is automatically updated.

Brittle Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia fragilis), photo by Brian Klinkenberg

2. The Maps

E-Flora BC uses interactive GIS mapping. Snapshots of the interactive maps are presented on each atlas page and full-sized maps and associated legends are accessed by clicking on the interactive map link. Our interactive maps are based on several key database. This includes both collections-based (herbarium databases) and observation-based databases where available.

Collections-based databases we use:

• Royal BC Museum Herbarium (up to 2004)
• UBC Herbarium
• Canadian National Herbarium
• Bruce Bennet Personal Herbarium
• Adolf Ceska Personal Collections (a subset of the RBCM database)
• Pacific Forestry Centre Macro-fungi
• Devonian Botanical Gardens (moss records)
• Pacific Northwest Consortium of Herbaria

Obsevation-based databases we use:

Two observation databases are also included. These are:

• BEC database
• Report-a-Weed database
• the E-Flora photo record database

The interactive maps provide distribution data as one key layer. They also allow you to turn on additional data layers so you can explore correlations between species distribution and biogeography. Additional layers that we provide include information in several categories, including:

• Climate mapping (including temperature, frost free days, future climate, and more);
• Ecological zones, incuding BEC zones and ecoregions;
• Geology and physiography
• protected areas, including national and provincial parks (which allow you to see if populations of a species occur in protected sites).