Floristic Plant Geography

This is what I really like to do. My research here has concentrated on two main areas. The first is doing local floras-complete botanical inventories of selected areas. Local floras serve many purposes. They are the raw data for determining the basic global patterns in plant biodiversity. How do landscapes compare in the number of species they support? What features of landscapes contribute to high species richness? Which species are common and which are rare across the landscape? Furthermore, local floras provide an extremely valuable baseline for monitoring changes in the earth's biota. Below is a map showing localities for which I have prepared or published local floras; my collaborator on much of this work has been Janice E. Bowers of the U.S. Geological Survey.

My second area of interest has been in evaluating and applying the information contained in local floras. Local floras sample the regional flora, and these samples can be used to discover and illustrate important features of the regional and global floras. I have worked extensively in using local floras to develop natural geographical classifications of floristic areas and floristic elements, and to examine such problems as the distribution and spread of exotic species.

A list of publications describing my research in this area is available.