Post on 20-Sep-2020
The RHS Britain and Ireland Garden Flora Project
James Armitage
Principal Scientist, Horticultural Taxonomy
Royal Horticultural Society jamesarmitage@rhs.org.uk
What is a Flora?
An “inventory
of the plants of
a definite area” Lawrence, G.H.M. (1951) in Taxonomy of Vascular Plants
The online Flora
Britain’s garden flora
A garden flora to be proud of!
The most diverse garden flora on the planet
The nursery of the world
V
1,500 72,000
Dispersed information
Why do we need to know what garden plants we have?
Safeguarding horticulture
Conservation
Resource management
Pests and diseases
Climate change
Cultural significance
Legislative imperative
Ecology In the UK,
“only 1% of plant introductions are self-sustaining outside cultivation”, the other 99% go unrecorded in Floras
What does the RHS intend to do?
Provide a single online resource for all the garden plants in Britain and Ireland
A database for use by a range of audiences
Products arising from this
A process of several stages
Agree a structure for the website
Establish working framework
Collate and harmonise
Field work
Engage with collaborators
Compile keys and accounts
Citizen Science
Getting involved