Overview

The Flora of Australia is designed to provide an authoritative synthesis of Australia’s native and naturalised vascular plant biodiversity. This includes taxonomic information to support plant identification, including descriptions, distribution maps, images (photographs, line drawings and other illustrations) and diagnostic keys. The Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS, https://www.dcceew.gov.au/science-research/abrs), a unit within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), manages the production of the Flora, with content provided by botanists.

This interactive, online platform was developed through a partnership project between the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH, www.chah.gov.au) and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, www.ala.org.au). Between 1981 and 2015, the Flora was published as a series of hard copy volumes.

On this platform, the Flora is structured as a collection of taxon profiles, arranged according to the national consensus taxonomy (Australian Plant Census). Each taxon profile includes authoritative descriptive content provided by expert botanical taxonomists, and dynamically linked data from other Australian bioinformatics resources. Linked data includes: distribution maps from the Australasian Virtual Herbarium; plant identification keys from KeyBase; images from the Australian Plant Image Index; and taxonomy and nomenclatural information from the National Species List. The linked data and descriptive text can be updated by ABRS-approved Flora contributors, allowing the information presented in the digital Flora to be taxonomically up-to-date and contain new findings, while maintaining the scientific rigour and authority of the original hard copy series. Similar to other online floras, users can identify plants by navigating through the taxonomic hierarchy and reviewing taxon profiles, or by working through the interactive dichotomous keys.

Delivering the Flora electronically provides an opportunity to build momentum to update, expand and complete the Flora, for example, through faster publication and direct contributions by experts online. However, substantial work is still required to update and complete the Flora. Content available in the Flora includes descriptive accounts published in the hard copy Flora of Australia volumes, which represents about half of the Australian vascular flora. The ABRS is working to update existing content in line with current taxonomic knowledge (largely guided by the Australian Plant Census), and systematically filling gaps with new treatments to build a comprehensive and current Flora.

Help

More information about using the Flora is available online at: www.ausflora.net.

Instructions for managing keys on KeyBase are available online at: http://rbgvictoria.github.io/keybase/help.

Flora abbreviations and contractions: https://www.awe.gov.au/science-research/abrs/online-resources/flora-of-australia-online/abbraviationa

Contact

We welcome any feedback on the platform and its content. Please contact the ABRS via email to abrs@dcceew.gov.au.

Contributing to the Flora

The ABRS, as administrators of the Flora, manage editorial access on the platform and provide assistance and editorial oversight for any contributions of new or updated content. If you would like to contribute to the Flora of Australia, please contact the ABRS for more information: abrs@dcceew.gov.au. Detailed instructions for contributors are available on our help site.

State of the Flora

In 2018 the ABRS assessed the status of content in the Flora, including current gaps and updates needed. The final report is available on the 'Library' page, which can be accessed from the home page. A direct link to the report is provided here: State of the Flora of Australia 2018.

The status of Flora of Australia content, based on completeness of family-level treatments, is listed here: Flora of Australia_status of family treatments_4 March 2019. 

Disclaimer

While the ABRS is working to update and build the Flora in line with current taxonomy, there is much work yet to be done, and errors can occur. Please read our disclaimer.

Please note

• Some of the Flora content may be out of date/inconsistent with current taxonomy. In particular, this may include content delivered from the hard copy Flora of Australia volumes which were published in 1981 to 2015. The ABRS is working to update this content as a priority. Over time, there may be a delay between published changes in taxonomy and related updates to Flora content. In some instances there will be alternative taxonomies and accepted views.
• Information on distribution of a taxon may change with new findings, e.g. extensions of known range, or changes in taxonomic concepts re-defining distributions.
• The placement of n.v. (non vidi) after references or cited specimens indicates not seen by the author/compiler, and should be treated with caution in the case of specimens which have not been verified recently.
• Available Flora content currently represents about half of the known vascular plant taxa occurring in Australia. This includes native and naturalised taxa, and excludes any taxa known only in cultivation. The ABRS is working to fill gaps in the Flora, to provide descriptive accounts of the taxa currently not represented. The ABRS is also working to expand the Flora to include non-vascular taxa, including mosses, liverworts and hornworts.
• The area covered by the Flora includes the six Australian States, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and immediate offshore island Territories. In the hard copy Flora of Australia series, Australian and State offshore Territories (Cocos (Keeling) Island, Christmas Island, Ashmore Reef, Cartier Island, the Coral Sea Territory, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Heard Island and Macquarie Island) were covered separately in Volumes 49 and 50. The digital Flora will integrate updated legacy treatments and new treatments of taxa from all Australian offshore territories.
• The Flora is being built and updated mostly in line with the national consensus taxonomy presented in the Australian Plant Census. As such, the Flora may present different taxon names or concepts to those applied in other jurisdictions, including state/regional floras.
• Linked data (outlined above) may not always align with descriptive text. The ABRS is working with botanical taxonomists and database managers to curate linked data in line with current taxonomic knowledge. But we also need your help. Please use the inbuilt functions to help correct errant records.
• Errors may arise in distribution maps from issues such as mis-identification of specimens (in some cases taxonomic revisions may not have yet been applied to specimen collections at the source of the data) and incorrect geocodes; also cultivated records might be included. These can be flagged directly on the erroneous record on the Australasian Virtual Herbarium website (https://avh.chah.org.au/), or by contacting the ABRS. There are also curated distribution maps available in state and territory electronic floras that may more accurately represent the distributions of taxa in those states.
• Please refer to other relevant sources for accurate, up-to-date information about conservation or weed status. For example, the Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) at www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/sprat.pl; also state and territory websites for listed rare taxa and weeds.
   

Citations

This collection can be cited as:

      Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. [Date Accessed: [insert date here (day month year)]]
      http://www.ausflora.org.au

Please cite individual profiles (e.g. Rosaceae) in the Flora of Australia according to the citation at the bottom of the relevant profile.