Flora of North America Project

Flora of North America Project

For 60 years, the staff of the R.L. McGregor Herbarium has engaged in floristic, systematic, ecological research focused on the Great Plains of North America, with a secondary emphasis on surrounding physiographic provinces. That research was the foundation of our involvement in the Great Plains Flora Project in the 1970s and 1980s, with McGregor Herbarium taking a lead role in the publication of the Atlas of the Flora of the Great Plains (1977) and the Flora of the Great Plains (1986, 1991). 

In the 1980s, North American botanists launched the Flora of North America (FNA) Project, an initiative to synthesize the cumulative floristic and systematic knowledge of the estimated 20,000 species of vascular plants and bryophytes in North America north of Mexico.  The Flora will contain descriptions, keys, distributions, illustrations, and summaries of relevant literature in 30 volumes when completed; 23 volumes currently are in print. 

Beginning in 1998, and drawing on its collections and other legacy data, KANU became directly involved in FNA as the North Central U.S. Coordination Center for the project.  The PI also has served on the Flora of North America Association Board of Directors (1998-present) and Executive Committee (2000-2013), has been a Co-lead Editor of two published volumes, a Taxon Editor for three families in other volumes (one currently in production), and author of 58 genus and family treatments including 368 species.