Click here to go to the home page
Visitor Guide|Support the Zoo|Exhibits/Gardens|Education|Conservation|Z-Mail
 
   
   
   
         
 
 
   
   
   
 
 

Local Flora Project

The goal of the Local Flora Project is to understand how the changes in our region over the past 200 years have affected our local flora.

Click Here to access the Local Flora Project Database

As part of the Local Flora Project, the Plant Research Division is developing the Local Flora Database, a long-term project to computerize all the records of plants in the greater Cincinnati area, including Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, past and present.

The Local Flora Project seeks to involve professionals and non-professionals in botany, students and teachers from all parts of the Greater Cincinnati area to use and add to the Local Flora Database. Researchers, teachers, school groups, garden clubs, wildflower groups, or individuals who would like more information or who would like to contribute information to the database are encouraged to contact: lfp@cincinnatizoo.org.

• The first phase of this project was to computerize the approximately 12,000 local records from the University of Cincinnati Herbarium.

• Several botanical surveys have also been entered, from Hamilton County Parks, and other natural areas.

• At the end of 2005, over 19,000 entries have been made into the database.

• Future work will involve adding records from the herbaria at Northern Kentucky University and Miami University, as well as from other local botanical surveys.

• GIS software is being incorporated into the database, which will allow researchers and students to visualize species locations, past and present.

• The Local Flora Project is supported by the Local Flora Advisory Committee, made up of professionals in botany from the Greater Cincinnati area.

A major question that the database seeks to answer is, “What changes have there been in our area in the past 200 years?”

 
         
 
What changes have there been in our area in the past 200 years?
YESTERDAY TODAY
The greater Cincinnati area was originally largely woodland There is a metro area of over a million people, with natural areas largely in parks and preserves
Only native species could be found here Many exotic species share space with native species, and some exotic species have become invasive, taking over habitat from our native wildflowers
Species like the Running Buffalo Clover co-existed with native buffalo herds The Running Buffalo Clover has become endangered, since its habitat of buffalo traces is gone
 
         
      The Local Flora Project will continue to grow as a resource for research and education in the Greater Cincinnati area.  
         
  Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe | © 2004 Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden