About

 Aim of the Flora

Our goal is to provide New Zealand with a dynamic, continually updated, electronically-based Flora. It will be based on new systematic research and will bring together information from our network of databases and online resources. Users will have easy access to the most authoritative, accurate, and up to date information on New Zealand plants.

Further information

If you have any queries please contact eFlora@LandcareResearch.co.nz.

 Frequently asked questions

Why do we need a new Flora?

The Flora of New Zealand series on indigenous and naturalised vascular plants was first published in 1961, with subsequent volumes in 1970, 1980, 1988 and 2000. Since these volumes were published there have been major advances in taxonomic research on the New Zealand flora, including description of new taxa, revised generic circumscriptions, and new information on biostatus and distribution. This means there is a constant need to revise the Flora of New Zealand volumes to keep them up-to-date.

The electronic Flora of New Zealand is an opportunity to provide contemporary taxonomic information for the entire New Zealand flora. It will eventually integrate information about native and naturalised, vascular and non-vascular, and marine and terrestrial plants.

Why is an electronic Flora the best approach?

Flora users need immediate access to data that is up to date, and presented in a format that meets their requirements. Traditional approaches suffer from long delays in publishing, and are difficult to update with new research results and information. Underlying data is unavailable for other uses, as only the summarised data embodied in descriptions are presented. Data is frequently not linked to herbarium specimens.

An electronic flora gives the flexibility to adjust effort and focuses work on priority groups, enables delivery of parts immediately on completion, and integrates data from various research projects. It gives the opportunity to present information in a variety of formats and tools, e.g., interactive keys, to suit the diverse needs of Flora users.

What plant groups does the Flora cover?

The electronic Flora of New Zealand covers the New Zealand botanical region and includes flowering plants, gymnosperms, ferns, and bryophytes. It includes naturalised as well as indigenous plants.

What information does the new Flora include?

The electronic Flora of New Zealand includes information drawn from the Flora of New Zealand five volume series on vascular plants, published descriptions from scientific publications, and new taxonomic treatments. New taxonomic treatments prepared for the electronic Flora supercede those from the five volume Flora of New Zealand series.

 Flora management

Participating institutions are Landcare Research, Te Papa, and NIWA. Other institutions may join later.

Specific committees and work groups oversee and contribute to the production of the electronic Flora of New Zealand.

  • Steering committee: Ilse Breitwieser, Peter Heenan, Wendy Nelson, Aaron Wilton
  • Management group: Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schonberger, Peter Heenan, Aaron Wilton
  • Production group: Aaron Wilton with Kate Boardman, Kerry Ford, Sue Gibb, Ines Schonberger, Katarina Tawiri
  • System development: Aaron Wilton, Bavo de Pauw, Margaret Watts
  • Editorial committee: Ilse Breitwieser, Peter Heenan, Rob Smissen, Aaron Wilton
  • Editor-in-Chief: Peter Heenan
 Citing the Flora

How to cite

To cite the whole eFlora:

Breitwieser I., Heenan P.J.; Nelson W.A., Wilton A.D. eds. (2023) Flora of New Zealand Online.  Accessed at www.nzflora.info,  <full date>.

To cite Fascicles:

Heenan, P.B. (2014) Hypericaceae. In: Breitwieser I., Heenan P.B., Wilton A.D. (eds) Flora of New Zealand - Seed Plants. Fascicle 1. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln. http://dx.doi.org/10.7931/J2H41PBX
Fife, A.J. (2014) Amblystegiaceae. In: Breitwieser I., Heenan P., Wilton A.D. (eds) Flora of New Zealand - Mosses. Fascicle 2. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln. http://dx.doi.org/10.7931/J2QN64N8

Note - it is recommended to see the inside cover to correctly cite each fascicle.

To cite Taxon Profiles:

Breitwieser I., Heenan P.J.; Nelson W.A., Wilton A.D. eds. (2010-<current year>) Flora of New Zealand Online – Taxon Profiles. Accessed at http://www.nzflora.info, <full date>.

To cite a specific Taxon Profile:
Breitwieser I., Heenan P.J.; Nelson W.A., Wilton A.D. eds. (2010-<current year>) Flora of New Zealand Online – Taxon Profile - Hypericum androsaemum (based on Heenan 2014). Accessed at http://www.nzflora.info/factsheet/Taxon/Hypericum_androsaemum.html, <date>

To cite Weed Profiles:

Breitwieser I., Heenan P.J.; Nelson W.A., Wilton A.D. eds. (2010-<current year>) Flora of New Zealand Online – Weed Profiles. Accessed at http://www.nzflora.info, <full date>.

To cite a specific Weed Profile:

Breitwieser I., Heenan P.J.; Nelson W.A., Wilton A.D. eds. (2010-<current year>) Flora of New Zealand Online – Weed Profile - Hypericum androsaemum (based on Heenan 2010). Accessed at http://www.nzflora.info/factsheet/Weed/Hypericum_androsaemum.html, <date>

Authorship of Taxon pages:

The author of each page is indicated at the top right of the page. This can be used to distinguish when a taxon has been fully treated or only contains "automatic" content.
Taxon pages that state the author as “Flora Committee” are automated pages and have not been treated in full. They will contain a limited amount of content such as nomenclature and hyperlinks.
Other taxon pages (i.e., those that do not have the author “Flora Committee”) have been full treated by the stated author, and should contain descriptions, recognition notes and other fields, in addition to the automatic content.

 Terms of use

All material on the Flora of New Zealand website is protected by copyright. Ownership of copyright is indicated for specific items or collections of content. Where no alternative copyright ownership statement is shown, copyright is owned by Landcare Research New Zealand Limited (Landcare Research).

Licence

Unless indicated otherwise for specific items or collections of content, this copyright material is licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the material, as long as you attribute the work to the copyright holder and abide by the other licence terms.

Some images are published on this site in accordance with separate agreements with the copyright holder (e.g. using CC+ protocol). Copies of these agreements can be found here.

Logos

The licence granted does not apply to any logos, emblems and trade marks on the website or to the website's design elements. Those specific items, including but not limited to the eFlora logo, may not be re-used without express permission of Landcare Research.

Attribution

Please attribute the work as follows: “Source: eFlora - Landcare Research”.

Copyright of Australasian Virtual Herbarium Maps

Maps from the Australasian Virtual Herbarium are included in this site in the Weed Profiles. This content is re-used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia license. See Terms of Use of the Australasian Virtual Herbarium for details.

 Abbreviations and Latin terms
Abbreviation
Meaning
aff.
with affinities to, but possibly not the species named
AK
herbarium of the Auckland Museum
ca.
approximately (circa)
cf.
compare with, possibly the species named
CHR
Allan Herbarium, Landcare Research
com.
sent by
et al.
and others (et alia)
fasc.
fascicle
fide
according to
fo.
forma
ft
foot or feet
g
grams
herb.
herbarium
ibid.
in the same place
kg
kilogram
km
kilometres
leg.
collected by (legare)
loc.
locality
loc. cit.
in the place already mentioned
mag.
magnification
m
metres
mm
millimetres
Mt
Mount
Mtn
Mountain
Mtns
Mountains
n/2n
gametic chromosome count determined at meiosis/somatic chromosome count determined at mitosis
no.
number (numero)
nom. cons.
conserved name
nom. illeg.
illegitimate name
nom. nov.
new name for an illegitimate name
nom. nud.
a bare name, published without accompanying protologue
nom. rej.
rejected name
non
not
n.v.
non vidi, not seen by the authors
p.
page
pp.
pages
p.p.
in part (pro parte)
pers. comm.
personal communication
pl.
plate
R.
river
Ra.
range
sect.
section
SEM
scanning electron microscope
sens. lat.
in the broad sense (sensu lato)
sens. str.
in the narrow sense (senso stricto)
sensu
in the sense of
s. n.
without a collection number (sine numero)
sp.
species (singular)
spp.
species (plural)
sub
under the name of
subfam.
subfamily
subg.
subgenus
subsp.
subspecies
μm
microns
V.
Valley
var.
variety
vs.
versus
WELT
herbarium of Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa
 Symbols
Symbol
Meaning
±
more or less, somewhat
×
times (as in "2.5× the stem width")
>
greater than
<
less than
equal to or greater than
equal to or less than
=
the name that follows is a heterotypic synonym of the preceding name
the name that follows is a homotypic synonym of the preceding name
!
seen by the author(s)
female
male
AND search
Spaces between words or AND are both treated as an AND search. A record must contain all words in an AND search to be a match.
OR search
A record has to contain only one of these words to be a match. OR must be upper case, e.g., red OR blue
Phrase search
Use double quotes to define a phrase search. A record must contain the exact phrase to be a match, e.g., "inflorescence simple"
Negative searches
Are indicated by a - in front of the term to be negated, for example red -blue will find records that contain the word red but not the word blue.
Wild card searches
Wild cards can be placed anywhere within your query term e.g., inflor*. Note that without a wild card, a word is treated as a full word search.