About the Digital Atlas

The Digital Atlas of the Virginia is very much a work-in-progress. The digital format will allow for continual updating of distributional records ; but more than this, numerous issues regarding taxonomy and nomenclature remain unresolved and subject to change. The digital atlas includes nearly 700 taxa not included in Atlas of the Virginia Flora, 3rd Ed. While many of these could easily be mapped, many others could not without revisiting the original herbarium specimens from which the original record was derived. With Virginia’s herbarium resources being so widely scattered, this endeavor will go on for years. In the meantime, some maps will be blank while others will be incomplete. New information will be added as it becomes available.

Taxonomic concepts

For the most part, family designations follow those of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG2) , with the exception of some of the more controversial realignments and the segregation of some closely related families. Our rationale is to make things somewhat easier for the user while at the same time adopting changes that correct misalignments from the past. These are tough choices and your comments are welcome.

One of the results of Synthesis of the North American Flora (John T. Kartesz, 1999) has been to bring to the surface many names that, for our region, had gone out of use for many years, especially at the infraspecific level. Many herbarium specimens are not identified to the subspecific or varietal level. The choices of what to recognize and what to lump have been exceedingly difficult. As often as possible, we have made the decision based on how successfully we’ve been able to make the distinctions in our own field experience. There are many other cases when we simply haven’t been in the habit of making a distinction and had no basis for a decision. In such cases, we’ve made a purely pragmatic choice based on how likely a map could be produced in the foreseeable future. The “Comments” field may provide some guidance and hint at our leaning at this point it time.

Virginia status

An atlas doubles as a checklist of the flora. Consequently, a concerted effort has been made to clean up the list of what is actually known to occur in the state. Numerous attributions have been explored and resolved, yet others remain. The Virginia Flora by A.B. Massey (1961) has been a source of confusion for many years by reporting many plants without county designation or vouchered documentation. The digital atlas continues the effort of the previous hardcopy editions to resolve these questions. The “Comments” field is used to report the status of many plants, especially where uncertainty exists. The field is also used for a wide variety of other information: taxonomic issues, phytogeographic facts, literature citations, and tidbits of general interest. At present, the information is sketchy, and it’s hoped that much more will be added in coming years.