The database represents our total accumulated knowledge of the occurrence of plants in the state based on herbarium specimens.  The majority of the 400,000 specimens on which the entries are based reside in the herbaria of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, The Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and the Morris Arboretum.  The herbaria of several smaller colleges, universities, and museums in the state are also represented as are selected specimens held in out-of-state collections.

Only a portion of the database is being made available at this time on this web site.  The entire database comprises numerous relational files including:
Central taxonomic file
Synonym file
Gazetteer of collection sites
Herbarium label file
Distribution file
Bibliographic file
Collectors file

Geographic components of the Pennsylvania Flora Database are not currently available through the Web.  If you wish to conduct a customized search involving additional criteria, please contact Dr. Ann F. Rhoads or Dr. Timothy A. Block for availability and fee schedule.

 Instructions for searching the database
Selected data fields of the central taxonomic file and synonym file have been integrated to present a searchable list of all Pennsylvania plants.  You may search the list taxonomically by entering a family name, genus, binomial, or common name.  You may further search by selecting attributes from the choices presented under the headings:

Native or Introduced - a plant is considered native to Pennsylvania if there is evidence that it was present in the state prior to the arrival of European settlers, or it has arrived since through natural forces.
Federal status - classification under the federal Endangered Species Act
State status - classification under the Pennsylvania Wild Plant Conservation Act
Growth habit - the same species may be coded for more than one.
Wetland status - wetlands indicator status as defined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Noxious weed federal - defined by the Federal Noxious Weed Act of 1974
Noxious weed state - defined by the Pennsylvania Noxious Weed Control Act

Alternatively, you may search by merely selecting a set of desired attributes as indicated by the check boxes.

Regardless of the type of search, the result will be a list of plants meeting the selected criteria.  From the list, you may choose to see the full record for any entry by clicking on the button in front of the plant name.

The search program was written by C. Heilman.