THE VASCULAR PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA

A comprehensive checklist, with distributions, based on:

THE JEPSON MANUAL: Higher Plants of California
(ed. J. C. Hickman, University of California Press, Berkeley)

The Jepson Manual is an extensively illustrated guide to identification of California's plant life providing detailed descriptions of plant characteristics, distributions, and horticultural potential. It is widely-acknowledged as the standard reference on California's native and naturalized vascular-plant diversity. The product of over a decade of effort by nearly 200 authors with expertise in different California plant groups, The Jepson Manual carries forward the tradition of excellence in California floristics pioneered by Dr. Willis Linn Jepson, founder of the Jepson Herbarium.

The dynamic state of California floristics and plant systematics demands that any flora of the State be a living document, with frequent revision and correction. We are committed to production of a fully revised second edition of The Jepson Manual. Prior to completion of that task, we wish to make available in electronic form the full list of California's vascular plants, as currently accepted.

Progress in plant systematics is occurring so rapidly that taxonomic concepts adopted in the first edition of The Jepson Manual do not necessarily reflect the most current understanding of plant relationships. The basis for this list is taxa treated in the first edition of The Jepson Manual. Newly discovered (not previously collected) taxa from the State will be added, but taxonomic re-circumscriptions and other changes will not be adopted until the second edition is published, in order to allow for proper documentation.

Distributional data for taxa that appears in the electronic list is more current than in any existing print versions of The Jepson Manual. The data has been updated in the process of compiling information for the second edition and will continue to be refined as needed. To improve ease of interpretation, distributions are presented on a California map, with color coding of different Jepson Manual bioregions. The highlighted bioregions, as defined in the Jepson Manual, are identified by name (not abbreviation) in the legend of each map.

PLEASE NOTE that the distribution shown for each species, subspecies, or variety represents the bioregion(s) where the plant occurs. The plant may occur within only a fraction of the region highlighted, as sometimes indicated in the written description of the distribution accompanying the map. Rarity of taxa is addressed in The Jepson Manual.

YOU CAN HELP US make sure that our distributional information is correct and current. If you know that a plant occurs in a wild, reproducing state in a Jepson bioregion NOT highlighted on the map, please contact us with that information at margriet@uclink4.berkeley.edu. Please realize that we cannot incorporate range extensions without access to a voucher specimen, which should (ultimately) be deposited in an herbarium. You can send the pressed, dried collection (with complete locality information indicated) to us (e-mail us for details) or refer us to an accessioned herbarium specimen. Non-occurrence of a plant in an indicated area is difficult to document, but we will especially value your input on those types of possible errors (see "automatic conversion of distribution data to maps"). Thanks very much in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Bruce G. Baldwin
Curator of the Jepson Herbarium
Convening Editor of the Jepson Flora Project