Useful Links

Websites on the Illinois Flora

• Illinois Plants. Wild Plants of the Prairie State. Hosted by the Illinois Natural History Survey, this site provides descriptive information, distribution maps, and links to photos for the entire Illinois vascular plant flora.

• PhytoImages. Currently served from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, this site has over 130,000 photos of plants from all over the world. Links from species listed here go to PhytoImages. 

• Illinois Wildflowers by Dr. John Hilty. Full of beautiful photos and detailed descriptive information for many Illinois Plants.

• VPlants. A Virtual Herbarium of the Chicago Region. Contains specimen data and images, species descriptions, distribution by county, and photo galleries.

• Illinois Native Plant Guide (2008).  A guide to the use of native plant species for restoration and re-vegetation along streams in northeastern Illinois. Published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA.

Websites on the Floras of Neighboring States

• Missouriplants.com.  Constructed by Dan Tenaglia, the site contains a large collection of plant photos, arranged taxonomically or by flower color. Each species page contains wonderful photos and descriptions and other useful information.

• Iowa Plants.  A catalog identifying some of the species found in SE Iowa.

• Wisflora: Wisconsin Vascular Plant Species. Presented by the Wisconsin State Herbarium, University of Wisconsin - Madison and Partner Herbaria Statewide.

• Kentucky Plants.  Considered a "work in progress" by its author, Dr. Julian Campbell, this site provides a wealth of information on plants of the Bluegrass State.  Distribution maps by species are available for downloading.

• Southeastern Flora. By John R. Gwaltney, shows photos of over 1900 wildflowers.

Other Useful Websites

• Wildflower Identification Website. This site by Steven Sullivan is really quite amazing! Lots of information is then available for each plant including distribution maps, phenology, habitat type, etc. A very useful site for wildflowers (no grasses and sedges!) for all regions of North America. One can select the "Parks and Trails" button on the left, and then navigate to various National Parks.

• USDA PLANTS Database.  This is a comprehensive website (Plants Database) maintained by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA. It provides nomenclatural information, distribution maps, and photos of all plants known from North America. The taxonomic concepts applied to many groups is old.

• Flora of North America. Presents in printed and virtual form information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all 20,000 plants (268 families) native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico. Not yet complete but some Provisional Publications are available online before they appear in print.

• IPNI.  The International Plant Names Index.  A database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes.

• The Plant List. A collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden, this site is a work in progress that is attempting to provide accepted names for all vascular plants along with synonyms. Determination of synonyms was mechanized, not by consulting experts, so these data are not always reliable.

• GBIF.  Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Hosts an index of hundreds of millions of plant and animal species occurrence records.

• BONAP. The Biota of North America Program. North American Vascular Flora. Has a Taxonomic Data Center Query Page and TDC Database Page, as well as a North American Plant Atlas (NAPA).

Herbarium Websites

• Consortium of Midwest Herbaria. Focused around the Great Lakes drainage basin, the region includes the six states that border the western Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

• INHS Vascular Plant Collection Database. Illinois Natural History Survey - University of Illinois.

• TROPICOS. This massive worldwide database has not only specimen information but also photographs of living plants.

Native Plant Societies

• Illinois Native Plant Society. Dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and study of the native plants and vegetation of Illinois.  There are 8 regional chapters: Northeast, Kankakee Torrent, Quad Cities, Irene Cull, Grand Prairie, Forest Glen, Central, and Southern.