WeDigFLPlants Focuses on Spring in Florida’s Forests

Thank you to those who helped us complete the “WeDigFLPlants’ Dogwoods and Tupelos of the Florida Panhandle” expedition! That takes the WeDigFLPlants project to over 18,000 transcriptions in 10 total expeditions.  You can see the distribution of collection locations for those transcribed specimens on our cool new heat map at https://biospex.org/project/wedigflplants.

Dogwoods and tupelos are prominent in Florida’s forests at the moment, along with the subjects of our two new expeditions:  viburnums, blueberries, and hollies. Those plants and the buzzing, whirring, crawling visitors to their flowers make this a fun time to be out hiking, biking, or kayaking. Florida is home to six species of viburnums and relatives (the family Adoxaceae), 32 species of blueberries and relatives (Ericaceae), and 15 species of hollies and relatives (Aquifoliaceae). The specimens in our new “WeDigFLPlants’ Spring-flowering Shrubs and Trees from the Florida Panhandle” expedition are each curated either at the University of West Florida’s Michael I. Cousens Herbarium or Florida State University’s Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium. Those in the “WeDigFLPlants’ Blueberries of the Florida Peninsula” are curated at the University of Central Florida Herbarium.

Join us on these two new WeDigFLPlants’ expeditions!

Austin Mast, Florida State University