Arboretum puts flora database online

The Morris Arboretum website contains a database of thousands of Pennsylvania plant specimens. From students seeking the names of native trees for a biology class to developers concerned about interfering with endangered species, people looking for information on Pennsylvanian plant life can search a new database established by the University's Morris Arboretum. Morris Arboretum spokesperson kate Sullivan explained that the online database contains selected portions of the information accumulated through the Pennsylvania Flora Project -- a formal project begun in 1933 to compile information from plant specimens and to prepare a system to map the native plant life of Pennsylvania. The Morris Arboretum -- which is located on 175 acres in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia -- originated as the estate of Quaker siblings John and Lydia Morris in 1887. The University was entrusted to turn the estate into a public garden and center for research and education in 1932. Today, it is recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a Center for Urban Forestry and serves as the official arboretum of the state of Pennsylvania. For many years, Sullivan said information on specimens was recorded manually on file cards. These specimens consisted of actual dried and mounted plants with identification and details of the sites where they were collected. The Morris Arboretum houses many of these specimens, and others can be found at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Carnegie Museum Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The Pennsylvania Flora Project entered the computer age in the 1980s and according to Sullivan, it now includes an online database of 3,390 records which is updated when new plant specimens are collected. The new online database yields statewide information, but Sullivan said specific geographical information is not included in order to protect sites where rare plant life is found. Because virtually all Pennsylvania plants can be found in other states, the database also serves as a resource for people investigating the flora of southern New York, northern Maryland, northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio and all of New Jersey except the coast. The new online database is only one aspect of the Pennsylvania Flora Project. In 1993, Ann Rhoads -- Chairperson of the University's Botany Department -- published a volume with maps showing plant locations entitled The Vascular Flora of Pennsylvania: Annotated Checklist and Atlas. She and other members of the Botany Department are currently preparing an illustrated field guide to the plants of Pennsylvania. The book is intended for a variety of users ranging from students and amateur plant observers to professional botanists and resource managers.