During past glaciations, the Bering Land Bridge facilitated the exchange of plant species between Asia and North America. The central position of Alaska as the North American connection to the Bering Land Bridge has made it critical to the immigration of many of the plant lineages that now form the flora of North America. In combination with the North Atlantic Land Bridge, dispersal of species across Alaska has contributed to the flora of the circumpolar north. Additionally, the position of Alaska at the northern end of both the North American Cordillera and Pacific Coast has facilitated a north-south exchange of species. This historical dynamism is being matched in the present by rapid floristic change caused by human alteration of the global climate. Because of Alaska’s northern latitude, its plants are being affected by climate change at a rate greater than those of any other U.S. state. Ecosystems and species ranges are shifting and community composition is changing. Effective natural resource management, conservation, and organismal biology depend on identifying and communicating precisely about vascular plant taxa of Alaska.
Explore the Flora
This website will provide a medium for communicating the results of the Flora, in addition to the planned printed book. Users can browse floristic treatments or explore a provisional checklist of vascular plants. The provisional checklist will be updated as names are vetted by our taxonomic committee. Descriptive materials, such as keys, descriptions, photographs, and illustrations, will be hosted as they become available (view example species page). Please submit feedback, including technical corrections, on the Flora of Alaska Project, this website, and the checklist and descriptive materials provided here through the feedback form.
Citation
Please cite the Flora of Alaska project as a whole as follows:
Ickert-Bond, S.M., B. Bennett, M.L. Carlson, J. DeLapp, J.R. Fulkerson, C.L. Parker, T.W. Nawrocki, M.C. Stensvold, and C.O. Webb (eds.). 2019. Flora of Alaska. Available: https://floraofalaska.org
For the descriptive materials of a particular taxon or group, please cite the authors of that treatment as follows:
[Authors]. 2019. Group. In: Ickert-Bond, S.M., B. Bennett, M.L. Carlson, J. DeLapp, J.R. Fulkerson, C.L. Parker, T.W. Nawrocki, M.C. Stensvold, and C.O. Webb (eds.). Flora of Alaska. Available: https://floraofalaska.org