New “Flora of Bavaria” – 50 years of teamwork between volunteers, science and nature conservation
110 years after Franz Vollmann of the Bavarian Botanical Society published the last overview of Bavaria’s flora in his “Flora von Bayern 1914”, a new, comprehensive “Flora von Bayern” is now being published. The four-volume mammoth work is the result of more than 50 years of intensive floristic recording, mapping, and documentation of the flora throughout Bavaria. More than 200 volunteer citizen scientists worked on the project. The project was coordinated by the Bavarian State Collection for Botany.
The new Flora of Bavaria contains the entire botanical overview of species as well as the current state of Bavaria’s flora from the Rhön to the Allgäu. The botanists also took a look into the past: the observation data includes plant occurrences from Bavaria over the last 250 years. The Bavarian State Collection for Botany (SNSB-BSM), the Bavarian Botanical Society, the State Office for the Environment, and the Bavarian Flora Working Group, which was founded for the project, spent years analyzing data from older literature as well as all Bavarian herbaria, some of which contain historical herbarium specimens. A total of almost 16 million observation data were collected – curated and evaluated by the State Office for the Environment and the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB), in particular with the support of the experts for scientific data at the SNSB IT Center. In addition to the participating scientists, more than 200 volunteer mappers were also involved in the Flora of Bavaria initiative – an outstanding citizen science project for Bavarian botany.
Overview of the state of the Bavarian flora
Mapping Bavaria’s flora over such a long period of time provides a precise overview of the state of Bavaria’s flora: Which plants are endangered and disappearing? Which species are spreading? Not only the entire state but also individual administrative districts and natural areas are examined in detail. Of the 5,886 plant species identified in the project, 3,065 are native. 1,955 species are so-called neophytes, plants that immigrated to Bavaria or were introduced after the discovery of America in 1492. Of these neophytes, 380 are now firmly established in Bavaria, i.e. have become native, 208 have a tendency to naturalize, and 1,367 are only found spontaneously or in the wild. Of the 3,065 native plant species, 82 have become extinct (2.5 %). 88 plant species (2.7 %) are endemic to Bavaria, i.e. they only occur there worldwide.
Almost 6,000 Bavarian plant species in one book
The now-printed work comprises four volumes with a total of almost 3,000 pages. Among the 5,886 plant clans that have been identified in Bavaria are 4,778 species, 1,313 subspecies, 109 varieties, and 708 hybrids. The book contains thousands of color distribution maps, photos, and detailed species texts written by over 60 authors. Species that are particularly typical or rare for Bavaria are shown in their natural habitat.
The new Flora of Bavaria is edited by the Bavarian Botanical Society, the authors Prof. Dr. Lenz Meierott, PD Dr. Andreas Fleischmann from the Bavarian State Collection for Botany (SNSB-BSM), Marcel Ruff from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU), Jürgen Klotz and – posthumously – Dr. Wolfgang Lippert (former curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Botany). All those involved are delighted to finally be able to present the work to the public. The festive book launch will take place as part of a “Bavarian Flora Day” on Saturday, October 26, 2024, in the large lecture hall of the Bavarian State Collection for Botany.
Publication:
Meierott, L., Fleischmann, A., Klotz, J., Ruff, M., & Lippert, W. (2024): Flora of Bavaria. – Haupt-Verlag, Bern, 2880 pages
Contact:
PD Dr. Andreas Fleischmann, curator for Vascular Plants
SNSB – Bavarian State Collection for Botany
Menzinger Straße 67, 80638 Munich
Tel: 089 17861240, e-mail: fleischmann@snsb.de
