🚨Extended deadline for our plant identification tool survey!🚨 World Flora Online is planning plant identification features that could be incorporated into the WFO platform and we want to hear from you to guide our priorities. 🧵

As the world faces a biodiversity crisis, precise knowledge about specific species is more important than ever. World Flora Online’s Taxonomic Expert Networks, or TENs, are collaborations of taxonomic experts who work together to agree upon a consensus classification for their plant groups.

Happy Halloween from WFO! You may have heard of the ghost orchid, but did you know there is also a phantom orchid, hairy shadow witch orchid, and even a whole genus of dracula orchids? If you did, or know someone who knows all of this and much more about orchids, send them our way!

Welcome to our newest member, Real Jardín Botánico! 📷 by Antonello Dellanotte

Welcome to our newest member, Info Flora, the national data and information center on the Swiss flora. To date, 55 botanic gardens and botanical institutes are represented on the World Flora Online Council.

Welcome to our newest member, Jardin Botanico La Laguna! To date, 55 botanic gardens and botanical institutes are represented on the World Flora Online Council.

World Flora Online is planning plant identification features that could be incorporated into the WFO platform and we want to hear from you to guide our priorities. We invite you to tell us what you need from future WFO ID tools in a 10‑minute survey.

Happy World Coffee Day! WFO is looking for a coffee expert, and we don’t mean your local barista. We want to form a Taxonomic Expert Network (TEN) for Rubiaceae, the coffee and quinine family. Swipe through to learn more about TENS, and send your favorite rubiaceae experts our way!

Call for papers on #Rhododendron living collections for a special issue of Sibbadia the journal of botanical horticulture. More info at the end of the link. journals.rbge.org.uk/rbgesib/anno...

With Love. From an Invader. – Rhododendrons, Empire, China and Me An intensive field study. Every other day for a year, Yan Wang Preston (CN/GB) went to a particular love-heart-shaped Rhododendron ponticum bush and photographed it. 🧵 1/10 #nativeplants #invasiveplants #Rhododendronponticum

The June solstice has passed, which means we have a fresh update for our WFO Plant List! The big news since December is we now have more than 200 named co-authors on the WFO Plant List. Watch to see what else is new and visit worldfloraonline.org to browse the Plant List.

Welcome to one of our newest TENs, Asparagaceae subfam. Scilloideae! This new TEN will focus on the Asparagaceae subfamily Scilloideae, which includes spring species like hyacinths and bluebells, could include as many as 70 genera and 1,000 species. It is being led by Mario Martínez Azorín at @ua.es

Welcome to one of our newest TENs, Loasaceae. Loasaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes 22 genera. This TEN is led by Rafael Acuña-Castillo at the University of Costa Rica and Max Weigend @unibonn.bsky.social

Welcome to one of our newest TEN, Boraginales! Boraginales includes 53 genera and 3,517 species. This new TEN includes the former smaller TENS of Cordiaceae and Boraginaceae subtribe Amsinckiinae. It is led by Max Weigend at @unibonn.bsky.social and Michael G Simpson at @sdsuresearch.bsky.social.

Welcome to one of our newest TEN, Podostemaceae. Podostemaceae is a family of aquatic herbs that includes 52 genera that live attached to rocks in river rapids and waterfalls. This TEN is led by Ana Maria Bedoya at @nybg.bsky.social and Marco Pellegrini at Wits University.

Welcome to one of our newest TEN, Convolvulaceae! Convolvulaceae, commonly called the bindweeds or morning glory family, includes 59 genera and 1,982 species, This TEN is led by Ana Rita Giraldes Simoe at @mobotgarden and builds on the existing Convolvulaceae Network.

Welcome to one of our newest TEN, Combretaceae. Combretaceae, or the white mangrove family, includes 10 genera and 585 species. This TEN is led by Olivier Maurin from Plantentuin Meise in Belgium.

Welcome to one of our newest TEN, Clusiaceae. Clusiaceae is a family of trees and shrubs that includes 18 genera and 905 species. This TEN is led by Manuel Luján Anzola at @rbgkew.bsky.social

Rhododendron Research Network Rockin’ Around the Clock May 29-30, 2025 A FREE virtual convention highlighting a global community of researchers, conservationists and members of the public working in genus Rhododendron 🪴🧪🌺 Convention schedule and registration: medeiroslab.com/2025-virtual...

Rhododendron austrinum leaf cross-section stained with safranin-O and illuminated with UV Xylem and phloem in midrib vein in oranges and reds, parenchyma cells in blues and purples 40x magnification

Thanks to The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve for hosting the World Flora Online’s 24th Council Meeting last week! Around 40 individuals, representing 16 countries, participated in our latest meeting in person and virtually.

Happy Valentine's Day from WFO! Instead of flowers, we're hoping for rose and violet experts to help us build more Taxonomic Expert Networks, or TENs. Know a Rosaceae and Violaceae expert? Reach out to us at [email protected].

World Flora Online is now on Bluesky! Follow us for more updates and news from WFO.

🥳 Paper out! phytokeys.pensoft.net/article/1363...

The follow up on the previous post that we looked at based on some of the comments received about the imminent demise of plant taxonomy. There are more plant taxonomists today than there have ever been. stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/39789 #worldfloraonline #botany #taxonomy

Molecular biology and the internet have had no effect on the rate of plant species discovery. The title is somewhat clickbaity but probably correct. stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/39768 My colleague Roger doing some investigating of World Flora Online data we manage.

Travel awards (up to $5,000) are available to support the study of collections in the United States National Herbarium. Applications are due on 15 January: naturalhistory.si.edu/research/bot...

World Flora Online December 2024 Plant List and data release is live. All made possible thanks to the 195 co-authors. (See 2 of 2) available to browse here www.wfoplantlist.org. all the data is here doi.org/10.5281/zeno... #wfo #worldfloralonline #botany 1 of 2

World Flora Online December 2024 Plant List and data release is live. All made possible thanks to the 195 co-authors. (See 2 of 2) available to browse here www.wfoplantlist.org. all the data is here doi.org/10.5281/zeno... #wfo #worldfloralonline #botany 1 of 2

An obituary celebrating the life and research of Professor Mary Gibby, Ph.D., OBE, FLS, FRSE, PPBPS (1949-2024) by Professor Stephen Blackmore #RoyalBotanicGarden #Edinburgh and Professor Johannes Vogel #MuseumFürNaturkunde #Berlin published today #OpenAccess in #EJBotany: rbge.cc/4gsoNbc

Interested in plant systematics, ecology, and taxonomy in the tropics? Looking for a PhD? The next round of UKRI funded PhDs @EdinburghUni are out, & include 3 with me, @xaxapezzini and David Harris at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Applications due 6 Jan. e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super... #botany

it now ingests GBIF.org data - hello @gbifes.bsky.social - including from @inaturalist.bsky.social and SANBI doi.org/10.15468/2ak... via permanent identifiers nicely linked up through wfoplantlist.org

...and it feeds directly: doi.org/10.3897/phyt... into a revamped Erica ID aid, which in its latest incarnation, just out, has all sorts of extra linked goodies: get it free for windows here: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Which of my co-conspirators are on here? Hello @phytokeys.bsky.social and @alanelliott.bsky.social : note the central position of two papers in particular: the World Flora Online is the backbone of so much of the work doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

OK it'll be Friday the 13th and so far my first slide looks like a conspiracy theory but I'm sure it'll be great

The Erica gang are meeting up again, and if you happen to be a heather freak in the Cape - or online - you can join us www.inaturalist.org/projects/eri...

Amazing image of a #Rhododendron campanulatum taken in 1930 at what would become #Dawyck Botanic Garden. The photograph was found with Indian specimens in the Herbarium at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

Rhododendron diversity conservation in global botanic gardens: a case study of Maddenia species | Oryx | Cambridge Core - doi.org/10.1017/S003...

World Flora Online appoints Taxonomic Expert Networks (TENs) to curate the global consensus classification, establishing the taxonomy to be used for their groups. The #WFO Consortium welcomes engagement by the international #taxonomic community to create & join TENs. about.worldfloraonline.org

A Rhododendron conservation colleague's field studies in Indonesia has yielded two new Vireya. Mambrasar, Y.M., Elliott, A.C. and Cameron, K.M. (2024), Two new species of Vireya Rhododendron (Ericaceae), from Tambrauw, Papua, Indonesia. Nordic Journal of Botany e04545. doi.org/10.1111/njb....