Biota of North America Program (BONAP) of the North Carolina Botanical Garden

Over the past 30 years, Dr. John Kartesz, Director of the Biota of
North America Program (BONAP) of the North Carolina Botanical Garden
has produced a vast database for the vascular plants of North America
north of Mexico. The work now serves as an international standard for
many federal government agencies, universities, colleges, and private
conservation groups, including The Nature Conservancy.

The Synthesis software was written by Dr. Christopher Meacham, plant
taxonomist and software specialist at the Jepson Herbarium, University
of California at Berkeley. The program is designed for IBM-compatible
computers running Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT, or 2000 operating systems,
with at least 25 MB of available hard-disk space, a Pentium or faster
processor, and minimally 32 MB of RAM. The program can also be used on
Macintosh computers running Virtual PC software, although it is
recommended that the computer have components that are comparable to
or better than those indicated above.

This program enables plant taxonomists, horticulturists, nurserymen,
foresters, wildlife managers, ecologists, and other plant enthusiasts
to produce species checklists, distribution summaries, and species
assessments for morphology, rarity, endemism, nativity, and other
biological attributes. Since the program is entirely mouse driven,
users no longer need to type scientific names in order to view
distributional or biological attribute data, or to produce checklists
anywhere within North America, from private wood lots to state or
regional floras. This program consists of three integrated components:
the Lexicon, Atlas, and Biological Attributes.

The Lexicon provides the underlying nomenclature and taxonomy used
within Dr. Kartesz.s 1994 Timber Press publication A Synonymized
Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and
Greenland, including current updates. Each name has undergone
rigorous scrutiny in both orthography and authorship to assure
scientific correctness and consistency with the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature. The Lexicon enables the user to show immediate
relationships between taxa at various ranks, i.e. families, genera,
species, subspecies, and varieties, and to produce listings of all
plant names in current use (synonyms and/or accepted
names). Synonymized checklists can be displayed and printed for any
plant group. Author citations for all scientific names, along with
common names for each fully accepted species can also be included.
The Synthesis permits the transfer of scientific names (in italics!)
directly into Microsoft Word or WordPerfect documents by simply
clicking on the desired name. By using the Lexicon as a standard
reference tool, countless hours of tedious editorial time can be saved
by those needing to include accurate scientific names within
manuscripts or species checklists.

The Atlas displays distribution maps for each of the more than 28,000
accepted taxa, representing nearly a quarter of a million state or
equivalent level records. The maps can be printed in black and white
or color, or saved as bitmap images. The Atlas permits individual
state or equivalent level summaries of taxa to be displayed for each
of the 70 geographic regions. Rare, state level noxious, extirpated/
historical occurrences, eradicated, extinct, and erroneous reports are
indicated for various taxa by different colors. Complex search
capabilities are also possible, including boolean operations designed
to compare and contrast taxa common to individual states, groups of
states, or even groups of geographic regions. Bibliographic and/or
repository vouchering details documenting each of the 240,000 state or
equivalent level records can be displayed by simply running the cursor
over that particular geographic area. Zoom capabilities embedded
within the mapping system will permit county level and even
site-specific data to be added in the future.

The Biological Attributes provide fully populated summaries for 174
biological fields, including morphological and other specialized data,
for all accepted taxa. These biological attributes were selected
because of their botanical usefulness or interest to a broad audience
and/or because of their national or international
significance. Examples of these attributes include: state and national
level rarity and endemism, nativity, weediness, habit (tree, shrub,
vine, etc.), habitat, trophic level, duration, etc. Numerous other
data fields that might be of interest to the horticultural community
and gardeners, such economically important plants and herbs of
commerce, plants reported to have medicinal uses, major range plants,
plants reported to be toxic or edible (including the part of the plant
that has been reported to be edible), drink plants, spice plants,
lumber and timber sources, ornamental grasses, perfume plants, alpine
species, along with plants that attract butterflies, honeybees, and
hummingbirds, are included. Boolean operations are also incorporated
within the Biological Attributes, enabling comparisons of various
attributes to be made in concert with state level distributions.

The Synthesis is now available through the North Carolina Botanical
Garden. The price per copy is $495.00. An order form can be printed
and faxed or mailed to the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Credit
card orders may also be placed by telephone; please contact Amy
Farstad at the BONAP office at: 919-962-0578.