Flora of Bavaria

The “Flora of Bavaria” initiative aims to describe all of Bavaria’s more than 4.000 flowering plants and ferns, including naturally occurring, newly naturalized, invasive, and also extinct species. The project records and documents the flora of Bavaria over time and space. The information thus available is of high importance for questions of changes due to immigration or loss of plants and the basis of species protection. To realize this project, the cooperation of volunteer mappers as well as numerous individual projects, societies and associations in all regions of Bavaria is crucial. Citizen scientists are called upon to support the project with their own observations. Here you can register for cooperation with the team “Flora of Bavaria”.

Coordination Office for the Bavarian Flora

In May 2018, a coordination office was created at the Botanical State Collection Munich (SNSB-BSM) with the support of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt – LfU Bayern). The coordination office aims to connect volunteer plant experts, state authorities, learned societies, universities and scientists in Bavaria and to function as a data hub between science, voluntary work and authorities concerning issues of flora conservation. Topics concerning the occurrence and distribution of species, the composition of the flora as well as the protection of species and habitats in Bavaria are addressed. Since August 2022 the office is continuing its work as coordination office for the Bavarian flora, compiling data on the flora of Bavaria from a wide variety of sources, optimizing them technically and, above all, curating the information content as required by the specific scientific domain. Thus, together with a number of experts, the coordination office creates the basis for a sustainable documentation and understanding of the extent and causes of change in Bavaria’s native flora. Within the next years we will contribute to the planned publication of a printed new “Flora von Bayern” and implement new methods for data analysis to answer socially relevant issues with relation to biodiversity.

Flora of Bavaria – Communication platform

Since October 2013, the project BFL – Communication Platform provides an interactive communication platform for people interested in the flora and vegetation of Bavaria. The platform is intended to address both floristically active volunteer mappers and citizens interested in science, as well as relevant university institutes and official nature conservation. Volunteer data curators and staff members are supported and questions about the initiative “Flora of Bavaria” are answered. We encourage all interested citizens to actively participate in the content development of the interactive Wiki communication platform on the “Flora of Bavaria”!

Working Group Flora of Bavaria

The Working Group Flora of Bavaria consists of the steering group, which organizes the project. On the other hand, it consists of regional coordinators who have a say in the content. The working group is accompanied by an advisory board with representatives from the voluntary sector, nature conservation authorities and science. The independent regional flora projects and associations are also part of the working group as well as all volunteer mappers. Furthermore, the project is supported by a large number of working groups, societies and associations. The cooperation of all interested parties is the prerequisite to achieve the common goal of publishing a new “Flora of Bavaria”.

Number of “Citizen Scientists” working on the project

Currently, more than 120 experts are involved in the “Flora of Bavaria” project, mostly on a voluntary basis. More than 80 experts collect observation data throughout Bavaria, about 30-40 regularly edit data in the central DWB installations of the “Flora of Bavaria” databases. Often the “Citizen Scientists” are organized regionally, e.g. in associations. Since the beginning of the “Flora of Bavaria” project, a total of about 200 volunteer Citizen Scientists have participated in the initiative.