About the Flora of New Jersey Project

The Flora of New Jersey Project was started in 2004 by field botanists who saw the need for a modern state flora. We are a loose confederation of regional botanists from all corners of the state and beyond. This is a volunteer effort and labor of love.

Our effort has been encouraged by various institutions, including the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, and Chrysler Herbarium of Rutgers University, which hosts our meetings and this web site.

Our goals

We aim to generate an up-to-date description and distribution map for each species, subspecies, and variety of vascular plant in New Jersey. We envision three separate publications: an atlas, a manual, and a web site. The Atlas will include the following:

  1. distribution map with county-level or finer distribution data
  2. current Latin name, synonyms, and common name
  3. native or alien status
  4. growth habit and duration
  5. flowering and fruiting dates
  6. habitat
  7. wetland indicator status
  8. frequency in New Jersey
  9. global, national and state conservation rank
  10. national or state endangered status
The Manual will include:
  1. family and genus descriptions
  2. keys to the genera, species, and infraspecific taxa
  3. habitat
  4. physiographic affinity
  5. wetland and rarity status as in the atlas
The web site will make all of this information freely available as it is generated.

How we work

Botanists in the Flora of New Jersey Project are in the process of visiting herbaria to gather information on all plant specimens collected in New Jersey. The herbaria we are covering are Chrysler, Academy of Natural Sciences, New York Botanical Garden, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Data collected include taxon (as authenticated by FNJP botanists), collection date, location, habitat, and phenology data.

To ensure that our information reflects the current-day flora, the herbarium information will be supplemented with published data and field observations by FNJP members. All information will be entered into a comprehensive database, which will be used to generate distribution maps and dates of flowering and fruiting.

We are also using (with permission) information from Mary Y. Hough's 1983 book, New Jersey Wild Plants (Harmony Press, Harmony, New Jersey).

Join us

The Flora of New Jersey Project is asking for interested individuals or institutions to become official members—and financial supporters—of the Project. Download our membership form.

Sample pages

We have inaugurated the Plants of New Jersey web site with the families Equisetaceae (horsetails) and Viscaceae (mistletoes). Some samples pages:

Equisetum genus page
Equisetum pratense (meadow horsetail)
Equisetum sylvaticum (woodland horsetail)
Viscaceae family page
Arceuthobium pusillum (dwarf mistletoe)
Phoradendron leucarpum (American mistletoe)