The purpose of this database is to make information on exotic plants on preserve lands in southern Florida available to the general public, the scientific community, land managers, and policy makers. Future versions are anticipated to include more detailed data (e.g. common name, ranges, citations, and so on), and a broader geographic focus.
This database corresponds to the area referred to as the South Florida Ecosystem. The South Florida Ecosystem has been defined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the 19 county area from Polk and Osceola counties south, including Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Dade, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Lee, Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, Sarasota, and St. Lucie. This area contains the Greater Everglades Ecosystem including the Kissimmee, Caloosahatchee, Big Cypress, and Everglades watersheds.
The data presented here have been compiled by The Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC) since 1995 as part of the Floristic Inventory of Southern Florida (FISF). These data are from a number of different sources, most notably published and unpublished plant lists by many different authors. Additional data has been added from personal observations, herbarium specimens, and published literature. Specific references are available from The Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC). Listings from the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council are from their 1999 list.
This database includes data on exotic plant taxa in 253 preserves. The southern Florida Ecosystem contains approximately 842 exotic plant taxa. Of these, 601 are known from one or more of the 253 preserves included in this database and 289 may occur in relatively undisturbed natural areas.
This version of the database contains six data forms: exotic taxa in southern Florida, exotics by habitat, exotics in each preserve, preserve occurrences, exotics in preserves in each county, and county occurrences
The development of version 3.0 of this database was funded by The South Florida Water Management District. Conversion of version 3 to HTML was developed by the volunteer work of Mark Phagan. Funding for development of previous versions was obtained from the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Invasive Plant Management. Major funding for the FISF has been provided by the Steve Arrowsmith Fund, the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. We would like to thank IRC Biologist Steven Woodmansee for his extensive help on this project.