About the World Flora Online project

World Flora Online consortium member, SANBI, have published the e‑Flora of South Africa (e‑Flora) which is now available as species pages on their Biodiversity Advisor!

The e‑Flora project was initiated in 2013 to produce an online, open-access Flora in response to global efforts to conserve our plant biodiversity. The country is known for its rich flora, containing an estimated 6% of the world’s vascular plants, three global biodiversity hotspots and approximately 20 173 indigenous plant species. It is important to have a fundamental knowledge of what our biodiversity consists of in order to conserve it. The e‑Flora currently deals with South African indigenous plants and is built on the South African National Plant Checklist. Classification information, common names, morphology, distribution, habitat, diagnostic characters, images or illustrations, and literature references (where available) are disseminated via species pages on the Biodiversity Advisor.

The e‑Flora is built on sound research obtained from published information and will be maintained following updates in the South African National Plant Checklist. It will be expanded in future to include information for families, genera and naturalised species.