The Flora of Australia is a standard reference work for Australian vascular plants, providing standard Flora treatments (descriptions, nomenclature, keys, distributions) etc for all covered families, genera and species. The first taxonomic volume of the series was published in 1982 (Volume 8, Lecythidales to Batales). Since then, 25 vascular plant volumes (of a planned 50 volumes) have been published, covering c. 12,000 taxa (including two volumes dealing with Australia’s island territories).
In 2014, a decision was made to discontinue hardcopy publication of the Flora of Australia, and to move instead to a web-based platform. This has obvious advantages: the hardcopy volumes are mostly out-of-print and many are out-of-date, and transitioning to a web platform will allow quicker publication, easier management and updates, and a wider reach to a more diverse audience.
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is creating a new web-based platform for building, managing and maintaining eFloras, including the new eFlora of Australia. Work has commenced to move existing taxonomic treatments from the Flora of Australia to the new platform, including both published and unpublished treatments. Under the editorial management of the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) and supported by an Editorial Committee including representatives from the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH) and the Australian Systematic Botany Society, the new eFlora platform will allow the eFlora of Australia to be managed and edited using a new, decentralised, community-wide model.
The eFlora of Australia and ALA eFlora platform are not yet ready for public release, but work is progressing well and a release in 2017 is anticipated. Watch this space for more...