Campus Plant Inventory Project 'Fielding' Unexpected Results

During Fall 2011, over 30 students started the Flora of Rutgers Campus project (FoRC) and uploaded photos and species to an online website under the guidance of professor Lena Struwe, director of the Chrysler Herbarium. In just a few months, nearly 10% of New Jersey's flora was found on the Cook/Douglass campus of Rutgers University, showcasing the wide biodiversity and habitats present at this suburban university. The project is ongoing and is now expanded to the whole New Brunswick campus and we expect to add many more plant species in the upcoming years. The result of the student project was recently presented as a poster at the Botany 2012 meetings in Columbus, Ohio, by Ecology and Evolution graduate student Lauren Spitz.

The basic method of the project was to observe and identify all of the plant species encountered on campus, map the location, and then submit photographs, location, condition, and taxa of the plant into a searchable online database. To view the entires that Dr. Struwe and her team have logged, you can check it out here as part of the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria's Website.

 

Left: Logo of the FoRC project designed by Clayton Leadbetter.

 

Right: Map for the data shows the locations around campus that species have been logged.