The database of over 16,000 records that is the basis for Dianne Lake’s seventh edition of the Rare, Unusual, and Significant Plants of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties is available on the web, through The Calflora Database. Each observation from the EB Unusual Plants database includes the taxon, observer, and date. For rare taxa, the East Bay region code (from the map of rehttp://www.calflora.orggions in Dianne’s book) is listed. For taxa that are more common in the East Bay and elsewhere, a great deal of detail is included about each observation’s location–much more than could be included in the printed edition of the book.
The Calflora Map Viewer now includes the regions from the EB Unusual Plants database; if a plant occurs in on of these regions, it is drawn in color on a relief map, alongside observations at specific points (shown as dots) and “quads” from the state CNPS Inventory, and the many other Calflora sources of observations. For more information about the Map Viewer, visit the Calflora web site and click the Map Viewer link on the front page or in any sidebar.
The printed book of course remains the official source of the EB Unusual Plants data and continues to be available from Dianne Lake.
rwest@monocot.com