Plants of the ANF

Flora

Nearly 1400 species of plants have been documented or identified as likely to occur in Apalachicola National Forest (ANF).  This highly diverse flora is in a global biodiversity hotspot, the North American Coastal Plain (Noss et al. 2015).  Generations of botanists and plant ecologists—within the Forest Service, local universities, and avid, knowledgeable amateurs--have contributed to our knowledge of the flora of ANF.  Dr. Loren Anderson made a spreadsheet of plant species found or likely in ANF in October 2022.  Many of the voucher specimens for the plants of ANF are housed in the Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium, the University of Florida Herbarium (n=428), and Harvard University Herbarium.  Although nearly 84% of the species on the plant list of ANF are vouchered with a museum specimen, over 16% have not been definitively documented.