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Florabank1 is a database that contains distributional data on the wild flora (indigenous species, archeophytes and naturalised aliens) of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region. It holds about 3 million records of vascular plants, dating from 1800 till present. Furthermore, it includes ecological data on vascular plant species, redlist category information, Ellenberg values, legal status, global distribution, seed bank etc. The database is an initiative of “Flo.Wer” (www.plantenwerkgroep.be), the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO: www.inbo.be) and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (www.br.fgov.be). Florabank aims at centralizing botanical distribution data gathered by both professional and amateur botanists and to make these data available to the benefit of nature conservation, policy and scientific research.
The occurrence data contained in Florabank1 are extracted from checklists, literature and herbarium specimen information. Of survey lists, the locality name (verbatimLocality), species name, observation date and IFBL square code, the grid system used for plant mapping in Belgium (
All data in Florabank1 is georeferenced. Every record holds the decimal centroid coordinates of the IFBL square containing the observation. The uncertainty radius is the smallest circle possible covering the whole IFBL square, which can measure 1 Km² or 4 Km². Florabank is a work in progress and new occurrences are added as they become available; the dataset will be updated through GBIF on a regularly base.
Tracheophyta, grid mapping, flora, indigenous species, archeophytes, naturalised aliens
GBIF: http://data.inbo.be/ipt/resource.do?r=florabank1-occurrences
Taxonomic coverageNote: The taxonomic reference for the florabank1 database is the 1998 edition of the Belgian Flora by
The coverage (figure 1) of this database spans the Phylum Tracheophyta or vascular plants. The highest number of records are from the Magnoliopsida (76.48%) followed by Monocotyledones (20.92%), Filicopsida (1.44%), Sphenopsida (0.97%) Coniferopsida (0.13%) and Lycopsida (0.03%). Ginkgopsids are within the scope of Florabank, but do not occur within the geographical scope of the database.
Taxonomic coverage of Florabank1
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Coniferopsida, Filicopsida, Ginkgopsida, Liliopsida (Monocotyledones), Lycopsida, Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledones), Sphenopsida
Order: Pinales, Taxales, Filicales, Marsileales, Ophioglossales, Osmundales, Salviniales, Ginkgoales, Alismatales, Arales, Commelinales, Cyperales, Hydrocharitales, Juncales, Liliales, Najadales, Orchidales, Poales, Pontederiales, Typhales, Typhales, Zingiberales, Isoetales, Lycopodiales, Selaginellales, Apiales, Apiales, Aristolochiales, Asterales, Callitrichales, Campanulales, Capparales, Caryophyllales, Celastrales, Cornales, Cucurbitales, Dipsacales, Elaeagnales, Ericales, Euphorbiales, Fabales, Gentianales, Geraniales, Haloragales, Haloragales, Hamamelidales, Juglandales, Lamiales, Linales, Loganiales, Magnoliales, Malvales, Myricales, Myrtales, Nymphaeales, Oleales, Paeoniales, Papaverales, Piperales, Plantaginales, Plumbaginales, Polemoniales, Polygalales, Polygonales, Primulales, Ranunculales, Rhamnales, Rosales, Rubiales, Rutales, Salicales, Santalales, Sapindales, Sarraceniales, Saxifragales, Scrophulariales, Theales, Thymelaeales, Urticales, Violales, Violales, Gymnospermae, Equisetales
Family: Araucariaceae, Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Taxodiaceae, Taxaceae, Adiantaceae, Aspleniaceae, Blechnaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, Polypodiaceae, Thelypteridaceae, Woodsiaceae, Marsileaceae, Ophioglossaceae, Osmundaceae, Azollaceae, Salviniaceae, Ginkgoaceae, Alismataceae, Butomaceae, Araceae, Lemnaceae, Commelinaceae, Cyperaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Juncaceae, Agavaceae, Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae, Aponogetonaceae, Juncaginaceae, Najadaceae, Potamogetonaceae, Ruppiaceae, Scheuchzeriaceae, Zannichelliaceae, Zosteraceae, Orchidaceae, Poaceae, Pontederiaceae, Sparganiaceae, Typhaceae, Cannaceae, Isoetaceae, Lycopodiaceae, Selaginellaceae, Apiaceae, Araliaceae, Aristolochiaceae, Asteraceae, Callitrichaceae, Campanulaceae, Lobeliaceae, Brassicaceae, Capparaceae, Resedaceae, Aizoaceae, Amaranthaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Molluginaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Phytolaccaceae, Portulacaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Celastraceae, Cornaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Dipsacaceae, Valerianaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Actinidiaceae, Clethraceae, Empetraceae, Ericaceae, Monotropaceae, Pyrolaceae, Buxaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Fabaceae, Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Gentianaceae, Balsaminaceae, Geraniaceae, Limnanthaceae, Oxalidaceae, Tropaeolaceae, Gunneraceae, Haloragaceae, Hippuridaceae, Hamamelidaceae, Platanaceae, Juglandaceae, Boraginaceae, Lamiaceae, Verbenaceae, Linaceae, Buddlejaceae, Calycanthaceae, Magnoliaceae, Malvaceae, Tiliaceae, Myricaceae, Lythraceae, Onagraceae, Trapaceae, Cabombaceae, Ceratophyllaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Oleaceae, Paeoniaceae, Fumariaceae, Papaveraceae, Saururaceae, Plantaginaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cuscutaceae, Hydrophyllaceae, Menyanthaceae, Polemoniaceae, Solanaceae, Polygalaceae, Polygonaceae, Primulaceae, Berberidaceae, Menispermaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rhamnaceae, Vitaceae, Amygdalaceae, Malaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Anacardiaceae, Rutaceae, Simaroubaceae, Zygophyllaceae, Salicaceae, Loranthaceae, Santalaceae, Aceraceae, Hippocastanaceae, Sapindaceae, Staphyleaceae, Droseraceae, Crassulaceae, Grossulariaceae, Hydrangeaceae, Saxifragaceae, Bignoniaceae, Globulariaceae, Lentibulariaceae, Martyniaceae, Orobanchaceae, Pedaliaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Elatinaceae, Hypericaceae, Thymelaeaceae, Cannabaceae, Moraceae, Ulmaceae, Urticaceae, Begoniaceae, Cistaceae, Frankeniaceae, Loasaceae, Passifloraceae, Tamaricaceae, Violaceae, Ephedraceae, Equisetaceae
Common names: conifers, ferns, ginkgos, monocots, lycopods, dicots, horsetails
Spatial coverageGeneral spatial coverage: Florabank deals with distribution data of the wild flora of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region (Federal states of the Kingdom of Belgium). Florabank covers an area of 13.682 km². Flanders has a temperate maritime climate influenced by the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, with relatively moderate summers and mild winters. Flanders is the northern part of Belgium. The two main geographical regions of Flanders are the Yser basin, in the North-West and the central plain. Flanders is divided in 6 ecoregions (Dunes district; Kempens district; Loam district; River Maas; Polder district, Sand and Loam district). The Brussels Capital region is a small region (162 km²) surrounded Flanders and is entirely situated in the Loam district. The majority of this region is highly urbanized and only the southern part is occupied by a large beech forest.
Coordinates: 50°37'12"N and 51°29'24"N Latitude; 2°31'12"E and 6°12'0"E Longitude
Temporal coverage1800–2011.
Sampling MethodsThe spatial coverage of the territory has evolved through time. The data from the period before 1939 pertains mostly to herbarium specimens and reflects only part of the vascular plant composition of the region. From 1939 onwards most observations are collected using a standardized protocol based on the methodology used for the Atlas of the flora of Belgium and Luxemburg (
Number of prospected 1 km² grids in each grid of 4×4 km for the period 1939–1971. A 1 km² grid cell is considered as prospected if at least 90 species have been recorded.
Number of prospected 1 km² grids in each grid of 4×4 km for the period 1972-2004. A 1 km² grid cell is considered as prospected if at least 90 species have been recorded.
All records are validated before they are added to Florabank. The basic reference for quality control is the Belgian atlas (
The Florabank1 dataset is a custom made SQL view of the Florabank database hosted in the Research Institute for Nature and Forest. The view shows only those data that are accepted for publication in the Darwin Core standard. Fields given are: occurenceID, modified, language, institutionCode, collectionCode, basisOfRecord, catalogNumber, recordedBy, occurrenceDetails, eventDate, country, verbatimLocality, verbatimCoordinates, verbatimCoordinatesystem, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, geodeticDatum, coordinateUncertaintyInMeters, scientificName, originalNameUsage, taxonRank, verbatimTaxonrank and nomenclaturalCode.
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Florabank1: a grid-based database on vascular plant distribution in the northern part of Belgium
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://data.inbo.be/ipt/archive.do?r=florabank1-occurrences
Publication date of data: 2011-03-25
Language: Dutch
Licenses of use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2011-03-25
Hierarchy level: Dataset