University of North Carolina’s Flora of the Southeast team at North Carolina Botanical Garden presents the first installment of its flora apps -- FloraQuest: Northern Tier. The app covers more than 5,800 wildflowers, trees, shrubs, grasses, and other vascular plants that occur outside of cultivation in Delaware (DE), Kentucky (KY), Maryland (MD), New Jersey (NJ), Pennsylvania (PA), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV), and Washington DC, as well as southern portions of Illinois (IL), Indiana (IN), New York (NY), and Ohio (OH).

FloraQuest: Northern Tier provides both Graphic Keys (easy to use) and Dichotomous Keys (more advanced), phenology, habitat descriptions, species range maps, conservation status, synonymies, and more than 20,000 diagnostic photographs for the plants occurring in the northern tier of the Flora of the Southeastern United States. In addition, the app provides a guide to over 150 of the best sites for botanical exploration throughout the 11-state region. For reference, the app includes a glossary (just click a technical term and its definition pops up!) and a bibliography.

The app does not need an Internet connection to run, so you can use it no matter where your wanderings take you.

With FloraQuest: Northern Tier, you can choose to customize the northern tier flora by state and physiographic province. Want to have your app just show you just the flora of Pennsylvania? – click a button and it’s done. Want only the Piedmont species? – again, click a button.

Stay tuned following the release of the FloraQuest: Northern Tier app, as we will be working diligently to provide similar versions for the four remaining regions across the Flora of the Southeastern States, until all 25 states are covered. First up: a FloraQuest app covering the Carolinas and Georgia will soon be available!