Book Description

A vascular plant inventory was conducted within Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve (EBLA) between 2002 and 2005. Inventory methods included data mining and field surveys. The data mining component consisted of bibliographic searches for reports documenting plant species presence and herbarium searches for specimens collected within EBLA. Field surveys, called "Botany Forays", were conducted by experienced volunteers organized by the University of Washington to find and collect new plant specimens from EBLA. Initially, the reserve had a species list of 182 species, all of which had been verified by observation or field study. During the course of the inventory, data mining located 8 herbarium specimens verifying 7 species. During the four Botany Forays 305 specimens were collected, documenting 221 species. The vascular plant species list at the conclusion of the EBLA inventory included 374 species with 61% verified by voucher specimen and the remaining 39% verified by observation or scientific study.