Bug #2586
closed5. Document the source of data for USDA PLANTS
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Description
Distribution maps of USDA data on SE Flora atlas site sometimes do not match the county-level distribution maps on the USDA PLANTS website. For example, compare the USDA distribution of Acer rubrum in West Virginia or Virginia on the SE Flora site with that on the USDA PLANTS site.
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RKP:
I believe that there is NOT an error here.
There is at least one issue that needs to be addressed in the website documentation. Specifically, we are not using the same USDA dataset that one sees today going to PLANTS, but rather a prerelease of an updated and expanded USDA dataset that contains more country records and covers nearly all states (largely derived from Kartesz 2004 not yet released, but available from http://phylosystems.com/).
Nearly all of Virginia is ambiguous because the data Kartesz gave USDA for VA does not split Acer rubrum into vars. and the USDA concept of Acer rubrum contains the Weakley concept of Acer drummundii.
Updated by Michael Lee almost 18 years ago
contributed by Lisa Giencke & Stephen Seiberling
Comments by Bob Peet followed by RKP: