Kanapaha Botanical Gardens is a 62 acre display facility, along the shores of Lake Kanapaha in Gainesville, Florida, developed and maintained by the North Florida Botanical Society, Inc., a private nonprofit organization. Development of the site began in 1978 and it was formally opened to the public in October 1986.
The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS), Florida Museum of Natural History and Kanapaha Botanical Gardens initiated the Floristic Inventory of Kanapaha Botanical Gardens project in early 2002. The goal of the project is to document the native, naturalized, and cultivated vascular plants growing at the gardens.
Preserved, pressed specimens will be prepared to document each species. A set of vouchers will be deposited at the University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) and at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. Additional specimens will be prepared for distribution to experts when assistance or verification of identifications are needed.
The species will be presented in a checklist of monophyletic families. The label data for the collections will be available as a searchable, web accessible database. Images of the specimens on deposit in the University of Florida Herbarium will be provided in connection with the herbarium’s digital imaging projects and collections catalog.
S. Barry Davis, a Herbarium staff member, is coordinator for this project and is preparing and identifying most of the specimens.