Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Note: the following text is England|Ecology’s standard methods text used for biological reports. The primary purpose of this text’s existence on this website is to provide a landing page for hyperlinks in footnotes in smaller documents, where there may not be adequate space for explanations of the methods that underpin the report.

It is important within a given report to use a consistent taxonomy for clarity in communication, especially as the various sources used in the research for a report may not use the same taxonomy and nomenclature. The taxonomic database underpinning England|Ecology’s work is updated monthly from NatureServe. NatureServe’s taxonomy includes an Element Code for each taxon. These same Element Codes are used by a variety of agencies and organizations, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in the CNDDB and the California Native Plant Society in their Rare Plant Inventory. The Element Code provides a basis for linking records from disparate data sources. In all cases in this report, the taxonomic order and nomenclature are NatureServe’s, with the exception of the special status flora discussion which is linked to a monthly export of the Rare Plant Inventory. As such, while this report largely capitalizes common names consistent with the NatureServe taxonomy, tabular data exported for special status floral analysis does not use this convention, as it is not used by the California Native Plant Society.

Photo by Marcus C. England of England|Ecology.