From One Photo to a Whole Flora

Jardin Botanique des Cayes invites YOU to help better document, understand, and conserve the plants of Haiti

Join in from January 22nd - May 22nd!

Haiti is home to an incredible flora of around 5,000 documented plant species. Within these, over 210 endemic shrub and tree species have been identified. These plants have only one home in the world, and it is here. Many other species have small distributions in the Caribbean, which is a biodiversity hotspot .

While our flora is beautiful and important, it is not well documented, and the information we do have is held in many disjointed locations. This makes it hard to understand the health of our amazing species: their distributions, number of populations, and the health of those populations. Without the basic knowledge of where our plants exist, action cannot be taken to conserve them.

Jardin Botanique des Cayes is inviting everyone to help build this knowledge. How do we do this? Through using iNaturalist, a citizen science website that makes it easy to record pictures and information about plants we see. Through this project, we will begin to build a database of Haitian Flora.

Explore iNaturalist here

Take a look at some of Haiti's beautiful plants and see how iNaturalist can help increase our knowledge about them. You can zoom in and out and move around the map to better see where a plant was found.

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Bellonia spinosa

Endemic to Hispaniola and Cuba, this species has 174 total records that are visible online. Only 12 of these are from Haiti and semi-recent (since the 1980's). The most recent one, from 2019, is shared through iNaturalist and is considered "research-grade," meaning it has been identified by multiple people and is therefore considered reliable. See the observation here .

Piscidia piscipula

This photo was taken in 2020 and will be shared through iNaturalist. Before this, it did not have a record in Haiti that is visible online since 1929. It is a toxic species, but has been used in herbal medicine for nervous system disorders. Besides this observation, there are no observations of it in Haiti on iNaturalist. Have you seen it?

Samyda dodecandra

Not recorded in Haiti since the 1990's, two observations of this plant were added to iNaturalist in 2019. View them here . However, neither have been confirmed by multiple people and therefore are not yet considered "research-grade." If you recognize a plant, you can identify it and help confirm a specie's presence.

Lantana trifolia

This species is sometimes called Lavender popcorn because of the appearance of its fruits. Butterflies love its flowers, and while it is fairly common throughout its range, there are only 11 records from Haiti in the last 60 years. However, in the past two years 6 observations have been posted on iNaturalist! See them here . As with S. dodecandra, more confirmation is needed on these observations in order to make them research-grade.

Coccoloba fuertesii

A relative of more common Coccoloba species like C. uvifera, this species has only 85 total records, 33 of which are from Haiti. Only 3 of those are from the last 50 years (recorded in the 1980's), and the rest are from the 1920's and earlier! This species is endemic to Hispaniola, and it is rare throughout the island. This photo will be the first record of it on iNaturalist. Have you seen it anywhere?

As you can see, the iNaturalist observations are the first that have been recorded in a long time for many species. Without them, there is little up to date and accessible information. This project is about gathering as much data as possible about our plants so that they can be better understood.

How to participate in the project

The first step is to create an iNaturalist account. To do this you will need a valid email address and a smartphone. A computer and camera can also be used instead of a smartphone. If using a computer click the tab below to create your account.

Create your iNaturalist account

If using a smartphone, it will be easier to download the iNaturalist app and create your account through the app.

Once your account is created all you have to do is:

Join the project La flore Haïtienne en ligne on iNaturalist.
Record an observation. When you see a plant, take a few good pictures showing different parts of the plant to help with identification. Any and all plant observations are helpful, whether they are wild, cultivated, rare or common! Try to include a picture of the flower or fruit if possible.
Share your pictures to the project. Post them through your account and others will be able to look at them to work on identification.
Explore! See and discuss what other people are posting, start learning more about plants, and help identify ones you recognize.

You can start taking pictures now and begin adding them to iNaturalist on January 22nd, the official launch of the project.

This project will end on May 22nd, which is the International Day for Biological Diversity. That gives us just over four months to record as many plants as possible!

Here is a map showing all research-grade iNaturalist observations from 2020. Explore by zooming in and out, clicking on points to see information about an observation, and then follow links to see a photo and the full iNaturalist record. How many more observations can we add to this map by May 22nd 2021?

Haiti research-grade iNaturalist points, 2020