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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Flora of Great Britain and Ireland

book on botanical systematics

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 2, 2025
Entity authorityQ58197810 ↗
Source-derived summary

The flora of Great Britain and Ireland is one of the best documented in the world. There are 1390 native species and over 1100 well-established non-natives documented on the islands. A bibliographic database of the species has been compiled by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. The lists (spread across multiple pages due to size) give an English name and a scientific name for each species, and two symbols are used to indicate status (e for extinct species, and * for introduced species).

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (ferns and allies) covers ferns and allies (Lycopodiopsida, Equisetopsida and Pteridopsida)

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (conifers) covers the conifers (Pinopsida)

The remaining parts cover the flowering plants (Magnoliopsida):

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (dicotyledons)

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (Rosaceae), covering the dicotyledon family Rosaceae

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (Asteraceae), covering the dicotyledon family Asteraceae

List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland (monocotyledons), covering the monocotyledons (Butomaceae to Orchidaceae)

See also

Biodiversity in British Overseas Territories

Flora of Ireland

References

Further reading

Lists of the plant species found in Ireland can be found at Irish Species Register The lists on this site are based on these "Key references"

Scannell, M.J.P. & Synnott, D.M. (1987). Census catalogue of the flora of Ireland. A list of Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Angiospermae including all the native plants and established aliens known to occur in Ireland with the distribution of each species, and recommended Irish and English names. pp. [i]-xxvii, 1-171, map. Dublin: Stationery Office.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Flora of Great Britain and Ireland” as book on botanical systematics. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1390, 1100, 1987—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Flora, Great and Britain can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as book on botanical systematics. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q58197810. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1390, 1100 and 1987.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Flora of Great Britain and Ireland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Flora of Great Britain and Ireland primary sources, Flora of Great Britain and Ireland archive and Flora research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Flora of Great Britain and Ireland”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Flora of Great Britain and Ireland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.