Florabank2 is a database that contains distributional data on the bryophytes of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region. It holds about Two hundred thousand records of mosses (Liverworths, Hornworths and Mosses), dating from 1800 till present. The database is an initiative of the Bryological and Lichenological Society of Flanders “Werkgroep Bryologie en Lichenologie” (www.mossenkorstmossen.be), the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO: www.inbo.be) and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (www.br.fgov.be). Florabank aims at centralizing botanical distribution data gathered by both professional and amateur botanists and to make these data available to the benefit of nature conservation, policy and scientific research.
The occurrence data contained in Florabank2 are extracted from checklists, literature and herbarium specimen information. Of survey lists, the locality name (verbatimLocality), species name, observation date and IFBL square code, the grid system used for plant mapping in Belgium (Van Rompaey 1943), is recorded. Analysis of herbarium specimens in the collection of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, the University of Ghent and the University of Liège provided interesting distribution knowledge concerning rare species, this information is also included in Florabank2.
All data in Florabank2 is georeferenced. Every record holds the decimal centroid coordinates of the IFBL square containing the observation. The uncertainty radius is the smallest circle possible covering the whole IFBL square, which can measure 1 Km² or 4 Km². Florabank is a work in progress and new occurrences are added as they become available; the dataset will be updated through GBIF on a regularly base.