Boise State University
02/02/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 02/02/2026 10:40
Boise State joins global conservation effort to build unified list of world’s plants
Flora of the World collects photos and physical samples from plants all around the world, like this example of Trigonachras postardanjeisin Buerki & Callm. Photo credit: Christopher Davidson.
With about 400,000 species of plants on Earth, it's no small task keeping track of them all. One project called Flora of the World, founded by Idaho-based botanist Christopher Davidson and his wife Sharon Christoph, is at the forefront of such efforts with an extensive online database and a new international partnership that will support global conservation efforts. Davidson gifted the Flora of the World website to Boise State upon his death, entrusting its continued growth to Associate Professor Sven Buerki, the inaugural Dr. Christopher Davidson Endowed Chair in Botany.
Davidson and Christoph traveled to over 45 countries. Their mission was to build a collection of physical specimens and digital images of the 430 families of flowering plants in their native habitats. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had only 8 flowering plant families left to document. Their efforts focused on evolutionarily distinct or threatened plants in biodiversity hotspots all over the world.
Today, Flora of the World's online database contains 232,000 high-quality images spanning 479 families of plant life. This extensive collection is a valuable resource for taxonomists, ecologists, conservation biologists and educators.
Since taking on operational responsibilities for Flora of the World in 2024, Buerki has worked on making the database accessible and aligning it with international biodiversity standards. Near the end of 2025, Buerki released the latest version of the database.
In late 2025, Flora of the World became a member of World Flora Online to work towards their shared aims, supporting the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity by creating an online record of all known plants. This partnership is the result of Davidson's tireless work over 25 years and recognizes Boise as a unique source of botanical expertise.
Having an exhaustive, accessible record of plant life on Earth is essential for global conservation efforts. This taxonomy supports conservation assessments, helping researchers identify and rescue threatened species. It also underpins other kinds of botanical research. "You can't research an organism if you can't name it," Buerki said.
The new partnership between Flora of the World and World Flora Online will help the latter write descriptions for all known plants, using high-quality photographs from the Flora of the World collection.
The partnership also puts the spotlight on Boise as a key contributor to an international community of botanical researchers. "This gives us access to a hub of more than 55 institutions all over the world," Buerki said.
As part of Flora of the World's membership in World Flora Online, Buerki will attend a meeting of the group in Edinburgh, Scotland, in February. His work will advance Boise State's presence in global botanical research, strengthening Davidson's legacy.
Buerki's role as Dr. Christopher Davidson Endowed Chair in Botany and his continued work on Flora of the World are possible thanks to the generous support of Sharon Christoph. In addition to his contributions to the Flora of the World database, Davidson also amassed a collection of rare botany books during his lifetime. Those will be donated to Boise State in the coming years.
Beyond providing global visibility, the endowed chair has enabled Buerki to acquire research equipment that supports his work as well as that of other campus units, enhance the student experience by underscoring the value of their contributions and retaining them for continued research over the summer, and position the program to compete more effectively for external grant funding.
Boise State University published this content on February 02, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on February 02, 2026 at 16:41 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]