News release

Nova Scotia Plants eBook Launched

Communities, Culture and Heritage (Jan. 2011 - Aug. 2021)

The Nova Scotia Museum launched a new eBook about Nova Scotia plants today, Oct. 30.

Nova Scotia Plants, by authors Marian C. Munro, Ruth E. Newell and Nicholas M. Hill, provides a comprehensive catalogue of the province's flora.

"We are very proud of our collaboration, which began more than 20 years ago at Acadia University," said Ms. Munro. "We are grateful to the scores of museum and online visitors, academics, naturalists and other Nova Scotians who contributed sightings, collections, maps and photographs to build upon. I am thrilled it can be delivered as a digital product, and free of charge."

Illustrated with computer-generated distribution maps and full-colour photographs, the eBook includes a glossary, discussion of plant communities and a background to botanical study in the province.

"This e-flora fills the need for an updated wild plant identification guide for the province which will serve as a digital tool for professional botanists, naturalists, teachers and students, both in the laboratory and in the field," said Ms. Newell. "The eBook represents a compilation of field observations by many botanists through the years on Nova Scotia's wild flora, combined with updated botanical/Latin names and distribution maps, colour photos and identification keys all in a format that allows accessibility both in the field and in the lab."

The project took seven years to complete and involved academics, resource managers, technicians and students. Nearly 30 photographers provided images of more than 1,500 species of ferns and relatives, conifers and flowering plants.

"Our plants are our natural riches in their various offerings, the strength, lustre and workability of a wood, the culture and efficacy of a medicinal herb, the beauty of a bog rose, the nourishment of skunk cabbage for a bear in springtime," said Mr. Hill. "We hold this legacy dear and we trust that it will further the wise use and conservation of Nova Scotia's plant resources."

To view Nova Scotia Plants, visit museum.novascotia.ca/books.