Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN)

The study area occupies the northern half of North America (excluding Alaska). The area of Canada is 9,984,670 km2, of Greenland (or Kulaalit Nunaat, an autonomous country within the kingdom of Denmark) 2,166,086 km2, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (collectivité territoriale, France) 242 km2. The latter is 20 km off the coast of Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula and its characteristics are those of boreal eastern Canada. From west to east, the main physiographic regions are the Western Cordillera, the sedimentary Interior Plains, the Canadian and Greenland Shields (mostly igneous rocks), the sedimentary Great Lakes and St. Lawrences Lowlands, and the Appalachian Mountains. The sedimentary Hudson Bay Lowlands basin lies at the centre of the shield, a northern area of sedimentary plains and mountains. The Canadian Arctic borders the Arctic Ocean in northern Canada and northern Greenland. An ice cap covers 81% of Greenland. The dominant vegetation type of the area is the boreal forest, which occupies much of Canada from Yukon and northeastern British Columbia to Newfoundland. To the north, Arctic tundra prevails: it can be divided into low Arctic (with a nearly continuous plant cover, sometimes shrubby) and high Arctic (including polar deserts); these types are the only ones found in Greenland. To the south of the boreal forest, from west to east, are the humid Pacific Coastal forest, the Cordilleran forest, the Prairie grasslands, the eastern temperate forests (southern Ontario and Quebec), and the Atlantic or Acadian forests. The population of Canada is concentrated in a narrow belt along its border with the United States, where most of the impacts on ecosystems (urbanization, agriculture) is concentrated. Logging, mining, and hydroelectric development occur in the boreal forest, and mining is now rapidly developing in the Arctic. About 9.9% (Environment Canada, 2011) of the terrestrial area of Canada is protected (7.5% according to the World Bank, 2013) and 40% of Greenland. Based on the data in VASCAN, the area harbors a total of 5,124 vascular plant species, 3,829 native and 1,295 introduced (25% of the flora). Of the native species of Canada, 156 are considered legally at risk, with a further 34 of conservation concern (COSEWIC, 2009+).

The goal of the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) is to provide an up-to-date, documented checklist of the names of vascular plants in Canada, Greenland, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, both scientific and vernacular, and the distribution of the plants at the provincial/territorial level. VASCAN was developed from the need to validate vascular plant name and distribution data from eastern Canada (Ontario and eastward), Greenland, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon for the Flora of North America project (FNA) and from the need to provide French vernacular names for taxa present in Quebec in the FNA. It expanded when Parks Canada wanted to harmonize the names from vascular plant species lists of its parks across the country. At the time we also realized that - aside from The Flora of Canada by Scoggan (1978-1979) that was in need of updating - not only was there no standardized scientific name list for the country - despite worthwhile efforts from Kartesz (1999) and USDA NRCS (2011) - but also no standardized source of Canadian English and French vernacular names. Names used for plants in English Canada are not necessarily those used in the United States, and thus U.S. sources were not always appropriate for this goal. Finally, several national organizations, such as Parks Canada, Forest Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), and NatureServe Canada, expressed the need for a web-based list of Canadian taxa, with data on provincial/territorial distribution.

Partial funding came from Parks Canada, the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF), NatureServe Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the Gouvernement du Québec (grant to the Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre and Canadensys). Most of the compilation work, however, was contributed in kind by the home institution of each collaborator.