Friesner Herbarium staff and Butler University students have worked on an inventory of the flora of Marion County in Indianapolis, Indiana. The project grew out of inventory work done in 16 natural areas, 10 of which are Indianapolis city parks. Spanning the years from 1996 to 2016, a database was created of all historical records of plants collected or reported for the county. To this information, recent inventories were added, as well as those of several other researchers. A historical and contemporary view of the county’s flora emerged, with slightly over 1,000 taxa over almost 2500 acres, reported for the county. In our surveyed sites, several of which are state-dedicated nature preserves, 80% of species, on average, were native plants.
The photos and information are a compilation of what we have documented on our inventories (sites listed here) around Marion County and the Butler University campus, thus may not represent everything that could be growing in Marion County, Indiana. We are also adding photographs and species information regularly from other sites around Marion County including Holliday Park, Fort Harrison State Park, Crown Hill Arboretum, Eagle Creek Park sections not included in previous inventories, and other natural areas within Marion County.
Friesner Herbarium staff are actively exploring plants that grow wild in the city. Much of this work has been done in conjunction with and/or funded by the City of Indianapolis Land Stewardship Office, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and Reconnecting to our Waterways (ROW).
Please contact the Herbarium at mmoore@butler.edu if you wish to use a photograph in our Flora collection for a purpose other than educational. We also welcome photo submissions from other photographers.