Introduction to the Flora of the East Bay

Copies of the new Flora of the East Bay, California, will be available for purchase at the meeting for $25, including tax. For the quickest transaction, bring cash or a check; you may also use a credit card and your phone to make the purchase at the meeting.

The flora (plant life) of an area and our understanding of it are always changing. In 1997 Barbara Ertter, then collections manager at the University of California and Jepson herbaria, published the first guide to the flora of the East Bay, titled Annotated Checklist of the East Bay Flora. Knowledge of East Bay plants expanded and changed after the checklist was published, with new East Bay species, changes in species’ rarity status, plant name changes, and more.

In 2012 Barbara Ertter enlisted Lech Naumovich to help her update the checklist, and they published the second edition the following year. A dozen years later, information about the plants of the East Bay had expanded enough to warrant another update to the checklist. This time, Lech was the lead author, and the result is the comprehensive 2025 update, Flora of the East Bay, California, which now includes bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) as well as vascular plants.

Lech will discuss the process of producing the newest flora, including the pros and cons of using crowd-sourced information and technology such as Calflora and iNaturalist in creating a primary document like the Flora. He will also share new and exciting information about East Bay botany.

Lech Naumovich holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Poland in 2002. He has since worked for numerous conservation organizations throughout the western U.S., including several years as the conservation analyst for our CNPS East Bay Chapter. Lech currently works as an independent ecologist on conservation projects for which he serves as a scientist as well as a videographer, photographer, and storyteller creating videos and marketing content for conservation.