Mapping Species Distributions

HELP ON USING THE PHOTO GALLERY

Our photo gallery features include the ability to:

  1. search for photos of a particular species, genus, or family
  2. search for a photographer
  3. create your own photo gallery--develop a photo comparison page that allows you to view photos of different species or genera on the same pages.
  4. Search for a species by colour

See below for a brief discussion on how to use each of these.

1. Search for a species or genus  

The E-Flora photo gallery has several search features.  You can search for a species by common name or by scientific name by typing in the names in the appropriate search boxes.  Or you can using our scrolling menu to select family or genus names to view. If you are searching by common name, here are a few tips:

Common names currently have no international standards and vary from publication to publication, and from region to region.  This can make searching for a species by its common name challenging.  If your search produces no results, try the following:

    • If the common name has two words in it, try dropping the first one and searching for the second (probably more general) word.  This may give you a return of many species that use that word, and yours could be among them.
    • If your search still gives no return, try searching the web for your species to find alternate common names for it, or check local publications to see what name they give your species.

2. Search for a photographer

Use the scrolling menu in the search box at the bottom of the gallery page to locate the photographer you are interested in.

3. Create your own photo gallery or comparison page

The photo comparison feature is a powerful E-Flora tool that allows you to develop your own photo galleries in order to compare species, genera or families of plants.  Using it is quite simple, and it can be used in several ways:  you can select a series of photos to view, you can then modify this by removing unwanted photos, and you can add more photos. To compare a series of photos:

Step 1: Select the photos you wish to compare.  Do this by clicking the button beneath each photo that says "Select this photo". You can select one or more photos from a page and/or you can select photos from multiple pages.  Go through the gallery clicking on the selection button for all of the photos you wish to compare. Keep in mind though that one gallery page will only display six photos. When you have made your selections, go to Step 2 below. If you select a photo by mistake, simply click on the "Clear this selected photo" to deselect it.

Step 2:  When you are ready to develop your own personal comparison photo gallery, click on the button in the box at the bottom of any photo gallery page that says "Show all selected photos".   This will produce a display of your selected photos.  When you are finished viewing your display and want to return to the main gallery, go to Step 3 below.

Step 3: You can clear your search by clicking on the button that says "Clear all selected photos"  in the create your own gallery box (at the bottom of the any gallery page).   Use this button anytime in the gallery to clear your selections and return to the full photo gallery.

To modify or change the photos in your comparison page or personal photo gallery:

If you have created your own photo gallery or comparison page, but would like to remove a photo in order to narrow your comparison, this is quite simple.  Just click on the button immediately beneath the photo you wish to remove ( "Clear this selected photo"), then go to Step 2 in the search box at the bottom of the page and click again on the button that says "Show all Selected Photos".  This will display your new selection.  This will refresh your personal gallery page and show you only the remaining selected photos.

At any time, if you wish to return to the full E-Flora photo gallery, and clear all of your photo selections, this is quite simple. Click on the "Clear all selected photos" button. This will return you to the full gallery.

4. Search for a species by colour

Under our "search by common name" section in the photo gallery, you can enter a term such as 'yellow' and obtain a set of photographs of species that have yellow in their name.  Thus, you can perform a search for a flower of a particular colour by entering the colour.  While this will not catch all yellow-flowered plants, it will produce a fairly comprehensive selection most of the time, the exception being the colour "red". The letters "red" appear in many words, so this search captures more than just red flowers. We are presently working on a new identification section for E-Flora that will allow comprehensive searching by flower colour.

Please contact us if you encounter any difficulties or if you have any questions about the Photo Gallery.
 

Recommended citation:  Author, date, page title. In: Klinkenberg, Brian. (Editor) 2021. E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia [eflora.bc.ca]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. [Date Accessed]

E-Flora BC: An initiative of the Spatial Data Lab, Department of Geography UBC, and the UBC Herbarium.

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