Genetic Flora of the British Isles

The Genetic Flora of the British Isles is a database of genetic projects that have studied British populations of higher plants, both natives and aliens (according to the current BSBI checklists). It also includes papers that have studied British native (and archeophyte) species from non-British populations and also native lower plant species when encountered during our searches.

The database is available online and is fully searchable. Studies on crops and model plant species are excluded to avoid swamping the database. The exception to this are the studies related to gene flow from crops to their relatives and key studies of model organisms in natural populations.

The database is updated annually and was fully updated for 2024 in February 2025. It is  populated by searching the Web of Knowledge (WoK), using specifically designed keyword search strings. Relevant publications are identified and classified according to:

• the species that were studied in the project, including organism type and whether they were a Red Data Book species (Vascular plants only)
• the molecular markers used in the project
• the geographical scale of the project
• the questions the project addressed
• the type of publication

Citation: Ruhsam M, Squirrell J, Gornall RJ, French GC, Pullan M and Hollingsworth PM (2021) Genetic Flora of the British Isles database.

For more information contact Dr Markus Ruhsam