Where to Find Plant Identification Guides and References on the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society Site

Updated

The Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society (NSWFS) site at nswildflora.ca gathers its identification material under a few recurring menu sections rather than one single download page. The most useful entry points are Publications, Reference Literature, and NW Guides & Keys, with additional help in Hints on using iNaturalist to ID species and the NS Wild Flora Project on iNaturalist. These cover vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens, and include at least one genus-level guide (Carex Sect. Ovales). If you want to identify Nova Scotia wild flora yourself, start with NW Guides & Keys for keys and checklists, then use Reference Literature for background sources.

Main sections that hold identification material

Section What it appears to contain Best for
Publications Articles, presentations, and society-produced documents Reading up on specific topics and past work
Reference Literature Lists of literature and reference sources Finding the underlying books and papers behind an ID
NW Guides & Keys Guides and keys, including "Identifying Carex Sect. Ovales" Working through an identification step by step
Taxonomy & Ecology Grouped links for vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens Navigating to the right organism group
Hints on using iNaturalist to ID species Guidance on using iNaturalist for identification Getting a second opinion or logging observations
NS Wild Flora Project on iNaturalist A project page for Nova Scotia records Seeing what others have found and where

Guides and keys by organism group

The site separates its links so you can go straight to the group you are working on:

  • Vascular plants — two link pages (Vascular Plants Links Pg 1 and Pg 2) plus the Flora Of Nova Scotia field course material at Acadia University.
  • Bryophytes and lichens — a combined "Bryophytes & Lichens Links" page, plus separate Bryophytes Publications and Lichens Publications.
  • Carex (sedges) — a dedicated guide, "Identifying Carex Sect. Ovales," which is the most specific identification key named on the site.
  • Glossaries and related learning materials — useful when a key uses terminology you are not familiar with.

Using the site alongside iNaturalist

The site does not present itself as a self-contained identification tool. Its own "Hints on using iNaturalist to ID species" page and the "NS Wild Flora Project on iNaturalist" suggest a workflow where you:

  1. Work through the keys and guides under NW Guides & Keys to form a tentative identification.
  2. Check the Reference Literature and Publications sections for descriptions and distributions.
  3. Post the observation to the NS Wild Flora Project on iNaturalist to compare with other records and get feedback.

This matters because a key alone will not tell you whether a species has been recorded in your part of the province; the iNaturalist project and the "New Distributions and Floristic Lists" material under Reference Literature are where that context lives.

Courses and field learning

The site also points to structured learning outside the website. The Nova Scotia Museum's Natural History Field School has offered an "Introduction to Lichens" course (November 9–13, 2026, in Halifax), and the Education section lists Eagle Hill seminars on topics such as insect pollinators, canopy lichens, and liverworts. Field trips are posted under Programme and Field Trips, with an archive of past trips. These are worth checking if you learn better in the field than from a key.

Practical notes

  • The site is organized as a blog with a persistent menu, so older guides and publications remain reachable through the menu and the Field Trip Archive rather than only through recent posts.
  • Some events listed on the site have been cancelled or rescheduled (for example, a Cape Breton field trip cancellation and an Otter Brook trip confirmation), so check the current post date before relying on an event.
  • The site does not state pricing for membership or events in the material available here, so do not assume free access to courses or trips; check the relevant page or contact the society.

If your goal is simply to identify a plant you found, the shortest path is: NW Guides & Keys for the key, Reference Literature for the description, then the iNaturalist project to sanity-check the result.