Genus Erica: An Identification Aid Version 4.03

Genus Erica: An Identification Aid is a tool to help both amateurs and professionals identify (using a limited number of accessible characteristics) and find information about the 851 species and many subspecific taxa of the flowering plant genus Erica. Version 4.00 includes new features such as integrating distribution data from GBIF and iNaturalist, links to taxonomic resources through World Flora Online, and a probability function for identifications; V. 4.01 also includes eFlora links and an optional research data window (see below). It is freely available for PCs.

You can install the Erica ID aid whether you have MS office or not. If you have a current version of MS office installed, use 'GenusEricaAnIdentificationAid400 normal.exe'. V.4.00.02 onwards also includes alternative installation kits for in case you have specific older versions of MS office installed. If you do not have MS office, any of these should work.

V.4.00.04 is an incremental update following peer review. The ms. is currently in press at the journal PhytoKeys [published 24th April 2024: https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.241.117604]

V.4.01: Through work with WFO and SANBI, unique taxon identifiers have been linked across WFO (https://www.worldfloraonline.org/), the SANBI eFlora SA (https://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity/foundations/biosystematics-collections/e-flora/), and GBiF (https://www.gbif.org/). This means the Erica ID aid can now refer to and receive data unambiguously from these sources. SANBI e-Flora references have been added and can be reached by clicking on the e-Flora button on the Erica Characters window. An additional Research Data window has been added. This will be mostly of use (and largely self-explanatory) to the systematics/conservation research community, and can be accessed through a button on the ribbon/an option in the settings. Updates to GBIF distribution data; improvement of data for Madagascan taxa along with other minor taxonomic changes and improvements to the data and helpfile.

V.4.02: Incorporates incremental improvements in WFO data released in June 2025 and newly includes depreciated names (now searchable, for reference, with other published names that do not correspond to known taxa). All currently accepted subspecific taxa have been added (but in most cases not yet character-coded). New species described in 2025 added. iNaturalist taxon profile images available on CC licenses in April 2025 are included with license data embedded in the image metadata. Further development and updating of the research and other data.

V.4.03: Updated GBIF, South African Red List and E-Flora and IUCN threat status data, with extended and updated research data/summaries used in/documenting the 'Conservation gap analysis for Erica (Ericaceae)' ms. currently in review (https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e176100).