Contributed by Kevin Faccenda
Visit the atlas at: http://mauu.net/atlas/
The Hawai‘i Grass Atlas website features maps of every grass, native or not, now present across ka pae ‘āina o Hawai‘i. These maps were made from over 80,000 grass occurrence points derived from a diversity of sources including recent surveys, vegetation plots, and herbarium specimens. For species with sufficient occurrences, climate data from HCDP was used to train an ensemble of species distribution models to predict what areas across the island will be suitable for the growth of each grass under current climate conditions. Elevational histograms have also been made based on both the observed and modeled distribution. Dichotomous identification keys are also linked when available. The Atlas also has filters for both names as well as geography and traits of each species. For example you can set the filter to show native grasses on Kaua‘i which have rhizomes and a spike-like flower head. It also includes several photos of each grass in addition to descriptions and other info on the profile page for each grass. The goal of the atlas is to aid with grass identification and build more engagement with the most ecologically dominant, but often overlooked, group of plants now found across the islands.