Overview
Although floras have been compiled at the state level and for nearby counties and regions, the Quad Cities Region of Illinois and Iowa lacks a comprehensive, up to date, and accessible source for floristic information. The Flora of the Quad Cities Region is a project that seeks to catalogue all vascular plant species that occur in this diverse and unique part of the Midwest.
Flora QCR is an ongoing, long term project, and content will be published as it is completed. The initial goal is to compile a checklist of all species known from the region. In addition, keys to some of the most common and familiar groups of plants will be worked on in the short term. The long term goal of the project is to publish a book with keys, illustrations, maps, coefficients of conservativism, and species discussion.
I hope the fruits of this project may be of use to land managers, ecologists, teachers, students, and curious Quad Citizens, alike.
Geographic Extent
The line where the Quad Cities begins and ends likely depends upon the person you ask. Perhaps the most simple definition would include only Rock Island County, IL and Scott County, IA where the heart of the QC metro area (Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, Davenport, and Bettendorf) resides. However, the social, cultural, and economic reach of the QC has quite obviously expanded past these boundaries. It is imperative to consider the region in terms of shared climate, ecology, and geology, as well.
For the sake of this project, the Quad Cities Region will be defined based on the following rule: all counties whose boarders fall within 10 miles of the Mississippi River between Muscatine, IA and Clinton, IA / Fulton, IL. This catches Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, and Whiteside Counties in IL and Muscatine, Cedar, Scott, and Clinton Counties in IA (see map above).
Generally, these counties include the section of the upper Mississippi River valley between the confluence with the Iowa River (to the southwest) and the Driftless Area (to the north and north). Famously, this is “where the river runs west.”
Flora of the Quad Cities Region 