The Pladias Database contains critically revised data on Czech flora and vegetation managed by the Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University (MU) and the Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences (IBOT), including data files provided by other institutions or individuals (hereafter "providers"). Its aim is to promote the use of data on plant diversity of the Czech Republic for the purposes of scientific research, education, nature conservation and environmental assessment. The decisions about the concept of the database, inclusion of specific data files and data provision are made by the Management Board of the Pladias Database (hereafter "Governing Board", Appendix 1), which follows these Rules and respects the observance of the interests and rights of the individual providers.
The decisions about the inclusion of particular data files into the database are taken by the Governing Board. The provider is responsible for obtaining permission to transmit data to the Pladias Database from any other parties that may have property or intellectual rights to these data or their subsets. Provider of each data set specifies to what extent and under what conditions the data may be used or provided to third parties. The Governing Board supports the largest possible public availability of data, while respecting the rights of providers to restrict the public access to their data, and securing compliance with the conditions of use set by data providers.
Public data (both freely available and available after registration) can be used for basic and applied scientific research, teaching, nature conservation and environmental assessment. Their potential use for commercial purposes is subject to approval by the Governing Board or the provider of particular data subsets. The use of data for the purposes of funded projects or expert reports contracts by governmental, educational and research institutions, and NGOs is not considered as commercial use.
Non-public data can be provided upon request sent by e-mail to members of the Management Board (Appendix 1). The application must contain a delimitation of the extent of the required data, description of the purpose of their use, and specification of the final product (e.g. publication, research report or educational presentation). If the expected data use assumes cooperation of several people, their nominal list is added to the application. The decision about the provision of species trait data and conditions of their use for the given purpose is made by their provider or, in the case of trait data owned by MU or IBOT, or species distribution data, by the Governing Board.
When using any data from the Pladias Database (including distribution maps) in publications, research reports or teaching and public presentations, the user specifies the data source "Pladias – A Database of Czech Flora and Vegetation, www.pladias.cz", or (especially in the scientific literature) cites the article with a basic description of the database (after it is published). When using species distribution data, the user also cites the article Wild J., Kaplan Z., Danihelka J., Petřík P., Chytrý M., Novotný P., Rohn M., Šulc V., Brůna J., Chobot K., Ekrt L., Holubová D., Knollová I., Kocián P., Štech M., Štěpánek J. & Zouhar V. (2019): Plant distribution data for the Czech Republic integrated in the Pladias database. Preslia 91: 1–24. https://doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2019.001. When using specific plant trait data or species lists the user also cites the original sources referred to in the Pladias Database. When using texts or images that the Pladias Database has taken from published sources (especially Flora of the Czech Republic, Vegetation of the Czech Republic, Phytocartographic Syntheses of the Czech Republic and articles with species distribution maps published in the journal Preslia), the user cites only those published sources. When using images of plants or vegetation types from the Pladias Database website the user quotes the author of the image and the source "www.pladias.cz".
Public or non-public data obtained from the Pladias Database must not to be transferred to other institutions or persons, or posted on the Internet. The exception is sharing them with colleagues working on a project that uses specific data (in the case of non-public data after prior approval by the provider or by the Governing Board).
The user of data obtained from the Pladias Database helps to improve the quality of the database by reporting any detected errors in the data to the Governing Board or the provider of the particular data file.
The checklist of vascular plants of the Czech Republic (Danihelka et al. 2012) includes 3557 species (plus 194 additional subspecies) and 609 (plus 13 additional nothospecies) hybrids. Of these, 2256 species are native, 464 naturalized (228 archaeophytes and 236 neophytes) and 837 casual aliens. Further, 324 cultivated taxa of different ranks are listed.
Data source and citation
Danihelka J., Chrtek J. Jr. & Kaplan Z. (2012): Checklist of vascular plants of the Czech Republic. – Preslia 84: 647–811.
The checklist includes 4626 taxa of vascular plants including hybrids, cultivated plants and aggregates that were used in the Key to the flora of the Czech Republic (Kubát et al. 2002).
Data source and citation
Kubát K., Hrouda L., Chrtek J. jun., Kaplan Z., Kirschner J. & Štěpánek J. (eds) (2002): Klíč ke květeně Českérepubliky [Key to the flora of the Czech Republic]. – Academia, Praha.
The Catalogue includes alien (non-native) taxa of vascular plants, i.e. those that arrived in the country as result of intentional or unintentional introduction by human activity. They are divided based on their residence time (archaeophytes introduced before the end of the Medieval vs neophytes introduced in the Modern Period).
Alien taxa are divided into three categories reflecting their position in the invasion process. Taxa that only reproduce occasionally in the Czech Republic, do not form self-replacing populations, and rely on repeated introductions for their persistence are termed casuals. Naturalized taxa are alien plants that reproduce in the wild and sustain populations over many life cycles without direct intervention by humans (or in spite of human intervention). Invasive plants are naturalized plants that produce reproductive offspring, often in very large numbers, at considerable distances from parent plants and thus have the potential to spread over a considerable area.
The Catalogue also contains other data about alien taxa, such as their geographic origin and introduction pathways.
Data source and citation
Pyšek P., Danihelka J., Sádlo J., Chrtek J. Jr., Chytrý M., Jarošík V., Kaplan Z., Krahulec F., Moravcová L., Pergl J., Štajerová K. & Tichý L. (2012): Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (2nd edition): checklist update, taxonomic diversity and invasion patterns. – Preslia 84: 155–255.
Data on taxon occurrence in habitats of the Czech Republic based on the analysis of vegetationplots from the Czech National Phytosociological Database (Chytrý & Rafajová 2003) and its expert revision and completion based on the literature and field experience, especially for rare and taxonomically problematic taxa. The classification recognizes 88 basic habitats aggregated to 13 broader habitats that are defined by Sádlo et al. (2007: Appendix 1):
Taxon occurrence in each habitat is assessed on a four-degree scale:
Data source and citation
Sádlo J., Chytrý M. & Pyšek P. (2007): Regional species pools of vascular plants in habitats of the Czech Republic. – Preslia 79: 303–321.
Further references
Chytrý M. & Rafajová M. (2003): Czech National Phytosociological Database: basic statistics of the available vegetation-plot data. – Preslia 75: 1–15.
Indicator values are expressed on ordinal scales defined by Ellenberg et al. (1991). The values for individual taxa have been modified and extended for the Czech flora by Chytrý et al. (2018). Indicator values are provided for six factors:
Light – a scale from 1 to 9, in which higher values indicate higher requirements for light. Indicator values for trees relate to juvenile individuals growing in the herb or shrub layer.
Temperature – a scale from 1 to 9, in which higher values indicate requirements for higher temperature.
Moisture – a scale from 1 to 12, in which higher values indicate requirements for more water.
Reaction – a scale from 1 to 9, in which higher values indicate taxon affinity to more base-rich environments. In acidic environments, the value can be considered as a proxy for pH, while in near-neutral or alkaline environments it is more a proxy for calcium concentration.
Nutrients – a scale from 1 to 9, in which higher values indicate higher requirements for nitrogen or phosphorus availability, or higher primary productivity of the site.
Salinity – a scale from 0 to 9, in which higher values indicate higher tolerance to conditions with high concentration of soluble salts, especially sulphates, chlorides and carbonates of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
The dataset for download contains the variables L, T, M, R, N and S with numerical values for all taxa except parasitic epiphytes, while in the variables Lx, Tx, Mx, Rx and Nx the numerical value is replaced by “x” in generalists. In any calculations of site mean indicator values, we recommend to use the latter set of variables and consider “x” as missing values, because inclusion of generalist decreases accuracy of prediction of environmental conditions. We did not define any generalists for salinity, therefore the site mean indicator values for salinity should be calculated using the variable S; in this case it is important that the zero values are included in calculations.
Data source and citation
Chytrý M., Tichý L., Dřevojan P., Sádlo J. & Zelený D. (2018): Ellenberg-type indicator values for the Czech flora. – Preslia 90: 83–103.
Further references
Ellenberg H., Weber H. E., Düll R., Wirth V., Werner W. & Paulißen D. (1991): Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. – Scr. Geobot. 18: 1–248.