Where to look for info. on endemic c&s species?

[Pattock]

As Davey wrote, easiest with the Cactaceae. Once you have some possibles you can check for each species or genus with POWO:

https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn: ... 30000028-2

I may be annoying cactus lovers by calling them areolate purslanes in future

Notes on delimitation
DNA studies show that Portulacaceae possibly cannot be separated from Cactaceae because it lacks autoapomorphies [a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon]; Cactaceae however presents areoles which are not present as such in Portulacaceae.

Or local floras:

http://www.efloras.org/

It does depend on which country you are going to and how exotic it might be. People are still working on a Flora of Burma/Myanmar and it could be a while before that hits the net. South Africa has an immense amount of its xerophytic flora described online.

If you have a particular genus in mind, somewhere in Africa, the "African Plants a photo guide" can be very helpful. It can't be searched by country but you can specify one-fifth of Africa and the results will tell you in which country they are found.
http://www.africanplants.senckenberg.de ... page_id=81

[MatDz]

I am so glad I asked, plenty of research to doin anticipation of the voyages! Thank you everyone for sharing!

[Paul in Essex]

Finding what is endemic to the country is just the first stage, though. Few species are so widespread in nature that you just stumble across them: to find exactly where each endemic species is located takes another level of research and usually ends up with the paper that first described the plant. This would have the type location and also other sites where the plants have been seen. You can't go wrong with type locations because then you know what you are looking at is the real deal. Assuming the habitat hasn't been destroyed, plants haven't been poached, grazed etc.

It used to take many, many hours of research to plan one of my Mexico trips and anyone else who has done the same sort of thing will say the same. It is like planning a military operation. Or in the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, far more detailed

[Pattock]

If the POWO entry has herbarium specimens linked they often have location data on the sheet. The more recent they are the more accurate the location, usually - though some of the old collectors were sometimes very precise.

The original papers are very useful, but won't have the extra locations discovered after the naming of the plant.

If you go to Tropicos and search for the plant you want, the papers are often linked on the landing page for each species. The "Published in:" line may have a link, in the form of an icon that says BHL for the marvellous Biodiversity Heritage Library or a notched leaf for Botanicus. Only for ones that are out of copyright. They may not always take you directly to the correct page or even volume, but you can usually work out where it is in those cases from the publication info given. https://www.tropicos.org/home

If the species has been known for a long time it is worth searching in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Do a general search for the name then go to the tab that says "Scientific Names" and you will get a list that can be ordered by any column, date being the usual way I order them unless I am looking for a particular publication. The Page number on the right is clickable and will take you directly to the page mentioning that species.

More recent ones can be found with Google Scholar. Links down the right hand side of the Google Scholar results should take you to a free version, the links on the left are often behind paywalls.

[wildedges]

Have a search on iNaturalist.org too. You can search by species, family groups or even just by 'plants' in specific countries and it will give you a list of verified and mapped observations to work from. You can also use it to log the plants you do find and add them to the database.