Product Guides

Flowering Arc

The Flowering arc turns flowering-period and pollinator data into a visual calendar. Use it to explore when plants flower, compare the seasonal coverage of a…

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The Flowering arc turns flowering-period and pollinator data into a visual calendar. Use it to explore when plants flower, compare the seasonal coverage of a pollinator recipe, and spot months in which your plant selection may provide little forage.

The page has two related views:

  • Database overview presents the available active flowering plants with recorded flowering periods in grouped calendar panels.
  • Recipe comparison places the flowers in one pollinator recipe on a semicircular January-to-December calendar.

The Flowering arc is a comparison and planning aid. It does not predict the exact flowering dates, flower abundance, or forage availability at a particular site. Local climate, weather, cultivar, plant age, soil, management, and observation year can all shift the result.

Open the Flowering Arc

Open Plants and recipes, find the Pollinators section, and select Flowering arc. You can also open it from the Pollinator plants catalog by selecting Flowering arc.

Browsing and filtering the flowering database is public. You can inspect the visualisation and plant information without an account. Sign in when you want to create a pollinator recipe, add or remove plants, or reopen one of your saved recipe comparisons.

The public Flowering arc initially opens in Database overview mode. If you open Recipe flower comparison from a pollinator recipe's detail page, the page is locked to that recipe and displays its recipe header. On that recipe-specific page, even Database overview is limited to the recipe's members rather than the complete flowering database.

Understand pollinator recipes

A pollinator recipe is a saved collection of plants from the pollinator database. It is useful for assembling a palette around nectar, pollen, target pollinators, and seasonal flower coverage.

Pollinator recipes are separate from normal planting recipes:

  • a pollinator recipe contains flowering-database records;
  • a planting recipe contains plants and cultivars from the main agroforestry database;
  • a pollinator recipe cannot be connected to a project or used as a plant source in the digital planting plan;
  • both kinds count towards your account's recipe allowance.

Use a pollinator recipe to study and refine seasonal coverage. When you are ready to make a spatial design, collect the required species in a compatible planting recipe and verify them against the main plant data.

Tour the workspace

The Flowering arc is organised into four areas.

Area Purpose
Pollinator recipe Select, create, and open a saved pollinator recipe.
Focus the flowering calendar Search plants, choose pollinator groups, set the suitability threshold, and change the database grouping.
Complete database overview Compare the flowering periods of the filtered database and open a subgroup fullscreen.
Recipe flower comparison Preview the active recipe and open its semicircular flowering calendar.

The fullscreen visualisation also has a Focused plant panel and a Recipe flowers list. Below the main visualisation, Browse visible plants as a list provides a text-based route to the same plants.

Explore the database overview

Database overview is designed for discovery. It groups the database into compact panels, with each small track showing the recorded flowering months of one plant.

Filter the database

Use the controls under Focus the flowering calendar to narrow the overview or change which plants count as pollinator matches.

Control What it does in Database overview
Search plant names... Keeps plants whose scientific or common name contains the search text.
Suitability Sets the minimum suitability required for a pollinator match: Low or higher, Medium or higher, High only, or Any rating.
Plant type Keeps one type, such as a herbaceous plant, bulb, groundcover, climber, shrub, or tree. Choose All types to remove this restriction.
Native region Keeps plants recorded as native to the selected broad region. Choose All regions to remove this restriction.
Pollinator focus Chooses the active pollinator groups used for suitability matching and the focused ratings.
Agro plant data only Keeps only pollinator profiles linked to a record in the main agroforestry plant database.
Hide non-matches Removes plants that do not meet the current pollinator focus and suitability threshold. When off, non-matches remain visible but are dimmed.
Reset Clears the search and structural filters, restores Low or higher, selects all pollinator groups, and returns to grouping by Plant type.

Search, plant type, native region, and Agro plant data only remove records from the overview immediately. Pollinator focus and Suitability define whether a plant is a match. This distinction lets you keep the complete structural selection visible while comparing stronger and weaker pollinator matches.

When several pollinator groups are selected, a plant is a match if at least one selected group reaches the chosen suitability threshold. It does not have to reach that threshold for every selected group.

Leave at least one pollinator group selected when you want an unambiguous focus. Clearing every pollinator checkbox currently has the same matching effect as selecting all active groups.

Group the database

Under Group database by, choose how the overview panels are organised.

Grouping Meaning
Plant type Groups plants by growth form, such as herbaceous plant, shrub, or tree.
Pollinator fit Groups plants as High suitability, Medium suitability, Low suitability, or Unassessed for the current pollinator focus.
Flowering season Groups plants by the start and length of their recorded flowering period: winter, spring, summer, autumn, or a long flowering season.
Data status Separates Linked agro plant data from Pollinator profile only. This is a database-link status, not an evidence or review rating.

For Pollinator fit, the page uses the strongest available assessment among the selected groups. When it chooses between several assessments, suitability is weighted twice, followed by nectar and pollen value. Open the plant to inspect each selected pollinator group separately rather than relying only on the group label.

Read an overview panel

Each overview panel contains:

  • the group name and number of plant records;
  • a twelve-month density strip showing how many plants in that group flower in each month;
  • compact coloured tracks representing the recorded flowering periods;
  • dimmed tracks for plants that do not meet the current pollinator focus;
  • an outline for a focused plant or a plant in the active pollinator recipe.

The embedded overview is a summary. Select a panel to open that subgroup fullscreen. In fullscreen you can pan and zoom, point to an individual track, and select a plant to open Focused plant.

Only active plants with at least one recorded flowering period appear in the visual overview. A plant can therefore be available in the Pollinator plants catalog without appearing here if its flowering period is unknown.

Inspect a plant

In a fullscreen subgroup, point to a plant track to see its scientific name, flowering period, and current suitability in a tooltip. Select the track to open Focused plant in the sidebar. The compact overview opens groups rather than individual plants.

The focused panel shows:

  • scientific and common name, where available;
  • plant type;
  • one or more flowering periods;
  • whether the record uses Agro plant data or is a standalone Pollinator profile;
  • suitability for each selected pollinator group;
  • separate nectar and pollen values;
  • a short plant profile.

Ratings use four levels:

Rating Interpretation
Unknown An assessment exists, but the value is not known or has not been rated.
Low Recorded value 1 out of 3.
Medium Recorded value 2 out of 3.
High Recorded value 3 out of 3.

Any rating includes assessment records with an Unknown rating, but a plant with no assessment at all for the selected pollinator groups remains unassessed.

If the pollinator profile is linked to the main agroforestry database, the quick information may also contain structure, site conditions, uses, and the longer agroforestry description. A standalone pollinator profile instead shows its recorded light, moisture, soil texture, and pH conditions. Missing facts are labelled Unknown.

The Flowering arc does not display the database's internal evidence notes, verification status, citations, or review history. Treat the ratings as screening information and use independent regional sources when a decision requires evidence-level detail.

Create or select a pollinator recipe

You must be signed in to save a flower selection.

Select an existing recipe

  1. Find Add pollinator plants to in the Pollinator recipe panel.
  2. Open Select a recipe.
  3. Choose one of your pollinator recipes.
  4. Check that View recipe becomes available.

The number after a recipe name is the number of flowering-plant records currently in it. The browser remembers the last selected pollinator recipe on that device. It does not remember the other Flowering arc filters or zoom position.

Create a recipe

  1. Select New recipe.
  2. Enter a clear Name, such as “Early and late bee forage”.
  3. Select Create recipe.
  4. Confirm that the new recipe is selected in Add pollinator plants to.

A new pollinator recipe uses the same recipe allowance as your planting recipes. If your allowance has been reached, the page cannot create another recipe until you remove an unneeded recipe or change the applicable account plan.

Add and remove plants

  1. Select a plant in a fullscreen database overview.
  2. In Focused plant, select Add to recipe.
  3. The button changes to In recipe, and the plant appears under Recipe flowers.
  4. To remove it, use the remove button beside the plant in Recipe flowers, or select In recipe again.

Every band in Recipe comparison is already a member of the active recipe. Use that view to inspect or remove recipe flowers; add a new plant from Database overview first.

If no recipe is active, the action reads Select a recipe first and is disabled. Each species can occur only once in a pollinator recipe; the Flowering arc does not provide a quantity editor.

Select View recipe to see the recipe cards and use Details or Recipe flower comparison in the recipe header. Removing a plant updates the recipe immediately.

Compare a recipe's flowering coverage

The actual semicircular arc is the Recipe comparison view. It compares the recorded flowering windows of the plants in the selected pollinator recipe.

To open it from the public Flowering arc page:

  1. Select a pollinator recipe.
  2. Select Recipe comparison beside Database overview, or select the large Recipe flower comparison preview.
  3. Review the diagram in the fullscreen Flowering visualisation.

You can also open a recipe with View recipe, then choose Recipe flower comparison in its header.

Read the arc

The upper semicircle represents the year from January on the left to December on the right.

Visual element Meaning
Month segment One calendar month. Its shading becomes stronger as more recipe species are recorded as flowering in that month.
Number beside a month Count of recipe plant records flowering in that month.
Coloured curved band One plant's recorded flowering period. Plants with multiple flowering periods can have more than one band.
Band colour The display colour stored for that plant profile. It helps distinguish tracks; do not interpret it as a pollinator rating.
Small coloured marker The pollen colour stored for that plant profile. It is not the pollen-value score.
Band thickness Visual emphasis based on the suitability from the selected-group assessment with the highest combined 2 × suitability + nectar + pollen score.
Dimmed band The plant does not meet the current pollinator focus and suitability threshold.
Number in the centre Total recipe flowers with flowering data included in the comparison.

A flowering period can cross the end of the year. For example, a November-to-February record is drawn in two visible parts but still describes one continuous period across December and January.

The month counts describe species records, not flower abundance or the number of plants you intend to install. Ten plants of one species still contribute one species to the comparison, while ten different species can contribute ten.

Change the pollinator emphasis

Use Pollinator focus and Suitability to change which recipe bands are emphasised. Nonmatching flowers remain in the comparison but become faint, so you can see overall flowering coverage and pollinator relevance at the same time.

In the current Recipe comparison view, the plant-name search, plant type, native region, Agro plant data only, and Hide non-matches controls do not remove recipe bands. Those filters apply to Database overview. Recipe comparison always retains every plant in the selected recipe that has flowering-period data.

Focus and edit from the comparison

Point to a band for its name, season, and current suitability. Select it to populate Focused plant. The Recipe flowers list lets you jump to another recipe member or remove one from the recipe.

When many plants overlap, use the list instead of trying to select a very narrow band. Removing a plant immediately redraws the preview and comparison.

Pan, zoom, and fit

The fullscreen toolbar provides:

  • Zoom out to reduce the scale;
  • Fit flowering arc to restore the complete diagram;
  • Zoom in to enlarge dense tracks.

You can also drag to pan and use the supported mouse, trackpad, or touch zoom gesture. Zoom controls for the database overview appear only after you open a subgroup fullscreen.

Closing the modal returns the page to Database overview. Zoom and focused-plant state are not saved.

Use the accessible plant list

Open Browse visible plants as a list below the visualisation when you prefer text or cannot select a narrow graphical track. Each entry includes the scientific name, common name when known, and flowering period.

Select an entry to open its subgroup and focused details. In the arc itself, the first band segment for each plant is keyboard-focusable; press Enter or Space to inspect it.

The text list contains at most the first 100 visible records. Narrow a large database overview with search or filters if the plant you need is not listed.

If the interactive arc cannot load, the comparison panel reports the problem. Close the fullscreen view and use Browse visible plants as a list for the database overview, or use the text-based catalog and recipe details. The comparison requires JavaScript and loads its diagram library from an external content-delivery network, so strict browser or network blocking can disable the graphical view.

For a useful pollinator palette:

  1. Decide which pollinator groups matter for the site.
  2. In Database overview, set the target groups and start with Low or higher.
  3. Apply only essential structural filters, such as native region or plant type.
  4. Group by Flowering season to find candidates for different parts of the year.
  5. Inspect the site's light, moisture, soil, size where available, and management requirements before adding a plant.
  6. Create or select a pollinator recipe and add a varied shortlist.
  7. Open Recipe comparison and look for months with low or zero coverage.
  8. Return to Database overview and search for suitable plants that can fill those gaps.
  9. Raise Suitability to test whether coverage remains strong under a stricter threshold.
  10. Validate the final selection with local phenology, botanical, invasive-species, toxicity, and nursery information.
  11. Create a normal planting recipe for the species you will place in a project or digital planting plan.

Aim for more than a continuous line on the calendar. Useful habitat also depends on flower abundance, accessible flower forms, nesting and overwintering resources, pesticide exposure, water, shelter, and continuity at the wider landscape scale.

Accuracy and limitations

Keep these boundaries in mind when interpreting the result:

  • Flowering windows are stored by whole month, not by week or exact date.
  • The database does not automatically adjust flowering periods for location, altitude, microclimate, yearly weather, cultivar, or climate change.
  • Only active database records with a known flowering period can be drawn.
  • Pollinator ratings are separate for each pollinator group; a strong honey-bee rating does not imply the same value for every wild pollinator.
  • Selecting several pollinator groups uses an “at least one group matches” rule.
  • Native-region data is broad and does not prove that a plant is locally native, suitable, legal, or non-invasive at your site.
  • Data status describes linkage to the agroforestry database, not scientific certainty.
  • Month density counts species records rather than installed quantity, floral area, nectar volume, pollen volume, or carrying capacity.
  • The comparison does not model competition, flower accessibility, bloom intensity, plant health, or simultaneous abundance.
  • Pollinator recipes do not feed directly into projects or the digital planting plan.
  • There is no Flowering arc export. Save the recipe itself, and record decisions or evidence elsewhere if you need an auditable design trail.
  • Visual filters, grouping, focused plant, and zoom are session controls rather than saved recipe settings.

Use field observations over multiple seasons to refine a real planting. The absence of a coloured gap is not a guarantee that sufficient forage will be present.

Troubleshooting

Problem What to check
No flowering plants match Select Reset, clear the search, choose All types and All regions, and turn off Agro plant data only or Hide non-matches. Then add restrictions one at a time.
A known plant is missing from the overview The record may be inactive, may have no recorded flowering period, or may be excluded by search, type, region, linked-data filters, or pollinator focus while Hide non-matches is enabled. Check the Pollinator plants catalog.
Recipe flower comparison is empty Sign in, select a pollinator recipe, and add plants. Recipe members without flowering-period data cannot be drawn.
Add to recipe says Select a recipe first Choose a recipe under Add pollinator plants to, or create one with New recipe.
New recipe fails with a recipe-limit message Your account's combined planting- and pollinator-recipe allowance has been reached. Review your recipes or account plan.
Nonmatching flowers remain visible In Database overview, enable Hide non-matches. In Recipe comparison, nonmatches remain present and are dimmed so the full recipe can still be compared.
Clearing every pollinator checkbox does not clear the focus With no group checked, the page falls back to all active groups. Select the one or more groups you want to assess.
The rating changes when several groups are selected Matching uses any selected group, and the overview's Pollinator fit grouping uses the strongest selected-group assessment. Inspect Focused plant for the individual ratings.
Data status does not show evidence quality It distinguishes linked agroforestry profiles from pollinator-only profiles. Evidence and verification status are not exposed in this view.
Zoom buttons are not visible in the overview Select an overview group to open it fullscreen. Diagram view controls are shown there.
The graphical comparison does not load Enable JavaScript, check whether the D3 library is blocked by a content blocker or network policy, and reload the page. Close the modal and use the database overview list, catalog, or recipe details as a text alternative.
A saved recipe cannot be opened Confirm that you are signed in with the account that owns it. Pollinator recipe details and recipe-specific comparisons are private.