GMI / regional grass morphology
The Grass Morphological Index is an experimental system for describing and comparing the visible morphology of regional grass floras. Its first geographic scope is the United States.
Rather than representing a region through one species or treating every state as a separate unit, GMI brings recurring grass characteristics together into a broader regional profile.
Morphology - The developing index considers visible and structural qualities such as blade dimensions, growth form, arrangement, angle, and color.
Regional Character - These qualities are considered across representative grasses to describe broad tendencies rather than the properties of an isolated specimen.
Comparison - The result is intended to support consistent comparison without reducing visibly different grass floras to a single unexplained score.
The first public presentation is planned as a map of the United States. A grid-based method is being pursued so regional patterns can develop from the grass evidence itself rather than being fixed to state boundaries.
The regions are not yet final. Current work is testing where patterns remain coherent, where they gradually change, and where the available evidence is not yet sufficient to draw a useful boundary.
NMap - The first implementation priority. NMap will summarize each region from a shortened, reviewed profile of representative species.
LMap - A later, complementary view intended to preserve more local and within-region variation.
The grid method divides the landscape into consistent areas that can be compared without assuming political borders are meaningful divisions. It also allows uneven observation coverage and uncertain transition areas to remain visible rather than forcing every location into a premature region.
Species morphology is researched separately and then brought into the regional profiles. This keeps the index adaptable as both the geographic method and the morphological calculations are refined.
Early regional experiments have produced several promising examples and have helped establish a workable direction for the grid approach. They are evidence that the method can find meaningful regional structure, not finished boundaries or published GMI values.
The project is now undergoing a methodological pivot. New mathematical approaches are being developed to improve how regional coherence, uncertain boundaries, species evidence, and morphological differences are represented together. This work is also shaping the GMI calculation itself, including how complex traits can be compared without hiding variation or uncertainty.
The next stage is to refine these calculations, test them across a wider area, and use the results to build the first public map. NMap remains the immediate goal, with LMap and broader geographic coverage to follow.
Public Beta · Methods and data remain under review