Gannets
Morus
Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus Morus in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. They are known as 'solan' or 'solan goose' in Scotland. A common misconception is that the Scottish name is 'guga' but this is the Gaelic name referring to the chicks only.
Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads, black-tipped wings and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic, having a wingspan of up to two metres (6+1⁄2 feet). The other two species occur in the temperate seas around southern Africa, southern Australia, and New Zealand.
4 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 3 known species
Northern Gannet
speciesMorus bassanus
Australasian Gannet
speciesMorus serrator
Cape Gannet
speciesMorus capensis
Cape × Australasian Gannet
hybridMorus capensis × serrator
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
History of Rare Plants Observed in Pannonia
Carolus Clusius · 1583 · p.123
Complete Treatise on Agricultural Administration
Xu Guangqi · 1909 · p.803
Latin Herbal with German Synonyms
1486 · p.196
Garden of Health
Jacob Meydenbach · 1491 · p.274
Hortus Eystettensis
Basilius Besler · 1640 · p.154
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1560 · p.287
Rariorum Plantarum Historia (with Fungorum Historia)
Carolus Clusius · 1601 · p.136
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.274
Garden of Health (Hortus Sanitatis)
Jacob Meydenbach · 1491 · p.223
Garden of Health
1507 · p.221
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1549 · p.554
On Medical Materials in Six Books
Dioscorides · 1550 · p.171
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Morus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 3800.