A naturalist’s sudoku

Every box hides a species.

Solve the puzzle and each finished box hatches a specimen: a kingfisher, a foxglove, a fire salamander. Hundreds of real species, painted as nineteenth-century plates, with new expeditions every month.

Free to download. A new puzzle every day.

Plate I. Common Kingfisher.

How it plays

Solve, hatch, collect

Classic sudoku, exactly as you know it. What changes is what a finished box becomes.

I.

Solve

Nine rows, nine columns, nine boxes. Givens are printed in bold; your digits go in a lighter hand.

II.

Hatch

A watercolour plate of a peacock butterfly, Aglais io.

Complete a box and its specimen hatches: fine ink linework beneath soft watercolour, painted on aged cream paper.

III.

Collect

Every hatch joins your collection, with its real Latin name and its rarity. Six expeditions at launch, and new ones every month.

The folio

A collection worth solving for

Every specimen is a real species with its real name, from everyday commons to the one vagrant in a hundred.

Watercolour plate of a European robin, Erithacus rubecula.
Erithacus rubeculaCommon
Watercolour plate of a red fox, Vulpes vulpes.
Vulpes vulpesUncommon
Watercolour plate of an Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica.
Fratercula arcticaRare
Not yet recordedVagrant

The daily puzzle

One new plate, every day

A new puzzle every morning. Keep the streak alive; miss a day and it forgives you once.

  • M
  • T
  • W
  • T
  • S
  • S
  • M

Day six of the streak. A full week earns three extra hints.

Watercolour landscape of a garden habitat.

Expeditions

Six expeditions to begin with

Each expedition is a habitat and its species. Finish one and the next unlocks. Fifty-four species at launch; new expeditions arrive every month, with more than five hundred species to come.

Watercolour of a garden habitat.

Garden

10 species
Watercolour of a woodland habitat.

Woodland

9 species
Watercolour of a wetland habitat.

Wetland

9 species
Watercolour of a riverside habitat.

River

9 species
Watercolour of a coastal habitat.

Coast

9 species
Watercolour of a mountain habitat.

Mountain

8 species
A distant watercolour of savanna, hinting at expeditions still to come.
Farther afield. New expeditions arrive every month.

Questions

Common questions

What is Flora & Fauna?
Flora & Fauna is a sudoku app for iPhone in which every completed 3 by 3 box reveals a hand-painted natural history specimen: a bird, plant, butterfly, mammal, or amphibian, painted in the style of a nineteenth-century watercolour plate. Solving puzzles fills your collection, plate by plate.
Is Flora & Fauna free?
Yes. Flora & Fauna is free to download on the App Store, and there are no adverts anywhere in the game.
Does Flora & Fauna show adverts?
No. There are no adverts, no interruptions between puzzles, and no video ads to skip.
Do I need an account?
No. There are no accounts and no tracking. Your collection lives on your device and is yours alone.
How many species can I collect?
Flora & Fauna launches with 54 species across six expeditions: Garden, Woodland, Wetland, River, Coast, and Mountain. New expeditions arrive every month, and the collection will grow past 500 species. Every specimen is a real species with its real Latin name, from the European robin, Erithacus rubecula, to rarities you may wait weeks to see.
What is the daily puzzle?
In the app, the daily walk is one shared sudoku a day for members of the Naturalist Society, the same for every member in the world. Any finished puzzle, free or daily, keeps your streak going. You can also try a free daily sudoku in your browser on this site.