### Mini FAQ for sci.bio.botany # 092 ###
A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany
This is an unmonitored newsgroup that deals with botany in all its aspects, but excluding topics covered in other newsgroups, such as gardening, cooking with plants, education about plants, etc. In practice questions are posed in a very wide range of topics: for an in-depth impression see the archives at http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search. Frequently Asked Questions include: Can someone ID this flower? Can someone ID this fruit? Can someone ID this leaf? etc A question that occurs with moderate frequency is "I have this school project. Can someone write my paper for me?" but this often meets with the response: "try Google". The information on plants, available on the world wide web, appears to be expanding at breakneck speed so Google can indeed yield much information on plants. However, reliability varies. In any Google search wikipedia is likely to feature prominently: it will be clear that the information on plants in wikipedia ranges from very good to pure fiction. One of the ways to avoid this is to use http://www.google.com/advanced_scholar_search. However there are a number of good websites with authoritative information on plants such as http://www.efloras.org/index.aspx : a very good site with many floras. Or http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxecon.pl Well-kept database of economically important plants. ICBN, the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature at http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code is the Code regulating scientific plant names. A new edition was published in September 2006, and will be available online later this year. Not authorative are sites such as: Plantfinder at http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSPlantFinder/plantfinder.asp This is a directory of names of plants offered for sale in the UK. Standards are pretty high, both as concerns correct spelling and currency of names. Note that the RHS does provide some authoritative lists for the purpose of cultivar registration. A competing, but as yet small-scale plantfinder http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/p...der/Search.asp A lively-looking site with a database of cultivated plants is at: http://plantsdatabase.com/ This also offers pictures. It is unclear how good a standard is reached? TROPICOS (or W3TROPICOS) at http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html This database of scientific names is maintained at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It is to be kept in mind that this is a work in progress, with quality and coverage varying, being especially good in areas where the Missouri Botanical Gardens is active. Some entries are merely copies of entries in IPNI. IPNI at www.ipni.org, www.uk.ipni.org or www.us.ipni.org Basically this attempts to be an index of scientific names (at the rank of genus and of species, or below) of vascular plants ever published, in the form they were published (sometimes mandatory corrections were made). It is not complete in any sense. Names below the rank of species were indexed in only one of the component indexes, until recently. The names listed are not necessarily spelled correctly by today's standards. ING at http://ravenel.si.edu/botany/ing/ingForm.cfm (genus names only, but at a considerably higher standard than IPNI) Algal names: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/INA.html Fungal names: http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/NAMES.ASP A checklist for US plants: http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/b98/check98.htm More US plant data: http://plants.usda.gov/index.html Multilingual lists of common names: http://www.liberherbarum.com/Index.htm SYSTEMATICS It is in the nature of things that Systems of Taxonomic Classification change whenever new techniques of research become available, yielding new information. The APG-system (based on two chloroplast genes, supported by a gene with a ribosomal function) stepped forward first in 1993 (in modest form) and was published in full glory in 1998, with APG II being published in 2003. It made a big impression quickly. APG is an abbreviation (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group), indicating the group of scientists collaborating in this venture (composition of the group is not quite constant, over time). An overview of the APG system can be found at http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b...e/apg/APG.html or http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/newgate/cronang.htm with APG II at http://www.systbot.uu.se/classificat...sification.htm An extensive website devoted to the APG is at http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html There also is a system book, "Plant Systematics, a phylogenetic approach", now in its second edition (2002). The previous well-accepted system, now starting to be displaced by APG but still going strong in many places, is that by Arthur Cronquist (1919-1992), with the main book published at 1981. A popular system book based on the Cronquist System is "Flowering Plants of the World" by Heywood. A successor has been published in early 2007, as "Flowering Plant Families of the World", which is (loosely) based on APG II. The standard reference on plant taxonomy, "The Plant-book" by D.J.Mabberley, now in its second edition (1997, 2002), also uses a version of Cronquist, but the third edition will use APG II. It was due in 2006, and is now overdue. A taxonomic database that more or less follows APG II is the NCBI taxonomy browser at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy...hmode=1&unlock (The database at ITIS still follows Cronquist ) The Tree of Life for land plants: http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Embryop...p=Green_plants Many databases of taxonomic data have been brought into DELTA and are at http://delta-intkey.com/www/data.htm (previously http://biodiversity.bio.uno.edu/delta/www/data.htm), such as plant family descriptions at http://delta-intkey.com/angio/index.htm (previously at http://biodiversity.bio.uno.edu/delta/angio/) PICTURES Pictures of a very wide range of plants, arranged by family www.plantsystematics.org Pictures of plants, by a botanist based on Hawaii: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty...cronq_judd.htm Pictures of California wildflowers at http://dlp.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/flora/ Just stunning pictures: http://www.goetgheluck.com/REPORT/Pl.../xxx_1of3.html Pictures of trees (Northeast of US): http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/factsheets.cfm Pictures of trees (Southeast of US): http://www.forestry.auburn.edu/samuelson/dendrology/ Pictures of trees (Southwest of US): http://www.naturesongs.com/vvplants/trees1.html More trees: http://www.treelink.org/flashcard/ http://www.treeguide.com/ US State Trees: http://www.treesny.com/trees_stateTrees.htm Some popular tropical trees: http://www.zoneten.com/FloweringTrees.htm Brazilian trees: http://www.arvore.hpg.ig.com.br/index3.htm Amazon fruits: http://amazonflora.com/ Gymnosperms: http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/ giving a great deal of detail KEYS A simple key for trees is at: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/key...treekey01.html Several keys: http://flora.huh.harvard.edu:8080/actkey/index.jsp ALIEN INVADERS: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/ invading Canada : http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/weeds.htm NG-RELATED SITES A field trip in West Texas: http://botany.cs.tamu.edu/FLORA/WINSTON/bwinston1.html Malvales/Malvaceae: http://www.malvaceae.info http://www.malvaceae.info/Directory/web.html#Floras Plant blindness: http://www.botany.org/bsa/psb/2002/psb48-3.html#Plant Tree ID: http://www.realtimerendering.com/trees/trees.html idem for wildflowers: http://www.realtimerendering.com/flowers/flowers.html Fossil Algae: http://www.ku.edu/~ifaa/index.html AN OVERVIEW OF MORE LINKS: http://www.mobot.org/otherlinks.asp http://www.helsinki.fi/~rlampine/cartogr.html (cartographic links for botanists. Note that this page has its share of dead links: last updated in 2000) |
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