A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany

This is an unmonitored ("feral") NG that is irregular in all other respects
as well, foremost in the frequency of postings. The topic is botany, in all
its aspects, but excluding topics covered in other newsgroups, such as
gardening, cooking with plants, education about plants, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions include:
Can someone ID this flower?
Can someone ID this fruit?
Can someone ID this leaf?
etc

But questions are posed in a very wide range of topics ("Is there such a
thing as a walking palm?", "I am stuck in my lab procedure for a ADP-Glucose
Pyrophosphorylase Assay, please help!", "What is the Classic Greek word for
birch?", etc). Some people think this NG knows everything there is to know
about plants! For an in-depth impression see the archives at
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
Many questions of a general nature can be answered by consulting the
archives or just a search engine (a frequent question is "I have this school
project. Can someone write my paper for me?" with the standard response:
"try Google" or "DAGS").

Since this is a slow NG (in numbers of postings per week) great tolerance
has been observed when dealing with some fringe figures, who post
anonimously. Over time it has become clear that logic and reason do not help
in dealing with them.

Fortunately this NG is not being hit by 'real trolls': the worst offender
being "Cereus-validus " (FWIW "Cereus validus"
is Latin for "The Mighty Wax-Candle" which, as self-descriptions go, is
fairly accurate). Things have been getting worse of late things and putting
this address (or whatever address he changes to) into the killfile will
ensure missing out on a lot of garbage. In addition, putting anybody who
cross-posts (to three or more groups) in the killfile will also be helpful
(something that is crossposted will hardly ever be worth reading, and those
who engage in crossposting will hardly ever have something worthwhile to
contribute).

GLOSSARY & WEBDIRECTORY:

BOTANICAL NAMES:
Plantfinder at http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/
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.

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?

GRIN at http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxecon.pl
Well-kept database of economically important plants.

TROPICOS (or W3TROPICOS) at
http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html
This is a list of current names 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.

IPNI at www.ipni.org, www.uk.ipni.org or www.us.ipni.org
Basically this is a list of all scientific names of vascular plants ever
published, in the form they were published. It is not complete (names below
the rank of species were indexed in only one of the component indexes, until
recently) and 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)

Algal names:
http://128.32.109.44/e-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.
A brief overview of the APG system can be found at
http://www.systbot.uu.se/classification/summary98.html
The APG itself has an extensive website 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). A popular system book based on the Cronquist System is
"Flowering Plants of the World" by Heywood (latest news is that Heywood is
rewriting to conform to APG). 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.

The Tree of Life for land plants:
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Embryop...p=Green_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

Many databases of taxonomic data have been brought into DELTA and are at
http://biodiversity.bio.uno.edu/delta/www/data.htm,
such as plant family descriptions at
http://biodiversity.bio.uno.edu/delta/angio/


PICTURES
Pictures of California wildflowers at
http://dlp.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/flora/

Pictures of plants, by a botanist based on Hawaii:
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty...cronq_judd.htm

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

Fossil Algae:
http://www.ku.edu/~ifaa/index.html



AN OVERVIEW OF MORE LINKS:
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/otherwww.html

And then there is always this one:
http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...

A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany

snipped but read

Thank you kind [sir?]
There are so many great links on this I think I might love you.

The very last one is one of my favourites

I'm glad I popped in today

Gramma

Gramma schreef Thank you kind [sir?]
There are so many great links on this I think I might love you.

***
I don't mind being loved.
Makes for a nice change ;-)
PvR

"Gramma" wrote in message
...

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...

A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany

snipped but read

Thank you kind [sir?]
There are so many great links on this I think I might love you.

The very last one is one of my favourites

I'm glad I popped in today

Gramma




Quite so; I save the odd one for future reference.

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...
A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany


[big snip]

Impressed as I am by the list of resources you have so kindly provided, I
can't help but feel dejected by your post as you mention one of my earlier
posts "ancient Greek name for birch" directly above my most recent post
"blanching of plants...", especially as the NG you mention are simply not
available through my server, eg plant education.

But just what is one to do when having searched in vain for answers to such
questions, nothing has been forthcoming. Keep searching or give up? Or try
a little ask-around? I opt for the latter as I consider time is incredibly
short and therefore exceedingly precious.

I certainly do not regard the questions as trivial or off-topic, and neither
should many readers of this NG interested in how plants came to be named or
how we have come to accept certain treatments of plants as normal. But more
to the point is how the answers to these questions will be perceived in
future as much as they have been in the past, in this case the very distant
past of ancient Mediterranean.

For instance, I was recently informed (by someone that reads the back of
food packets) that sultanas and many other dried fruits were dipped in
certain oils to act as a preservative and to prevent the fruit from sticking
together, when lo and behold, the very next day or so I read in Pliny that
this was the practice at least two millennia ago. The same with putting
poppy seeds or sesame seeds on loaves, much to the chagrin of my local
bakery and McDonalds. Nothing new under the sun there it seems.

However, and this is where I shall go a little off topic, both questions
were asked as I seek to unravel the essence of the Corinthian column - the
most prolific capital type the world around - and perhaps the most
misunderstood despite it prevalence in many a hallowed hall of learnedness.

While I could write a major essay on my findings wrt the birch, it seems we
have been denied a major slice of its history of use (1000 years) simply
because we do not know its ancient Greek name. While I believe I have found
some of its ancient names, I have also stumbled onto its broader use, in
ancient Greek religion, for the Olympic Games, ancient writing, and a great
many other cultural and social aspects too numerous to bore one or all of
you here.

WRT blanching, were it not for ancient Greek experimentations we may wonder
why certain salad plants have proven ever so popular and just what it takes
to make a plant a household name and hence a valuable economic crop. And I
am sure there are no regrets here that the botanical industry, whether food,
floral, or simply fascinating, is still in a state of bloom. Touch wood!

I offer as an small example of my studies, blanched asparagus, which was
exceedingly popular during the Hellenistic period (333BCE - 31 BCE),
especially the white-stemmed purple-headed variety. It was so popular that
someone - a farmer, distributor, lover, or otherwise - decided to erect a
collossal column shaped as an asparagus spear immediately outside the front
entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, but which is nowadays called
(guess!) - the Acanthus Column. In todays terms, this would be like someone
raising an asparagus column on the site and to the former height of the now
vanquished WTC.

But for those that don't know, for nigh on two millennia, the acanthus has
been considered the model for the vegetation of the so-called Corinthian
capital. So what? you may well ask! Well, to begin with, it is simply wrong,
and secondly when you do work out what it is, you are likely to feel all
your christmasses have come at once. Indeed, you will begin to understand
many of the things you have taken for granted ever since you were a child,
such as christmas and even things botanical (surely derived from the Greek
botanikos), and you will even begin to understand things you are not even
aware of yet. Moreover your will be restored of your humour and good
health - guaranteed. All from discovering something completely trivial and
supposedly irrelevent to this NG.

Such is my little rant. I am still open and prepared for business.

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...
o8TY schreef
Impressed as I am by the list of resources you have so kindly provided,
I
can't help but feel dejected by your post as you mention one of my
earlier
posts "ancient Greek name for birch" directly above my most recent post
"blanching of plants...", especially as the NG you mention are simply
not
available through my server, eg plant education.

***
Very many NG's are available through Google, for example through the
archives or through the Google main page. Look for e.g. for groups
starting
with bionet.plants and rec.gardens.
PvR


You'e too kind.