ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ Ju n e 2000 / 507 INTERNET RESOURCES Botany Putting names and faces to botany information by Lori Bronars and Anne Prestamo T he following annotated list o f Internet sites for botany is aimed at common in formation needs of librarians or library us ers, from undergraduates to professionals.1 G atew ays and metasites • I n te r n e t D ir e c to r y f o r B o ta n y . A search ab le and b row sable gatew ay, the Internet Directory for Botany provides more than 4,000 links to botanical information in cluding university departments, societies, or ganizations, museums, checklists, threatened plants, gardening, biologists’ addresses, eco nomic botany, software, and images. Also included is an extensive, international listing o f arboreta and gardens. Access: h ttp :// ww w.botany.net/IDB/. • Scott’s Botanical Links. Including more than 3,000 links, this site features both search able and browsable gateways. Categories in clude: databases, multimedia experiences, illustrations, systematics, and Web resources. Access: http:/ 'w w w .o u .e d u /ca s/'b o ta n y - micro/bot-linx/subject/. • G reen Links. A specialized gateway with browsable categories including marine biology, rainforests, tropical biology, data bases, a world map o f botany sites, software, and sp ecies names. Access: h ttp ://w w w . eu ro n et.n l/u se rs/m b le ek e r/u rlists/b o tu rl- 1.html. • PlantFacts Search Engine. Created and maintained by the staff of Horticulture and Crop Science in Virtual Perspective at Ohio State University, this resource includes two databases. The “Factsheet Database” contains guides for answering plant-related questions from 46 universities and government institu tions across the U.S. and Canada. Links are provided to more than 20,000 pages of Ex tension fact sheets and bulletins that provide a concentrated source o f plant-related infor mation. The “Research and Teaching” data base provides links to more than 20,000 pages from 40 American university departments related to admissions, degree requirements, career opportunities, research projects, and online courses. Access: http:, /plantfacts.ohio- state.edu/. Arboreta and gardens • New Y o rk B otan ical G arden. A vast array o f information about the garden and its activities is presented. Searchable databases include the library catalog, the “Index to American Botanical Literature” (selected years), and digital photos of vascular plant type specim ens (totaling 6,500 now and 75,000 later). Go to “Herbarium Specimen Images” in the “What’s New” section. The Vascular Plant Type Catalog is also search able. Access: http://www.nybg.org/; Access. A b o u t t h e a u t h o r s Lori Bronars is science reference librarian at Yale University, e-mail: tori. bronars@yale. edu; Anne Prestamo is coordina tor of digital library services at Oklahoma State University, e-mail: prestam@okstate.edu http://www.botany.net/IDB/ http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany- http://www http://plantfacts.ohio- http://www.nybg.org/ mailto:lori.bronars@yale.edu mailto:prestam@okstate.edu 508 / C&RL News ■ June 2000 http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/vasc/ (Vascu lar Plant Type Catalog). • Kew Web. The official Web site for the Royal Botanic Gardens, K ew provides infor mation on collections, research, and publi cations. Includes the searchable databases “Vascular Plant Families” and “Genera and Authors o f Plant Names.” The site also con tains a five-source compilation o f data on the amounts o f nuclear DNA in seed plant spe cies. Access: http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/. • Missouri Botanical Garden. Visitor in formation on the garden’s arboretum is plen tiful at this site. The library’s catalog and the “w-3TROPICOS” (Vascular Tropicos) database o f plant names are searchable. Access: http://w w w .m obot.org/; Access: http:// mobot.m obot.org/Pick/Search/pick.htm l ( “w-3TROPICOS”). • Morton Arboretum and Sterling Morton Library. The section on plant infor mation and collections includes e-mail refer ence service. Questions are answered by a librarian. Access: http://www.mortonarb.org/. • U.S. National Arboretum. Includes the latest USDA Hardiness Zone Map showing lowest recorded temperatures for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Access: http://www.ars grin.gov/ars/Beitsville/na/. Societies, organizations, and museums • Botany (Smithsonian Institution). The Department o f Botany, National Museum o f Natural History, Smithsonian Institution provides information on its collections, re search, and publication s. Links to the department’s searchable databases include the U.S. W ood Collection, Lichen, and Checklist o f the Plants o f the District o f Columbia. Ac cess: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/departments/ botany.html. • Natural History Museum, London. On this e-mail reference service choose “Enqui ries” from the drop-down box; on the Mu seum Enquiries Page, scroll down to Science enquiries. Users can search the Library Cata log and the Picture Library. This site contains nearly 600 images (mostly art reproductions) o f plants and flo w e rs . Access: http:// www.nhm.ac.uk/. • Harvard University Herbaria. Featur ing the Herbaria’s 5 millionth specimen, this site also provides links to other large plant collection sites, numerous searchable data bases, descriptions o f its collections, research, publications, and visitor information. The Farlow Reference Library o f Cryptogamic Botany section provides e-mail reference ser vice. The Databases section contains an ex tensive list o f the w orld’s most endangered m osses and liverw o rts. Access: http:// www.herbaria.harvard.edu/. • Swedish Museum o f Natural History. The “Biologist-on-call” provides e-mail ref erence service. The Plants section contains images, searchable databases, and other de scriptions o f collections and information on collectors. (Some in Swedish only.) The Seed plants section contains 2,000+ images from Carl Linnaeus’ herbarium. Access: http:// www.nrm.se/welcome.html.en. • U.S. Department o f Agriculture. Pro viding information about USDA’s many pro grams, services, and agencies, the National Agricultural Library also offers free searching o f Agricola (1970- ). In the Agencies section, choose “Forest Service” to access the Climate Change Atlas f o r 80 Tree Species o f the East ern U.S. In the Hot Topics section, choose “Biotechnology Overview” and “Research” for reports on genetically engineered crops. A c cess: http://www.usda.gov/; Access: http:// www.nal.usda.gov/ag98 (Free Agricola). Images • Plant Dictionary Image Library. The Plant Dictionary is an indexed system o f multimedia teaching resources for Horticul ture and Crop Science. The dictionary is or ganized in the following subsections: “Plants o f Horticulture” is a searchable database o f 3,878 high-quality images and horticultural descriptions for hundreds o f unique species and cultivars; “Pests & Disease o f Horticul ture” is a searchable database o f 1,100+ high- quality images featuring pests, diseases, and other plant problems; “Biology o f Horticul ture” includes pictures, questions, and labs related to biological processes and functions http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/vasc/ http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ http://www.mobot.org/ http://www.mortonarb.org/ http://www.ars- http://nmnhwww.si.edu/departments/ http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/ http://www.nrm.se/welcome.html.en http://www.usda.gov/ http://www.nal.usda.gov/ag98 C&RL News ■ Ju n e 2000 / 509 o f plants; “Tech n ology o f Horticulture” in cludes pictures, questions, and labs related to mechanisms and procedures in volved in p ro p a ga tin g horticultural plants. Access: http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/plants.html. • The Virtual Foliage Home Page. D e v e lo p e d and maintained by Michael Clayton, Department o f Botany, University o f W iscon sin-Madison, this site provides links to thou sands o f plan t pictu res. Access: http:// w w w .w is e .edu/botany/virtual.html. • Agronomy & Horticulture 100 (AgHrt 100) Plant Images. Created and maintained by the Department o f Agron om y and Horti culture, Brigham Young University, this site includes a JPEG gallery o f approxim ately 150 econom ically important plants. Images may be used for noncommercial purposes. Access: http://ucs.b yu .edu/bioag/aghort/aghort100/ images.htm. • Smithsonian Catalog o f Botanical Il lu stration . M o r e than 500 im a g e s o f Bromelaciae, Cactaceae, and Melastomataceae b y early to mid-20th century artists are avail able. The collection w ill eventually g ro w to 3,000 images. Images are copyrighted by the Smithsonian. Supported by a grant from the Atherton Seidell Endowment Fund, this re source was d evelo p ed by Larry Dorr, Ellen Farr, and A lic e Tangerini. Access: http:// nmnhwww.si.edu/botart/. • The Botanic Sorting Machine. This aesthetically pleasing gatew ay provides ac cess to thousands o f plant im ages. Plant names are in Latin, English, and Dutch. Other pages provide information and im ages o f the Surinam e R ain forest. C reated b y M arco Bleeker in Amsterdam (Netherlands), this site is m irrored on servers in the U.S., Japan, Canada, and Russia. Access: http://w w w . eu ron et.n l/u sers/m bleeker/folis/bsm ain - e.html; Access: http://www.euronet.nl/users/ mbleeker/Suriname/suri-eng.html (Suriname Rainforest). • The National Plant Photographic I dex. The Australian National Botanic Gardens provides a large collection o f photographic slides o f identified Australian plant species. It also features environmental and conserva tion images. Access: http://www.anbg.gov.au/ anbg/photo.html. • Flora o f Europe— a Photographic Herbaria. Flora o f Europe is an amateur photo-herbarium, established in 1997. It contains n approxim ately 660 pictures o f flowers, mostly o f southern Europe. There are 284 species (63 families, 179 gen era). Access: http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/aart/index, html. C hecklists and flo ras • “BABEL”: a Multi-Lingual database for the Vernacular Names o f European W ild Plants. Com m on names o f European w ild plants are p ro vided in eight languages. A n drew N. G agg and Roger W hitehead hope to enlist other botanists to expand the glos saries, dictionaries, and databases, and to add support for additional languages. A c cess: http://w w w .gagg.m cm ail.com /B abel. htm. • Checklist o f Online Vegetation and Plant Distribution Maps. C om p iled by Claire Englander (University Herbarium, Uni versity o f California, B erk eley) and Philip H oeh n (Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections, Stanford University), this site is arranged by area, w o rld or continent, and subdivided by region or country name. A c cess: h ttp://w w w -s u l.Stanford.edu/depts/ branner/vegmaps.htm. • Flora o f North America. More than 800 scientists at 30 institutions are collaborating on this project to provide information on the plants that “g ro w outside o f cultivation” north o f M exico (21,000 species). Entries are signed and include physical descriptions, numbers o f genera and species, distribution, and lit erature references. O nline records can be searched by province, elevation, name, or other text w ord. This resource is related to the printed volum es o f the same title, being published by O xfo rd University Press. A c cess: http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/. • Global Plant Checklist Project. The International Organization for Plant Informa tion (IO P I) has identified this project as a top priority. The Global Plant Checklist, encom passing about 300,000 vascular plant species and m ore than 1 m illion names, w ill serve as a taxonom ic backbone to which users can append m ore specialized information. Even tu a lly th e C h e c k lis t w i l l a ls o in c lu d e nonvascular plants. IO PI calls this a “w ork in progress,” lacking the refinements envisaged for the fully relational Checklist w h en funds are available. Access: http://iopi.csu.edu.au/ iopi/iopigpc1.html. http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/plants.html http://www.si.edu/botart/ http://www http://www.euronet.nl/users/ http://www.anbg.gov.au/ http://utopia http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/ http://iopi.csu.edu.au/ 570 / C&RL News ■ June 2000 • Carnivorous Plant Database. From Rick Walker, HP Labs in Palo Alto, Califor nia, this site provides nomenclature informa tion and images o f carnivorous plants that can be retrieved via the searchable database. Access: h ttp :/ / w w w .h p l.h p .c o m / b o t/ cp_hom e. Ethn o bo tan y • Ethnobotanical Resource Directory. Created by Michael B. Thomas, Department o f Botany, University o f Florida. This site’s categories include publications, bibliogra phies, conferences/society meetings, data bases, educational opportunities, research projects, W eb directories, coo l sites, articles, and m iscella n eo u s sites. Access: http:// w w w .cieer.org/directory.html. • Southwest School o f Botanical Medi cine Home Page. This site includes a rich array o f images and texts on medicinal plants and their use in alternate botanical medical systems. M ore than 700 photographs o f m e dicinal plants, 136 color illustrations from Na tio n a l G eo graphic (1915— 2 4 ), b o ta n ic a l d r a w in g s b y Mimi Kamp, and i l l u s t r a t i o n s from early 20th- an d 1 9 th -cen tu ry b o ta n ic a l m ed ica l p u b li cations are available. Alternate botanical m edical texts are available in ASCII and A d o b e A c ro b a t form ats. Access: http:// c h ili.r t6 6 .c o m / h r b m o o r e / H O M E P A G E / HomePage.html. • Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Eth nobotanical Databases. This project, o f James A. Duke and Stephen M. Beckstrom- Sternberg, is housed at the USDA’s National Germplasm Resources Laboratory. Resources include: • EthnobotDB: 80,000 records o f plant uses w orldw ide; • PhytochemDB: plant chemical data, in cluding quantity, taxonom ic occurrence, and chemical activity; and • M PNADB, Medicinal Plants o f Native America: 17,634 items representing the me dicinal uses o f 2,147 species from 760 gen era and 142 families by 123 different Native Am erican groups. Access: http://www.ars- grin.gov/duke/. Econom ic botany • Plants for a Future. A resource center for rare and unusual plants, particularly ed ible and medicinal plants, is featured at this s ite fr o m th e U K . Access: http:// w w w .scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/index.html. • AgNIC Home Page. AgNIC (Agriculture N etw ork Information Center) is a distributed network o f agriculture-related information, subject area experts, and other resources. It was established by an alliance o f the National Agricultural Library, land-grant universities, and other organizations committed to facili tating public access to agricultural and re la te d in fo r m a tio n . Access: http:// ww w .agnic.org/. • EnviroPlants Research. Information on the Technical and Economical Efficien cies o f Producing, Marketing, and Managing Environmental Plants is available at this site. It contains a com pre h e n s i v e p u b l i c a tion collec tio n on econom ic and horticultural developm ents in the nursery and greenhouse industries. The site is maintained by Tim Rhodus, O hio State University, Department o f Horticulture and Crop Science. Access: http://www.hcs.ohio- state.edu/s290/. • Forage Inform ation System. From David Hannaway, Department o f Crop & Soil Science, O regon State University, this site is a global forage information resource. It also contains a glossary o f forage-related terms. Access: http://forages.orst.edu/; Access: http:// forages.orst.edu/main.cfm?PageID=60 (G los sary). • ForestWorld. Categories at this site in clude news and views, databases and direc tories, certification and sustainability, forest industry, Internet directory, w o o d s o f the world, photo gallery, and marketplace. A c cess: http://www.forestworld.com/. Higher plants • Tree Guide: the Natural History o f Trees. Tree species information and range maps are available at this site d evelo p ed and http://www.hpl.hp.com/bot/ http://www.ars- http://www.agnic.org/ http://www.hcs.ohio- http://forages.orst.edu/ http://www.forestworld.com/ C&RL News ■ Ju n e 2000 / 511 m aintained by Tom K im m erer, F orestry a n d N atu ral R e sources, University of Kentucky. The site is navigable via a table o f contents or via the tree database. It contains information for ap proximately 120 species, with 5 to 10 spe c ie s a d d e d w e e k ly . A c c e s s : h t t p :/ / www.treeguide.com /treeguide/index.htm . • T ree C o n servatio n In fo rm a tio n S er v ice . The World Conservation Monitoring Centre holds data on more than 7,000 tree species o f global conservation concern. Con servation assessments (including IUCN Red List category) have been gathered from many sources. This resource is continuously up dated. A ccess: http://w ww.w cmc.org.uk/cgi- bin/SaCGI.cgi/trees.exe. • Atlas F lo r a e E u ro p a e a e . Edited by J a a k k o J a l a s , Ju h a S u o m in e n , R a in o Lampinen, and Arto Kurtto and published by the Committee for Mapping the Flora o f Eu rope and Societas Biologica Fennica Vanamo. The atlas shows European distribution o f species and subspecies. Ranges are mapped in grids o f 50-km squares, totaling 4,419 squares for Europe. Notes list synonyms, tax­ “ Internet R esources” on the Web Thanks to a read er’s suggestion, we have m ade “Internet R e so u rce s” on the W eb easier to use. The articles are now listed by su b ject instead o f by date. Subjects covered in the last two years include: African American culture, tw en tieth-century authors, banking, d isabili ties, d istance edu cation, e-com m erce, El Niño, e n v iro n m en tal e n g in e e rin g , fashion, foreign language, literature and culture, genealogy, geographic informa tion system s, governm ent inform ation, grants, human rights, inform ation lit eracy, m athem atics, philosophy, phys ic s , r e fu g e e s , R u ssia n s tu d ie s , and travel. Visit the site at h ttp ://w w w .ata.o rg / acrl/resrces.h tm l. onomy and nomenclature data, important ad ditions and corrections (mainly com plement ing F lo r a E u r o p a e a ), and references to maps o f th e to ta l r a n g e . A c c e s s : h t t p :/ / www.helsinki.fi/km us/afe.html. • C alFlora. CalFlora is a comprehensive database o f plant distribution for California. A joint project o f USDA Forest Service, UC Berkeley Digital Library Project, USGS, UC Davis Information Center for the Environ ment, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and others, its components include: • S pecies D a ta b a s e . Geographic distribu tion summaries, habitat, and lifeform data for the approximately 8,400 vascular plant taxa native to, or naturalized in, California. • O c c u r r e n c e D a t a b a s e . M ore than 600,000 observations o f plants within Cali fornia, uniting data from numerous public agencies, herbaria, private organizations, and individuals. • N om en clatu re D atab ase. Information on relationships between plant names used by various observers, past and present. A useful tool for accessing and summarizing occurrence observations and a source of historical infor mation on usage of plant names in California. Access: http://galaxy.cs.berkeley.edu/calflora/. • T h e A r a b i d o p s i s I n fo r m a tio n R e s o u rc e (TAIR). Funded by the National Sci ence Foundation, this site is a resource for genomic data on A ra b id o p sis th a lia n a . Some information is from the former “A ra b id o p s is t h a lia n a Database” (AtDB), which was main tained by Stanford U n iv ersity’s M edical S choo l, D epartm ent o f G enetics. A ccess: http:/ /www.arabidopsis.org. • G ray C ard In d e x . Maintained by K. N. Gandhi (Harvard University Herbaria), the Gray Card Index provides taxonomic infor mation on New World vascular plants. A c cess: http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Data/ Gray/ . • In fo rm atio n an d Ed ucation , O hio Di v is io n o f F o r e s t r y . This site, from Bill Schultz, program administrator, provides in formation on Ohio forestry and includes a forestry acronym key to more than 100 acro nyms. A ccess: http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/ ODNR/Education/Educate.htm. • In tern ation al Plant Names In d ex. This effort is a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria, and Australian National Herbarium. http://www.treeguide.com/treeguide/index.htm http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cgi- http://www.helsinki.fi/kmus/afe http://galaxy.cs.berkeley.edu/calflora/ http://wwrw.arabidopsis.org http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Data/ http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/ http://www.ala.org/ 512 / C&RL News ■ June 2000 The aim o f this database is to supply, for all known flowering plants, the scientific name and literature cite to the recorded discovery. Access: http://www.ipni.org/. Lower plants • Lichen Information System. This re source on lichens is maintained by Roberto Zorer, Institute o f Plant Physiology, Univer sity o f Salzburg. Access: http://www.sbg.ac.at/ pfl/projects/lichen/news.htm. • Bryophytes. A project o f Raymond E. Stotler and Barbara J. Crandall-Stotler, Depart ment o f Plant Biology, Southern Illinois Uni versity at Carbondale, this site focuses on mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. It provides information on the classification, structural features, natural history, ecology, and evolu tionary relationships o f Bryophytes. Access: http://w w w .science.siu.edu/bryophytes/ index.html. • A Cumulative Checklist for the Li chen-forming, Lichenicolous and Allied Fungi o f the Continental United States and Canada. C reated by T h e o d o re L. Esslinger, Department o f Botany, North Da kota State University, this site contains cu mulative updates to the most recently pub lis h e d N o r th A m e r ic a n c h e c k lis t b y Esslinger and Egan (1995). It corresponds to Esslinger’s most current Recent Litera ture on Lichens f o r the Bryologist. Access: h ttp :/ / w w w .n d s u .n o d a k .e d u / in s tru c t/ esslinge/chcklst/chcklst7.htm. • CyanoSite. This extensive cyanobac terial bibliography is provided by Mark A. Schneegurt, Environmental and Industrial Microbiology, University o f Notre Dame. It contains more than 6,700 references that can be imported into bibliographic management programs. The site also contains a gallery o f 200+ images and videos o f cyanobacteria. Access: http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/. • The Harmful Algae Page. Supported by an NSF/NOAA grant to the National O f fice for Marine Biotoxins and Harmful Algal Blooms at Woods H ole Oceanographic Insti tution, this site contains an introduction to algal blooms and “red tides,” a photo gallery, a listing o f species responsible for harm ful algal blooms, and a distribution map. Access: http://www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/. • Algaljournal Articles Databases. Most issues o f Botanica Marina, British/European Journal o f Phycology, Journal o f Phycology, Phycologia, and Proceedings o f the Interna tional Seaweed Symposia are available here. Access: h ttp :/ / s e a w e e d .u c g.ie / s ea rc h / Searchchoice.html. M iscellaneous • Checklist o f Soft ware for Field Biologists. This site provides a listing o f software for biologists w h o do fieldwork. Short descriptive infor mation is provided, with links to further in fo rm a tio n , and, in so m e cases, fre e ly d o w n lo a d a b le program s. Access: http:// w w w .e u ro n e t.n l/ u s e rs / m b lee k e r/ p ro g / soflis_e.html. • MendelWeb. The classic genetics pa per by Johann Gregor Mendel (1865), in Ger man and translated into English, is among the links on this site. This site is primarily aimed towards teachers and undergraduates. Access: http://www.netspace.org/MendelWeb. • The Botanical Collectors Database. The database provides information on plant collectors and may be downloaded. It is a collaboration o f the California Academy o f Sciences, Field Museum o f Natural History, Harvard University Herbaria, Missouri Botani cal Garden, N ew York Botanical Garden, and Smithsonian Institution. Entries are provided for individual collectors as w ell as for col le c tin g team s. Access: h ttp://h erbaria. harvard.edu/Data/Collectors/. • Why Leaves Change Color. This site is provided by the USDA Forest Service, St. Paul Field office. Access: http://willow.ncfes.umn. edu/leaves/leaves.htm. Note 1. For a highlight on gardening sites, see Art Wolk, “Which end o f the bulb goes up?” Library Journal (D ecem ber 1999): 81-84. ■ http://www.ipni.org/ http://www.sbg.ac.at/ http://www.science.siu.edu/bryophytes/ http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/ http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/ http://www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/ http://seaweed.ucg.ie/search/ http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/prog/ http://www.netspace.org/MendelWeb http://herbaria http://willow.ncfes.umn