Links: Botany, Database and Pictures
This is a rather out of date list.
Want to find out more about a particular plant, then have a look at the following links.
On this page:
- Ethnobotany
- The study of the uses of plants world wide.
- Databases
- More information than you could possible dream of.
- Photos and pictures
- So what do all these wonderful plants look like?
And if you really want more links the Internet Directory for Botany has nearly 3000. The Internet mining company has two interesting and comprehensive sections: Botany and Herbs For Health. The AgriSurf! Agricultural Web Index looks promising, a searchable index to over 6000 agricultural sites. And if you can't find what your after try asking on one of the News Groups and Mailing Lists.
Ethnobotany + Botany
I believe ethnobotany is the study of the uses of plants.
Ethnobotany Cafe A chat room related to discussion of plants and their uses and their relationship to culture. Also have a herb exchange where you can exchange info about herbs. Also have info on wild foods and herbal medicine.
Botanic Diversity Pages (Use to be Chez Marcos) Lots of Photos, lots of links and a good introduction to botany. And now feature super wizzy JavaScript stuff, which makes the PFAF site look positively tame.
Centre for Economic Botany, Kew includes details of a Drylands plant database (off-line), and a massive list of on and off line databases, and other Ethnobot resources. Also home to the Society for Economic Botany UK Chapter.
A Mini-Course in Medical Botany The format leaves something to be desired but lots of good stuff on medicinal uses of plants through out the world.
The Plant Kingdom at Univ. Calf. Museum of Palaeontology. A really well done site with all sorts of info, fossil records, ecology, systematics. Not quite comprehensive best on higher level groups rather than individual species.
If you confused about all this Latin name stuff, have a look at A Note on Names.
Dictionary of Botanical Epithets describing how some of the Latin names of plants were derived.
Sputnik Glossary of botanical terms Lists the different parts of a plant and also has some good pics illustrating the different parts.
Mining Company: Botany Good bunch of Links, plus bulletin Boards, articles, etc.
Databases
Just about every plant you can think of is in some database or other, you'll often need to know the exact Latin name to find it though.
Databases cross referenced with our search page
Permaculture Plant Database (PCPDB). We are in tor process of opening up the PFAF database to create a community driven plant database, where people can contribute quality information and pictures. Check here for the first draft of the database.
Ethnobotany Database A massive online academic database of world-wide plant use, has 80,000 records! which list uses of plants, common and botanical names and regions where there used , unfortunately that's it, nothing about how to use them or growing them or other useful info.
Phytochemical Database lots of info on composition of plants.
USDA Plants database. Really rather big, info on most plants in the US and where they grow, and when the Plant Guides section is done they will have info on wildlife and economic uses.
HortiPlex a nice database provided by GardenWeb with 11,000 images and links to other sources of information.
GRIN Another big database about the economic uses of plants. Only very broad characteristics of uses though, and not much detail.
Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the US Another big list of plants, good on common names, and US distribution.
The Gatherer(c) Search lots of databases (ours included) for information about a plant.
CalFlora 8363 Californian plants with lots of pretty pics. And distribution info.
Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database Michel H. Porcher et al. 1995 - 2000, MULTILINGUAL MULTISCRIPT PLANT NAME DATABASE, Landcare Systems Research Laboratory, Department of Crop Production,Institute of Land and Food Resources, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Contains indices of common names of plants, with emphasis on Japanese and Chinese Names.
Lepidoptera and some other life forms Started as a project on Moths and Butterflies. Now encompasses plants as well, mainly just scientific and common name (English and Finnish), but a good number of pics as well. Getting on for 7000 plants.
Plant Name Database Allows conversion of names between Finnish, Swedish, English, German, French and Latin
Botanical.com list 800+ types of herbs taken from a 1931 Herbal book.
Dictionary of Botanical Epithets describing how some of the Latin names of plants were derived.
Other Database
I haven't cross referenced these database yet.
UI Plants: woody ornimentals database has good details of of identification, cultivation and lots of photos.
International Plant Name Index a very large database which combines several of the standard references for botanical names. Could become a standard source.
The Plant Finder by the Royal Horticultural Society: the source for finding where to get plants from in the UK.
Silvics of North America A very detailed guide to about 200 different trees which grom in the US. Contains details of the growing range, life history, ecology. One of the most coprehensive sources around.
Find Wildflowers Online allows searchs by the botanical description of the plant i.e. thetype of flower etc. Could be a very useful resource.
The Plants Database a community driven database with 14,000+ images by many authors. Part of Dave's Garden.
Horticopia 4000 plants with botanical and common names as well as a good range of pictures (with their logo across the middle!).
The Dictionary of Common Names from the Plant Press, has a good range of common names from many countries.
Den Virtuella Floran database in Swedish good for Swedish/Norwegan/Finnish/German names.
The Flora of North America A massive project to collect info on approximately 20,000 species of vascular plants and bryophytes of North America. With distribution maps, images, and some use info.
World Species List A collection of lists about the species (plants, animals & in betweens) for lots of places round the world. They have really a rather large amount of links (300K). They were kind enough to put us as the pick of the month for Jan '98. And have about 200 links to our site! Now I know why the hits have gone up. It lists such gems as the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, red list of Threatened Plants.
There's also a Native American Food Plant and a Medicinal Plant of Native America databases.
If you still want more there's American Indian Ethnobotany Database which cover Foods, Drugs, Dyes, and Fibres of Native North American Peoples.
FAO Tropical Feeds Database Not very veganic, but a good list of plants, and other things which can be used for animal feeds. With quite a bit of detail.
Famine Foods "Plants that are not normally considered as crops are consumed in times of famine. This botanical-humanistic subject has had little academic exposure, and provides insight to potential new food sources that ordinarily would not be considered." The database contains details of lots of interesting plants with good references to the literature.
AgDB A meta-database of thousands of other databases to do with agriculture.
California Rare Fruit Growers, Fruit List has 700 individual fruits listed by Latin and Common names, with some growing info.
The Postcode Plant Database Find out what species might inhabit your local area (UK Only).
New Crop Resource Online Program A university department researching lots of new crops, they have a searchable and browsable index of documents about many new crops, some but not all of our favourite plants are there.
TreeWeb Lots of info on lots of trees, inc. ecology, sites and soils, and some of the uses.
Gernot Katzer's Spice Dictionary details of over 100 different herbs and spices, including pictures, 4000 different common names from all over the world, Etymology and lots of interesting facts.
W3TROPICOS a big nomeculture database with citations. Put together by the Missouri Botanical Garden. Has lots of images, specimen lists.
Plant Elements of Design at the University of Minnesota. Basic info on 500 plants woody plants and a similar number of herbaceous plants.
Mining Company: Herbs for Health Follow resource list, then Herb and Plant Databases and Searches for more links to databases. Also Vegetable Gardens page has a good list of Ethnobotany resources.
IOPI Database of Plant Databases (DPD) Ever wondered what database you local Museum has? Here the place to find out.
International Legume Database & Information Service has good litrature references, geographic info and uses.
Species 2000Grand Project to index all the worlds species!
New Plant Page Put together my the New Ornamentals Society, this list a whole stack of new cultivars of ornamental plants, with links to of suppliers and links to articles about the plants.
Time Life's Virtual Garden 3000 species with photo's, descriptions of the plant and some growing info.
Home Horticulture at Michigan State University Extension, lots of articles on topics like growing Hickory, and specific plants pests and diseases. Plus loads of pictures.
International Phytocomputing Society Devoted to PC-bassed plant databases and other plant/gardening software. Has A list of several CD ROM's.
HerbMed Medicinal details on a dozen of the more well know herbal plants, extensive citations from MedLine.
Gardening.com's Plant Encyclopaedia A nice database geared to the gardener with photos and basic info. Good for pests and problems of plants. Not so much on the uses of plants.
Experimental Biodiversity Information System An attempt to provide a common standard for bio-diversity information using the Z39.50 standard. It looks likely the PFAF database might be converted to run under this standard.
Worldwide Botanical Knowledge Base not a database as yet, but some intresting ideas on XML etc.
Useful Wild Plants publish an encyclopedia of The Useful Wild Plants of Texas, the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains, and Northern Mexico. Not online, but an intresting wild plant quiz.
Anglo-Saxon Plant-Name Survey has details of old names used for plants.
Photos and Pictures
Chez Marco's has a very good indexed list of plant photos, which you can browse by Latin Name and family. Especially good on rainforest plants, non flowering plants and Asteridae.
Southwest School of Botanical MedicineThis is a good site. Lots of pics of herbs and other plants
CalPhoto 8363 Californian plants with lots of pretty pics. And distribution info.
UDSA PLANTS Photo Gallery A searchable list of plant pictures which can be used by non-commercial organisations.
Vascular Plant Image Gallery at Texas ASM Uni. Bioinformatics Working Group. Big selection of pictures here.
Finnish Photos Good bunch of photos and good quality, mainly taken in Finland.
University of Washington Medicinal Herb Garden pics of about 100 herbs.
Other Photo Galleries
The Virtual Foliage Home Page Big repository of plant pics, plus an opportunity to explore gopher space.
The Internet Directory for Botany also has an extensive list of sites with plant pics.
Three Hawaiin sites with lots of picture: Hawaii Native Plant Propagation Database Hawaiin Native Plant Genera and Images and Descriptions of Flowering Plant Families - Alphabetical
Durham Uni Botanic Garden 100 or so plant pictures.
Plant Pictures on Henriette's Herbal Homepage. Mainly Herbs.
Hortus Botanicus Catinensis Nearly 900 photos from this Italian botanical garden.
Flowerbase a searchable index of 7,000 pictures of flowers, plants and garden plants. Which serves as an advert for their commercial CD-ROM.
English Wild Flowers some pictures of English wild flowers.
Graham's Paradise Garden A tour through a urban cottage garden. Lots of pics of mostly ornamental plants.
Ohio's states database of 3,878 images of 600 ornamental plants.