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Botany and Plant Sciences: Internet Sites

This guide identifies major information resources in botany including databases, bibliographies, handbooks, and guides.

Selected Internet Sites

 

World Flora Online. (URL is http://www.worldfloraonline.org) Coverage is all known land plant species. Includes information on plant species, conservation status, geographic distribution, and images. 

Scott's Botanical Links. This gateway site can be searched or browsed. Links are organized into categories including: Databases, Multimedia Experiences, Illustrations, Systematics, and Web Resource Pages. Over 3000 sites are indexed.

New York Botanical Garden (URL is http://www.nybg.org/) A vast array of information about the garden and its activities is found here. Searchable databases include the library catalog, a few years of Index to American Botanical Literature, a multisite name file, and the first 2500 digital photos of the 75,000 vascular plant type specimens in the collection. (Go to Herbarium Specimen Images link in the What's New section.) Many search types are possible in the Vascular Plant Type Catalog.

Kew Web (URL is http://www.kew.org) Web site for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Information on its collections, research, and publications is provided. The site includes databases that can be searched (Vascular Plant Families, Genera and Authors of Plant Names, and the Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature (described above). Also found here is a compilation from five sources of lists of the amounts of nuclear DNA found in seed plant species.

Missouri Botanical Garden (URL is http://www.mobot.org/) Information on the garden's arboretum and other visitor information is found at this site. The library's online catalog can be searched as well as the W3 TROPICOS (Vascular Tropicos) database of plant names.

Morton Arboretum and Sterling Morton Library (URL is http://www.mortonarb.org) The section on plant information and collections of the library includes an e-mail address for reference questions. Questions will be answered by a librarian.

Natural History Museum, London (URL is http://www.nhm.ac.uk/) Questions on botany may be sent through this site. Choose Enquiries from the drop-down box and click on Go. On the Museum Enquiries Page, scroll down to Science enquiries. Also useful are the searchable online catalogs of the Library and the Picture Library. There is a section of nearly 600 images (mostly art reproductions) for plants and flowers.

Native Plants of North America (URL is https://www.wildflower.org/plants-main) From University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Information on > 13,000 native plants. Includes images. 

Harvard University Herbaria (URL is http://www.huh.harvard.edu) Numerous searchable databases, descriptions of its collections, research, and publications, and visitor information are accessible from this site.

Swedish Museum of Natural History (URL is http://www.nrm.se/english.16_en.html.) Questions about biology or geology may be sent in by e-mail. Images, searchable databases, and other descriptions of collections or information on collectors are found in the Plants section. Over 3600 images of plants from the herbarium of Carl Linnaeus are accessible online, within Collections - Dept. of Phanerogamic Botany.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (URL is http://www.usda.gov/) Information about this federal department and its many programs, services, and agencies is found at the Website.

The National Agricultural Library offers free crude searching of the Agricola database (1979-). In the Agencies section, choose Forest Service to access the Climate Change Atlas for 80 Tree Species of the Eastern U.S. In the Hot Topics drop-down box, choose Biotechnology Overview and then choose Research to access reports on "genetically engineered crops".

MendelWeb (URL is http://www.mendelweb.org/MendelWeb) The classic genetics paper on inheritance in pea plants by Mendel (1865), both in German and translated into English is among the links found at this site. Other links include science reference sources, genetics and biology texts. Aimed towards teachers and undergraduates.

The Gray Herbarium Card Index of New World Plant Names and the Harvard University Herbaria Type Collection databases are available through the Harvard University Herbaria website. Includes Farlow Diatom Collection, Botanical Collectors, and Botanical Authors databases.

Carnivorous Plants (URL is http://www.carnivorousplants.org) Nomenclature information and some images of carnivorous plants can be retrieved through a search of this database. From the International Carnivorous Plant Society.

The Families of Flowering Plants - Presents an interactive system for identification. From 2 Australian botanists, L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz.

Go Botany: New England Wildflower Society - with keys

Leaf Snap - An e field guide for trees and plants in New York City and Washington, DC.

Biodiversity Heritage Library - Collections from a consortium of zoology or natural history and botanical libraries. Collections include: Carl Linnaeus Collection (selected items either by or about Linnaeus), Engelmann Herbarium (botanical literature durign the expansion of the American West), Fieldiana: the Flora of Peru (Fieldiana: Botany volumes of the series Flora of Peru), Floral Mania (illustrations of flowering plants), George Engelmann Papers from the Missouri Botanical Garden Archives, Missouri Botanial Garden Materia Medica, Missouri Botanical Garden's Orchid Folios, Missouri Botanical Garden's Rare Books Collection, and New York Botanical Garden.

Science Research Support Librarian - Life Sciences

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Rachel Sperling
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Marx Science and Social Science Library
203-436-5912