For years our research group has been involved in several projects regarding the identification of plant organisms, using the DNA barcoding. The necessity of these studies arose both from purely systematic questions and on behalf of privates or public institutions. The organisms considered in our researches range from cyanobacteria and microalgae to seaweeds and, only recently, plants. One of the major problems in our studies was the availability of molecular data from type and historical specimens. In fact, type specimens are fundamental for comparison in systematic and nomenclature studies, as stated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, and, more in general, specimens from historical collections are useful to know the distribution of taxa in space and time. DNA barcoding technique has allowed us to study historical specimens of great scientific value, because only small amount of starting material is required, thus preserving these irreplaceable sources of information. We have decided to make available to everyone the sequences of type and historical material produced during our researches in this public database. It will represent a library of reference sequences, easily to update and against which putative new species or other plant material can be compared. A match of a sequence from an unknown organism to one of the reference sequences can provide a rapid and reproducible identification. This will greatly increase the speed at which routine identification can be carried out and will be a good tool to solve taxonomic questions, inferring evolutionary history and determining chronological distributions of populations. ... [Information of the supplier]
Botany is the scientific study of plants and fungi. Scientists in the Department of Botany at The Field Museum are interested in learning why there are so many different plants and fungi in the world, how this diversity is distributed across the globe and how best to classify it, and what important roles these organisms play in the environment and in human cultures. ... [Information of the supplier]
This site provides "various paths for exploration or comparison of four systems of flowering plant classification. Selection of a Family name will query an index of web links relating to that Family or included taxa. This 'gateway' system - eventually to include all vascular plants - is under constant revision. Current options (menu bar at the base of this page) include: Cronquist, Takhtajan, Thorne, APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group). ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
Electronic and interactive guide to descriptions of new plants species published in seed lists from Botanic Gardens for the period 1800 - 1900. [Information of the supplier, modified]
Welcome to ITIS, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System! Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. We are a partnership of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican agencies (ITIS-North America); other organizations; and taxonomic specialists. ITIS is also a partner of Species 2000 and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). ... [Information of the supplier]
JSTOR Plant Science is an online environment that brings together content, tools, and people interested in plant science. It provides access to foundational content vital to plant science – plant type specimens, taxonomic structures, scientific literature, and related materials, making them widely accessible to the plant science community as well as to researchers in other fields and to the public. It also provides an easy to use interface with powerful functionality that supports research and teaching, including the ability to measure and record plant specimens, share observations and objects with colleagues and classmates, and investigate global plant biodiversity. JSTOR Plant Science strives to be a comprehensive online research tool for aggregating and exploring the world’s botanical resources, thereby dramatically improving access for students, scholars, and scientists around the globe. It is useful for those researching, teaching or studying botany, biology, ecology, environmental and conservation studies. ... [Information of the supplier]
This site provides access to those specimen records and images available digitally through the Herbarium Catalogue. The Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew houses approximately 7 million specimens, collected from all around the world. Specimens are either pressed and dried or preserved in spirit. Kew is committed to making this important collection more accessible to botanists and others, wherever they may be, for use in their own projects: particularly in biodiversity, conservation, sustainable development and systematics. To this end we are building an electronic Herbarium Catalogue containing images of the specimens and information taken from their collection labels. ... [Information of the supplier]
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) introduced the consistent use of binomial names for both plants and animals, validly publishing over 9,000 plant names. Since 1981 the Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project, based at The Natural History Museum, has been collating and cataloguing information on published type designations for Linnaean plant names and, where none exists, has been collaborating with specialists in designating appropriate types. A type specimen is one which is permanently associated with a given scientific name, and acts as a permanent reference collection to confirm the identity of the species to which the name must apply. The Project's main aim is to promote nomenclatural stability in Linnaean plant names by establishing clear typifications for each of the names involved. The Project is necessarily international in scope, receiving enquiries and requests for information on Linnaean names from all over the world. We are always keen to develop further collaboration with taxonomic or regional specialists in the evaluation of Linnaean names and their types. Based at The Natural History Museum, the Project is also indebted to the Linnean Society of London for generous grant support. ... [Information of the supplier]
This internet portal for the German flora contains information about observation and collection data. BioCASE enables the search for a specific taxon as well as expanded search requests, e.g. for habitats, collectors, or periods. With an expanded search function the synonyms in the standard flora lists are included in the search. The data are made available by various institutions such as herbaria or flora databases through the GBIF Network (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). ... [Information of the supplier, translated]
This digital archive of unique material relating to the society's priceless collections of specimens, manuscripts and letters will enable full global access for investigation allowing researchers to rapidly check details of the specimens on-line, including morphological details and written data. The information is of critical importance to correct naming and identification of specimens. The type specimens represent the original concept of new species, exemplified by the specimens and illustrations used when assigning binomial scientific names, the foundation stones of taxonomy. The Herbarium archive contains all 14,300 Linnaean plant specimens. This first phase of the Insects archive contains the Linnaean and Smithian butterflies and moths only. The remaining insects from the collection will be made available during 2009. The Fish archive contains all the 158 Linnaean fish specimens. ... [Information of the supplier]