This site offers a large selection of pictures of Natural History objects, mostly British in origin. The images are presented to illustrate biodiversity and as an aid to identification. While pictures alone are generally NOT sufficient for identification, by showing different stages, states and views of the organisms more information can be offered than is available in field-guides. How to find your way around: BioImages is arranged in the normal biological classification (or at least my interpretation of it.) This is a hierarchical system with species grouped in genera, genera in families, families in orders and so on up to kingdoms and superkingdoms. 'Living Things' takes you to the top of the classification tree. If you just want to browse, Shortcuts takes you to a list of links to groups of organisms. You can then go directly to the group your are interested in. Then follow the links down to the species you want to see. On the left of each page in the classification hierarchy is a column of links to take you back up the hierarchy. Using these and the subtaxon links in the body of the page you can navigate sideways. This is a large site containing (Mar 06) 53,000 images depicting 4,600 species. The images include habitat shots, close-ups, macro shots and microscopy. Enjoy! ... [Information of the supplier]
This data-set contains information on literature between 1958 and 1998, including all the references published in the BSBI's Abstracts fromLiterature and BSBI Abstracts, with many additional items. It is cross-referenced far more extensively than in the published versions. Searches can be made according to taxon (down to accepted names of genera), geography (down to vice-county), authors, people other than authors and date of publication. Lists can also be provided on the history of botany and on herbaria. ... [Information of the supplier]
This database of alien plants in Ireland contains detailed information on 716 alien plant taxa currently occurring in (semi-) natural habitats in Ireland (both the Republic and Northern Ireland). In a separate list, limited information is also given for 198 taxa with no post-1970 records. You can search by: (1) selecting one of the alien taxa, (2) creating a reduced species list by searching on family, invasive status, Irish vice-counties, and invasiveness elsewhere. As a result, you will get data on species identity, invasiveness and a series of biological and ecological species traits. ... [Information of the supplier]
Apparently as a consequence of on earlier negative attitude, research into the botanical vocabulary of Old English was the most neglected area of English vocabulary until the 1970s when Peter Bierbaumer published his three-volume study Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen (1975-79), in which the relevant vocabulary of texts and glosses was completely documented and interpreted. Further, the situation has changed substantially over the last few years as a result of the studies by the Munich Anglicist Hans Sauer, and thanks to the Anglo-Saxon Plant-Name Survey, founded by Carole Biggam, at the University of Glasgow. At around the same time Bierbaumer and Sauer, albeit with slightly different focuses, started planning an electronically accessible dictionary of the botanical vocabulary of Old English and a dictionary of Old English plant-names respectively, using Bierbaumer´s earlier study as a starting point. Both scholars felt much could be gained from co-operating together in the publication of this two-year project. This co-operation was established at the Munich conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, organised by Hans Sauer. Whereas Bierbaumer will focus on the documentation and identification of the plant-names, Sauer will mainly deal with morphological and etymological aspects. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
The Ecological Database of the British Isles has been constructed from a wide variety of sources by Dr Helen Peat and Professor Alastair Fitter at the University of York, with financial support from the British Ecological Society and the Natural Environment Research Council. It consists of data on over 1770 species of higher plants that occur in the British Isles, together with the bibliography of sources. This version has been realised by Dr Henry Ford. The data comprises information on taxonomy (family, genus, specific name, authority, and vernacular name, together with a synonomy), a suite of over 130 ecological and morphological characteristics, vice-county distribution in Britain, European distribution by country, mycorrhizal associations and fungal diseases. The data are obtained from the literature and therefore coverage varies greatly between species. Some data sets are incomplete at this stage. ... [Information of the supplier]
Selection of morphological traits from pull down-menus allows the identification of Great Britain's about 60 fern species. Most of the species occur in Central Europe as well. [Editorial staff vifabio]
You can find interesting plants everywhere in Britain and Ireland. This site is intended to help you identify them. On the following pages you will be presented with a questionnaire on the characteristics of the plant you are trying to identify. Fill in the form and press search, the computer will then try and identify the plant you have found. You may also like to use the system to obtain a check-list of plants from a particular habitat or perhaps find flowers of a particular colour to grow in your garden. Feel free to experiment, there are many uses for the system. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Flora of Northern Ireland web site provides a way of accessing plant species distribution data for Northern Ireland on a 10km x 10km grid square basis. Also included are images and descriptions of many of the c.1,100 species represented, but we are still lacking images for some species. The plant distribution records are held electronically in the Vascular Plant Database for Northern Ireland (VPDNI) which forms part of the database at the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR), Ulster Museum. ... [Information of the supplier]
Welcome to Herbaria United. This is the site where the herbaria in the UK and Ireland are working together to provide an on-line resource for anyone interested in plant collections. This site provides links to on-line UK herbarium resources and contains lots of useful information. There are on-line gazetteers, a handwriting query page, systematic look-up lists (e.g. Kent's List of Vascular Plants of the British Isles) and a collaborative database which ultimately aims to combine the data from all UK and Irish herbaria. We are keen to encourage everyone with a herbarium to become involved with the group and the website. ... [Information of the supplier]
The HLK Whitehouse Bryophyte Stereo Image Library provides stereo bryophyte images taken by Harold Whitehouse (together with some by his wife) using a special camera. Details of the camera and stereo-photographic techniques can be found in the article "Stereoscopic Photography of Bryophytes" he wrote in the Bryological Times. During the last 30 years of his life he took thousands of photographs, mainly in the British Isles, but also in Continental Europe, Canada, New Zealand and the Pacific. By the time of his death in 2000 he had photographed approximately 80% of the British bryophyte flora. His collection of slides passed to the BBS and thence to National Museum Wales, in Cardiff. The slides were originally designed to be viewed using a hand-held viewer. Almost all species have a left and right image displayed side by side for fusion into a stereo image by those who are able to cross their eyes at will. There are also anaglyphic images to be viewed with red/green spectacles, with the image for the left eye being red, and for the right eye being green. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
