Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary outputs from this project are publicly accessible databases of images and horticultural taxonomy available through websites hosted at Cornell and listed below. The project has succeeded in capturing and updating data records for more than 30,000 species of plants cultivated in the U.S. and Canada, and we are now in the process of enhancing the master database with additional information and metadata, including entries for newly introduced cultivated plants and expanded treatments of cultivars in addition to species. This work is also supported with data extracted from the Ethel Zoe Bailey Nursery and Seed Catalogue collection at the Bailey Hortorium, and we are now developing online resources for disseminating this information. Our websites have in excess of 2000 distinct users daily, and approximately 2.5 million images are viewed yearly. The audience includes botanists, gardeners, extension agents, conservationists, foresters and a wide array of biologists and those with commercial interests in plants. PARTICIPANTS: The nature of this project demanded the aggregate expertise of the plant systematics faculty who were called upon continuously during the course of the project to provide input as plant taxa relevant to the expertise of the participating individuals became the immediate focus of the project. Each member of the faculty listed participated in this fashion in the crafting of the online product. In addition Ms. Sherry Vance worked continuously on the project by managing databases, directing students, curating the catalog collection, entering data, and editing large amounts of the descriptive material associated with plant names. In addition to funding provided by this Hatch project grant Ms. Vance's salary was matched by contributions from the endowments of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium. Peter Fraissinet and Anna Stalter, staff in the L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium (BH) both contributed time and effort during the project, in particular editing of OCR'd materials and managing imaging by student workers. Faculty participants: Kevin C.Nixon, Professor of Biology, Plant Biology, Cornell University, William L. Crepet,Professor and Chair, Plant Biology, Cornell University Jerrold Davis,Professor, Plant Biology, Cornell University, Melissa A. Luckow, Associate Professor, Cornell University TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audience includes conservationists, plant breeders, ecologists, gardeners,horticulturists, amateur botanists,foresters. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The outcome from this project is new fundamental knowledge available to scientists and citizens about the identification and attributes of virtually all cultivated plants of the U.S. and Canada. Our websites disseminate information that allows citizens/users to identify unknown plants based on comparison with images, select plants for attributes (e.g., flower color or leaf form) and find the correct name to be applied for commonly cultivated plant species. Because these resources are both searchable and image-based, they can be used for a variety of decision-making tasks in addition to identification and selection - including learning about plant form, the application of botanical terminology, and relationships of plants. All of these outcomes serve to further educate the public while providing valuable tools and resources for scientists and professionals, including nursery owners and gardeners.
Publications
- http://hortus.bh.cornell.edu [Hortus Americanus] 2013
- http://tcf.bh.cornell.edu [Tompkins County Flora] 2013 www.plantsystematics.org.2013
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Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary outputs from this project are publicly accessible databases of images and horticultural taxonomy available through websites hosted at Cornell, most importantly www.plantsystematics.org and www.plantsystematics.org/hortus. The project has succeeded in capturing and updating data records for more than 30,000 species of plants cultivated in the U.S. and Canada, and we are now in the process of enhancing the master database with additional information and metadata, including entries for newly introduced cultivated plants and expanded treatments of cultivars in addition to species. This work is also supported with data extracted from the Ethel Zoe Bailey Nursery and Seed Catalogue collection at the Bailey Hortorium, and we are now developing online resources for disseminating this information. Our websites have in excess of 2000 distinct users daily, and approximately 2.5 million images are viewed yearly. The audience includes botanists, gardeners, extension agents, conservationists, foresters and a wide array of biologists and those with commercial interests in plants. PARTICIPANTS: Kevin C. Nixon--Professor of Biology, Plant Bioklogy Cornell university William L. Crepet--Professor and Chair, Plant Biology Cornell University Jerrold Davis--Professor, Plant Biology Cornell University Melissa A. Luckow--Associate Professor Cornell university TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audience includes conservationists, plant breeders, ecologists, gardeners, horticulturists, amateur botanists,foresters. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The outcome from this project is new fundamental knowledge available to scientists and citizens about the identification and attributes of virtually all cultivated plants of the U.S. and Canada. Our websites disseminate information that allows citizens/users to identify unknown plants based on comparison with images, select plants for attributes (e.g., flower color or leaf form) and find the correct name to be applied for commonly cultivated plant species. Because these resources are both searchable and image-based, they can be used for a variety of decision-making tasks in addition to identification and selection - including learning about plant form, the application of botanical terminology, and relationships of plants. All of these outcomes serve to further educate the public while providing valuable tools and resources for scientists and professionals, including nursery owners and gardeners.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A full database of all cultivated plants according to Hortus Third and augmented by records captured from Nursery and Seed catalogues to reflect changes since 1976 is now fully functional. This database currently includes more than 33,000 records, with 29,018 species names. Descriptions of all North American cultivated species are included in the database, and these are now approximately 50% edited. These will become the ultimate basis for an online search engine to quickly identify unknowns and to find plants with particular attributes, such as flower color, habit, flowering time, and uses. The ongoing development of the website continues to provide an increasing searchable database of cultivated and wild plant species, with ca. 37,900 images to date. This represents probably the highest available diversity of images of genera of seed plants and ferns anywhere on the web, with more than 3700 genera of plants. We are currently working on integrating the various databases more closely, to allow both descriptions and images to displayed for the same plants where available. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Our target audience is a broad one including biologists, horticulturists, agriculturists, and the gardening public. Anyone who deals with cultivated plants, either ornamental or sueful in other ways, can utilize and benefit from the information developed through this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Outcomes of this project include an increased understanding of the nature of the cultivated flora and the development of tools to allow both researchers and the public to quickly identify and seek plants with particular attributes. In terms of diagnostic tools, the ability to evaluate the more than 20,000 descriptions now databased for plant features such as flower color, leaf form and plant height is providing new insights into the best approaches for easy diagnostic identification of cultivated plants, as well as tools that can provide access by untrained laypeople to acquire more information about cultivated plants. Another outcome of the project is the resolution of many plant names that have been listed as either invalid or of unknown origin. We have identified ca. 1800 such names from our database, many of which have not been included in the modern online nomenclatural databases such as IPNI (International Plant Name Index). We are now working through these names, and finding that many were actually validly published in older nursery and seed catalogues, but have been overlooked since the original publications. This use of our catalogue collection is an invaluable resource for eventual resolution of important nomenclatural issues in cultivated plants. These names are now being updated in the IPNI online database.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The main product of this project will be a comprehensive web-based interface that will provide information, identification aids and a large library of images and illustarations about the cultivated plants (both ornamenatl and agricultural) of the United States. The overall encompassing project (Hortus Americanus) has now been brought online for public access at the website http://www.plantsystematics.org/hortus. At this point, the website includes an annotated list of ca. 25,000 cultivated species in 3391 genera (this is based on a database now accumulated of 37,296 species records, including ca. 12,000 names that are either synonyms or invalid). This represents an addition of more than 1600 recognized species since the publication of Hortus Third in 1976, and we are continually adding new records based on nuersery and seed catalogues and other published infoprmation. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences for our project are primarily the gardening public, nursery and horticultural trade, forestry and agricultural fields. The plant iedntification aspects of our project are particularly useful to extension specialists. Our databases and interactive keys are now being brought online and becoming more accessible to this target audience through the internet. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Based upon the data collection procedures thus far, we have now developed new methods for capturing data from existing publications and compiling public domain information with OCR methods. The PI has developed new interactive tools for checking data captured with OCR that includes automated cross-referenncing to our extensive taxonomic databases, but with some human intervention to maintain data quality and integrity. This has resulted in the addition of a considerable amount of new information to the project databases that we are bringing online as it is edited and corrected.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Progress on this project includes: 1) Expanding the online database of all genera of plants known to be cultivated in the US. These are linked directly with image resources, most importantly from the vast and growing image database hosted at www.plantsystematics.org (managed by PI Nixon). This expansion mirrors the goal of having a minimum of at least one image for every genus of cultivated plant by the end of the grant period. 2) We have scanned in L. H. Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants (1949). The text from the Manual of Cultivated Plants (1949), along with text from Hortus Third (1976), gives us plant descriptions to cover most known cultivated plant groups. These are now be rewritten and updated. The Manual also provides plant keys for identification purposes that will be updated and complement the 10 keys already posted on the website www.plantsystematics.org (2008). New photographic images of cultivated plants continue to be databased. Some images have been contributed by Hortorium staff and other images were contributed by outside researchers. We continue using online robots (written by PI Nixon) to collect such information from public access websites, direct access to public data (e.g., USDA), scanning and OCR of existing public domain texts, and typing of data by student workers and volunteers with web using public domain software (Apache Server, MySQL, and Perl; Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Maps) that allow a robust, searchable public interface to all data. Other existing resources that are being scanned and OCRed for incorporation are the vast card catalogue assembled by Ethel Zoe Bailey that documents occurrences of cultivated species in nursery and seed catalogues. These cards are imaged, then databased with interactive tools and categorized by genus, species and cultivar name, which allows easy retrieval of historical information on the cultivation of all species in the US cultivated flora. We are on track for scanning, OCR and indexing of all cards within the year. In addition, the holdings of the nursery and seed catalogue collection have now been catalogued into the Cornell online Library system. Information is available worldwide to anyone using the Library catalog. There are approximately 2300 entries for the holdings which also include catalogues from foreign countries. PARTICIPANTS: Primary information through observation of herbarium material and online images has been added by qualified staff (including Vance, Cope, Dirig, viviiting professors (Derke and Reveal) and the faculty PIs with collaborators (at the New York Botanical Garden including R. Moran (Cary Curator of Botany), L. Kelly (Scientist and Director of Graduate Studies), D. W. Stevenson (Vice President for Laboratory Research and Cary Curator)). We are also using online robots to collect information from public access websites, direct access to public data (e.g., USDA), scanning and OCR of existing public domain texts, and typing of data by student workers and volunteers TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include:Citizens of New York State, Citizens of the United States and interested parties from around the World. Specific target audiences include all scientists with an interest in plants (especially systematists, evolutionists, ecologists, conservatioin biologists etc.), the horticultural community (professional and amateur), and educators who wish to access this information for teaching purposes. The nature of the information and the mode of presentation will make it accessible to target audience members with varied levels of experience and expertise in plant biology. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Methods are as described in the original proposal.
Impacts
While the project is ongoing some of its goals are partially realized in the dynamic website www.plantsystematics.org (2008)managed by K. C. Nixon. Additions of illustrations mentioned above with added keys already make valuable information and tools available to the public and, very specifically to the public of New York State, due to the emphasis of some of the keys on the New York State flora.
Publications
- The publications are the final outcome of this project. Plantsystematics.org (2008)represents progress oin the project, but final publications are not complete following the original schedule.
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