A zoologist asks: botanical names practice

[Deborah A Lewis]

Unless I missed it, I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the
International Plant Names Index -- www.ipni.org. I've found it to be a very
useful resource for citations and dates.

Deb Lewis

At 07:59 AM 6/17/2004, Meredith Lane wrote:
>Dear  Taxacom-ers,
>
>Yesterday I sent what was probably an over-hasty reply to Barry Roth's
>question, suggesting that GBIF is the place to go to get citations and
>dates for names.  GBIF is in its nascent stages of development and is
>only beginning its work toward the goal of making that statement a
>reality. Only a percentage of all scientific names are currently
>available, though this number will continue to grow as datasets now in
>the pipeline (and that will be developed in the future) are uploaded.
>The name links are not (currently) attached to sources of the original
>descriptions, but rather to citations from  some authoritative source
>(GBIF's 20 name-data providers currently serve this information in
>several different ways).
>
>If you enter an animal name in the GBIF search fields (try /Puma/, for
>example), the list of names returned to you will include the author and
>the date of publication, in the form  */Puma concolor/ (Linnaeus,
>1771)*. However, if you enter a plant name (try /Quercus/, for example),
>the return list will have the form  */Quercus alba /L. *and there will
>be no date, yet the names are coming from authoritative sources (the
>Catalog of Life partnership, comprising Species 2000 and ITIS).  These
>formulae are following established practice in zoology and botany,
>respectively.
>
>As GBIF's data content grows, and as its information science/technology
>developments overcome various obstacles that result from the complexity
>of biological data and information (not to mention the complexity of
>nature itself) as well as the variation of connectivity and computer
>capacity among data providers, certain frustrations that may be
>encountered at the present time when using the GBIF portal will
>gradually be alleviated.  Watch our progress at the Communications
>Portal www.gbif.org <http://www.gbif.org/>, and search for data on the
>Data Portal www.gbif.net <http://www.gbif.net>.
>
>GBIF welcomes suggestions for and assistance with improvement.
>--
>Meredith A. Lane, PhD
>PR & Scientific Liaison
>GBIF Secretariat
>Global Biodiversity Information Facility
>mlane at gbif.org
>www.gbif.org <http://www.gbif.org>

Deborah Q. Lewis, Curator
Ada Hayden Herbarium (ISC)             E-mail: dlewis at iastate.edu
Department of EEOB                        Phone: [1] 515-294-9499
Iowa State University                         FAX:  [1] 515-294-1337
Ames, IA  50011-1020