Scott's Botanical Links--August 2001

Past links:

August 31, 2001 - Cucurbitaceae and the Cucurbit Network

This site "...Where people and cucurbits interact" is full of links on everything curcubit (pickles, cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, goards, zuccini are among Cucurbitaceae). These range from the Cucurbit Calendar, Cucurbit Network, Cucurbits in philately, the Newsletter, TCN News, to Cucurbits in Literature and Items for Sale. There are also highly detailed species information pages. This single-minded site (mostly scientific) features an extensive news section and provides what could serve as a portal for those who are equally struck by cucurbits! Site by Thomas Andres, Bronx, NY. (****) -SR

August 29, 2001 - Plant Anatomy and Physiology Revision Course

A photomicrographic overview of the major plant tissues and organs, this site covers three major topics: "Shoot Apex & Leaves," "Vascular & Ground Tissues," and "Primary Stems and Variations in Light Harvesting Structures." On each page, high quality micrographic images are labeled and presented with a brief narrative. Links to a glossary and quizzes help reinforce the information presented. The approach parallel many plant structure courses and should be useful in showing some model organs. This site is professionally developed on campus at the University of Sydney, Australia and is part of a full online course module. (****) -SR

August 27, 2001 - Southwest Colorado Wildflowers

This is a very well organized wildflower site with an impressive amount of free information about plants, collecting, identification, habitat, and very nice pictures, as well. Although the site focuses on plants of the Four Corners region (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah), it will be useful throughout the cool desert. Each plant is shown at least twice, with descriptions on interesting aspects of the plant, definitions of the scientific name, and botanical details. Links, a bibliography, glossary, information about habitats, vegetation zones, and other data are included. Descriptions are written in white though, and that can be hard to print with some browsers! Site by Al and Betty Schneider of Lewis, Colorado. (****) -SR

August 24, 2001 - Atlas of Plant Anatomy - Atlas de Anatomia Vegetal

Available in both Portuguese and English, this innovative atlas of plant structure presents high quality light micrographic images with mouse-activated labeling of structures. An extensive online glossary helps to define terms; the depth is so impressive that readers that stray far may get lost in the numerous pages. The plant is examined by organ: stem, root and leaf, and monocots & dicots. This is easily one of the best plant anatomy sites I have seen. Site by Jane Krans and Juliana Pisaneschi. (****) -SR

August 22, 2001 - CSU Stanislaus Botany Image Collection

The CSU Stanislaus Botany Image Collection includes ~500 floral and microscope images in a searchable database, indexed by scientific name, common name, structure and magnification, and searchable by course number and phylum. No thumbnails are currently available, but descriptions are reasonably detailed. Photomicrography is rare on the Internet, so this site with a large, well-organized collection of 800 x 600 pixel images deserves a bookmark. Some micrographs are better than others. Database and images posted by Steve Wolf, CSU. (***1/2) -SR

August 20, 2001 - Nevada Rare Plant Atlas

The Nevada Rare Plant Atlas is an online atlas listing the numerous sensitive and watch list plant species of Nevada in a large table. Maps and PDF-based descriptions provide considerable detail on most species. Data are compiled directly from collections, with only occasional images links, which are all off site. Although these pages, hosted by the Nevada Natural Heritage Program are disconcertingly colorful, with some underlined pseudolinks (just enough to keep you guessing), the site still provides considerable data. It is a good model for species tracking. (***) -SR

August 17, 2001 - Global Earth History

This page provides paleogeographic and plate-tectonic reconstructions showing the broad patterns of Phanerozoic Earth history. Organization is by region and in geologic order from oldest to youngest for each region. The Time Slice link shows all maps and globes of all regions by geologic time (the Periods). The regions are on a continental or higher scale. This site is by Dr. Ron Blakey, Professor of Geology, Northern Arizona University. (***1/2) -SR

August 15, 2001 - Checklist of Software for Field Biologists

Software categories listed on this link site include: Observation-based items, including input, statistics and mapping; Species-based items, including ID systems, Taxonomy, Statistics; Phylogeny, Evolution, Nature Management, GIS; Specimen-based items including Collections, MultiMedia, Education; Simulation, Models, Artificial Life Animal Behaviour Phenology, Other Field Biology Software Lists and Readings. Much of this is "just links," but the content is well organized and carefully selected. (***1/2) -SR

August 13, 2001 - Vegetation and Temperature Condition Index (VT) Home Pages

This site posts maps on the vegetation health of most of the continents, generating false-colored thermal maps. Red indicates stress, green is fair, blue is favorable and white is cold. The maps include most of the continents. This site should be useful for "early drought detection, assessing drought area coverage, duration, and intensity, and for monitoring drought impacts on vegetation and agricultural crops." Site by NOAA. (****) -SR

August 10, 2001 - Mycology Society of America Slide Collection

The MSA teaching collection of photographic slide dating from 1990 is maintained as digital images at this site. Listed by donor, topics include: miscellaneous Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, Chytridiomycota, Oomycota, Hypochytridiomycota, Trichomycetes, slime molds, Mycologist Portraits, Lichens, Mycorrhizae, mycological humor, and special topics (chestnut blight and rumen fungi). Images include habit photos, light microscopy, scanning & transmission electron microscopy and standard photos. The images vary in quality and size. Most images are less than 600 pixels wide, which may be limiting for some purposes and there is no search option, but hyperlinks contain considerable data. Use of images is by permission of photographer. The slide collection website is maintained by Donald Ruch, Ball State University. (***) -SR

August 8, 2001 - Missouri Botanical Garden Field Techniques Manual

If you ever were looking for an authoritative guide on how to collect and store plants, what better source than the Missouri Botanical Garden? Pages include an introduction, finding specimens, collecting, pressing plants, preserving plants before drying, drying and sorting, drying systems, sorting at MO, mounting notes, packing checklist and recommended reading. This is almost all text, except for some cartoon-like sketches, and it is remarkably complete, covering field notebooks to a packing checklist. Also available in Spanish and French. Site by R. Liesner with suggestions from MO staff and others. (****) -SR

August 6, 2001 - Hendrix Online Photos

This gallery presents plant and nature images from Rocky Mountain wildlife and wildflowers, to Desert Wildflowers, to Mountain View Experimental Gardens. This site is short on words, but there are many pages of thumbnail images to click on, bringing up medium-sized high quality digital images taken by Klaus Hendrix and Jane Hendrix using a Sony Mavica digital camera and a Pentax 35mm camera. All together there are hundreds of images, labeled with scientific and common names. (***1/2) -SR

August 3, 2001 - The Mints of Texas

The Mints of Texas is an attempt to put herbarium specimens from the University of Texas at Austin Plant Resources Center Herbarium (LL and TEX collections) online with genus information, maps, collection data and two image data sizes for each specimen (~0.5 MB and ~7 MB), depending on your needs and speed of your data connection. The family contains many familiar aromatic plants. It is a large one, containing ~3,500 species in 180 genera world-wide distribution. Of the 31 genera planned for inclusion, 18 are currently online. This is a nice model for online herbarium collections. Site produced by Nancy Elder and B.L. Turner, University of Texas. (***) -SR

August 1, 2001 - ReThink Paper

ReThink Paper works with the Earth Island Institute of San Francisco CA to increase awareness of the burgeoning use of paper. Even industry leaders accept that there is not enough wood to keep up with current paper needs, so RTP urges ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and introduce non-wood fibers into paper production. Narrower margins, smaller typeface, dual-sided copies, lighter weight paper all make a significant difference. Full access requires registration and provides a compelling case. Ironically, much of their information is available in printed material(!) there is more that is present on their web site. Industry analysts project a wood fiber shortage of more than 500 million cubic meters by 2010; start now. (****) -SR [this link is printed using recycled electrons]

Past, past links (by date):

2006: January

2005: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2003: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2002: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2001: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2000: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

1999: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

1998: January*, February*, March*, April*, May*, June*, July, August, September, October, November, December (*Leigh's links)

1997: January, February, March, April, May, June, September*, October*, November*, December* (*Leigh's links)

1996: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Or search by: Subject Index

http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/bot-linx/aug01.shtml