 March 2007
vPlants (Virtual Plants)
Info on 120,000 plants, including 50,000 images – all on your computer screen.
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, Professional
http://www.vplants.org/
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CONTENT:
The Morton Arboretum, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Chicago Botanic Garden collaborated to develop this online database of specimen data and digital images of a broad range of plants and fungi found in the Chicago region, which includes twenty-four counties in four states surrounding the southern tip of Lake Michigan.
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SITE DESIGN:
The site design is straightforward and easy to navigate with major links in the top and left side menu bars. The database is fully searchable and a Help Guide and site map are also available.
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REVIEW:
vPlants offers a wealth of information for educators, students, scientists, and the general public. From the homepage users can search the database of more than 120,000 records for plant or fungi specimens by family, genus, species epithet, or common name. Each record provides basic information and more than 50,000 of them provide high quality digital images so that users can examine the details of flowers, leaves, or fruits using standard Web-browser software. Description pages that provide information about individual species or subspecies or varieties are available for many specimens and are being written for more than 3,000 plants and 800 fungi. Guides to the plants and fungi that are available in the database are provided as well as information on the biology and diversity of both groups. Included is a glossary of terms for each group and links to related resources. |
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CONTACT INFO:
ahipp@mortonarb.org
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