1. Introduction
Plants were never created to be named (if they were created). They simply don't need our names to multiply.
Perhaps only to survive in order to put them on a red list.
We need them to inform you what is of our interest:
Their beautiful flowers, their heaven-send fruits, or -perhaps less thrilling- the process of naming and classification.
This site is dealing with the latter.
But don't be disappointed at the first glance.
Without those -constantly changing- botanical names you will never get access to any additional information, like old prints, monographs or long forgotten inaccessible illustrations.
So see and use it as a tool, not as a taxonomic treatment.
2. How to use plantillustrations.org ?
In the blue sky above you see 2 search boxes at the right.
The white one is for entering scientific names, the grey one for vernacular ones.
You must enter at least 3 letters in one of them to use the search facility
(although you can successfully enter the genus
Aa by exception).
3. Results vernacular search
If you use the search box for vernacular names, you must choose the corresponding language from the selection box at the left. The default is English and Dutch is the only alternative at the moment.
When you subsequently click the search button (or use the enter key) you will get an alphabetical list of vernacular names matching with your input
(see i.e.
'apple').
These vernacular names may correspond to a specific (binominal) or to a generic name, in which later case they are rendered in bold characters.
At the right side of the vernacular name you now see the corresponding scientific one, which thus may be a generic or a binominal name.
Remember that one vernacular name often corresponds to several scientific ones and that more options could be given.
When you click on one of those options
(i.e. the
alligator apple)
you will be directed to the corresponding species page of its scientific counterpart (=Annona glabra L.).
If a vernacular name is used for a whole genus (i.e.
'thornapple' for Datura L.),
you will be directed to the corresponding page for this genus
(i.e.
Datura L.).
If you want the thumbnails to be shown alphabetically grouped per species,
just click the
group by species button
under the brown subheader of the genus page.
Unfortunately not all corresponding species or genera found in this way will give you access to thumbnails, simply because they are not available in the database.
To prevent disappointment the third column of the vernacular search results therefore gives you the number of illustrations currently present.
4. Results scientific search (single entry)
When you use a single entry in the scientific search box and click the search button (or press the return key) you will get an alphabetical list of matching taxa.
These taxa all belong to one of the following 7 categories as indicated by the listed records:
1. recognized genus
2. synonymous genus
3. (recognized) family
4. synonymous family
5. (recognized) subfamily
6. (recognized) tribe
7. (recognized) subtribe
If a matching record belongs to a recognized genus, the distribution of its species will be mentioned and if it is clicked you will be directed to its corresponding page.
Also here the number of present thumbnails is indicated in the search results and you can find it in between the straight bracklets.
If you click a higher taxon (i.e. a -recognized- family, subfamily, tribe or subtribe) you will get the thumbnails alphabetically grouped by genus.
This is particularly helpful for getting some quick idea in what genus a special plant might belong.
So entering
Balanophoraceae will give you all available thumbnails in that family alphabetically grouped per genus.
5. Results scientific search (binominals)
Apart from generic names and higher taxa you can also enter binominal names (species names),
i.e. the combination of a genus and a specific name separated by a white space
(like
Ficus benghalensis,
the banyan tree) in the scientific search box.
In this case you must enter a full (correctly spelled!) generic name and at least 3 letters occurring in the specific name with 1 blank space in between.
So entering
Ficus ben
will also give access to
Ficus benghalensis L., but now the result will show other binominals too.
(like
Ficus benjamina L.)
6. Thumbnails
When you move over the thumbnails with your mouse you will get information about the original publication and the original binominal name under which it was published.
Also non-linnean names, i.e. non binominal names applied for species (like
Flos solis major (= Helianthus annuus L.)) may by found here.
The artist who made the drawing is mentioned at the end of the line in between straight bracklets ([n.a.] = not acknowledged]).
If you want to see this information more permanently under each thumbnail click the
ungroup button.
The thumbnails are then rearranged in vertical order with the additional information placed below.
You can also click the thumbnail itself.
6. HD illustrations
When you click the thumbnail itself you will be directed to the corresponding illustration page which gives a HD resolution (height 1080 px) of the image.
Here you can also find all additional information as well as a link to its original contributor. This may by useful for getting higher resolutions or finding accompanying text.
6. Copyright illustrations
Plantillustrations.org is a completely non-commercial website and will not trouble you with irritating advertisements or ask you for donations.
All available HD illustrations belong to the public domain according to the European law and may be reused under the Creative Commons License.
Please visit the website of the original contributors for further details by using the links provided on the illustration pages.
7. Copyright photos
If you want to use photographs please ask
Max Antheunisse or contact
Jan Koeman.
8. Copyright database plantillustrations.org
Plantillustrations.org now contains over 115,000 illustration records and
is created on a FileMaker database.
Part of this database is published on the web by using MySQL export text files.
These text files are frequently updated by using FileMaker SQL calculation fields
and new records are regularly added in the same way too.
The FileMaker database as well as the illustration database of its web counterpart (plantillustrations.org, botanicalillustrations.org, plantgenera.org) are both copyrighted.
9. Contact
Please report failures, incorrect fillings, mistakes or other problems with
plantillustrations.org to
Max Antheunisse. Suggestions are of course welcome too.
Max Antheunisse
2009/2013
mantheunisse@freeler.nl
version 3.2 / made 2013.02.08 / Ubuntu 12.04
