May Links

Scott's Botanical Links

Leigh's Links -- May 1998

Past Links:

May 29, 1998 - The Internet Science Room

The Internet Science Room is described as a 'model of transition' for integrating Communication Technology into the classroom, as teachers assume new roles as Facilitators, not Providers of Knowledge, while students learn to search for the answers in all the right places on the internet. Composed of 225 pages with 11 Megs of text and graphics files and over 1100 external links to "good content and presentation," the site enables student research for Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Botany / Zoology classes for an academic year. Botany Class introduces plant collecting and taxonomy with a focus on "Families of Flowering Plants in Oklahoma." Family names bear links to the classical reference drawings from Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. "The Families of Flowering Plants;" genera are illustrated with links to "The Vascular Plant Image Gallery" at Texas A&M Univeristy. Labs and assignments following the year's curriculum for each of the science classes and a host of research tools for students complete this site by Jim Askew (Facilitator) and Frontier Public Schools, Red Rock, Oklahoma.(****) -LF

May 28, 1998 - Trails and Wildflowers

Near the headwaters of the Willamette River, on the western slopes of the Oregon Cascade Mountains, are more than 100 hiking trails where former crop physiologist Keith McCree and his wife Barbro venture upon scenic vistas and numerous opportunities for photographing wildflowers. Expeditions along The Alpine Trail and Mt. Yoran Trail are featured on the website along with a digital photo collection, "Wildflowers of the Oregon Cascades." Those whose interest is really piqued may write for the 500-page encyclopedia "Upper Willamette Trails and Wildflowers" CD-ROM which may be perused and if desired, kept for a $10.00 donation! Summer travelers to the Pacific Northwest will not want to miss this site by Keith and Barbro McCree, Oakridge, Oregon.(****) -LF

May 27, 1998 - Plant Pathology on the World Wide Web

This introductory pathology course on the web complements the text "Plant Pathology, Fourth Edition," by G.N. Agrios, and can be taken for three undergraduate credits from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A web version open to the public is fully illustrated and covers Principles and Concepts, followed by a notebook of agronomic, horticultural, and classic plant diseases (semi-complete), with detailed information and additional links to relevant pathology pages at other universities. A combination of philosophical questions posed throughout the course material, study questions and case studies are used to nudge the student across the threshold of real learning at this site by J.E. Partridge, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.(****) -LF

May 26, 1998 - Rutgers Floriculture Homepage

As part of its public outreach, the Rutgers Cooperative Extension publishes this site for the "commercial floriculture producer or enthusiastic hobbyist," though there is valuable information on diseases and pests for anyone managing a greenhouse (as biologists and botanists sometimes wind up doing). An award winning section on Weeds of New Jersey features images of 70 of the state's most common culprits, with a brief text entry for each. Find also the Extension's online index of 250 Fact Sheets in downloadable PDF files. Site by George Wulster, Plant Science Department, Cook College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. (****) -LF

May 22, 1998 - Southern California Natural History

More than 700 images, text and sounds are presented in "Southern California Natural History," describing the most common floral and faunal species of the region. The modules bearing accounts of land vertebrates (20 amphibians, 52 reptiles, 172 birds, 41 mammals), terrestrial plants (62 families, 164 genera and over 200 species ), and vegetation types (24) of southern California were designed for use in college courses in botany and vertebrate biology. Pages on individual species are accessible by their community, family, genus or common name making the guide useful to anyone keen on the southern Californian natural environment. Also included are general descriptions of the climate and geography of the region. Site by Howard Townsend, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California. (****) -LF

May 21, 1998 - Wits Botany

At long last it has been announced "You Cannot Live Without Botanists" in much the same manner as trying to survive without oxygen, water, and food. Along with this illustrated Plants and People presentation on the importance of plants in everyday life, Wits Botany Department, one of the largest in South Africa, offers an Introduction to Cassava ( Manihot esculenta Crantz), and for the advanced reader, the essay "Wits Cassava Research and Development Programme" by Dr. V.M. Gray. Site by The Department of Botany of the University of the Witwatersrand with page design by John Fletcher, Johannesburg, South Africa.(****) -LF

May 20, 1998 - Reed Biology- Course Materials

Two biology educators at Reed are pioneering the use of internet in their courses. Of particular note is Keith Karoly's Bio 332- "Vascular Plant Diversity," with fully annotated web resources online for each week's lab, a Flower Identification Slide Show organized by families, an Interactive Family Quiz (great!) and a beautiful image and descriptive catalog of The Trees of Reed. For Bio 322 - "Plant Physiology" David Dalton has produced The Nitrogen Fixation Pages, with a rare set of images demonstrating: Part I. The range of organisms that can fix nitrogen; Part II. Physiology and anatomy of nitrogen fixation;
Part III. Ecology of nitrogen fixation. Site maintained by the Reed College Biology Department, Portland, Oregon.(****) -LF

Carnivorous Plants Database">May 19, 1998 - Carnivorous Plants Database

HP (Hewlett Packard) Project Engineer Rick Walker cultivates hundreds of species of CP (Carnivorous Plants) in terraria in and around the home, is president of The International Carnivorous Plant Society, and maintains the CP Database now of more than 3,000 CP species. Various creative endeavors in plant education have produced the online triumphs "Pings: a guided tour of care and cultivation," an introduction to the genus Pinguicula, or Butterworts; and a slide show tutorial on "Tissue Culturing CP in the Home Kitchen," with easy to follow technical advice and recipes for media. Students, teachers, researchers, and the merely curious won't want to miss this botanically intriguing site by Rick Walker, Palo Alto, California. (****) -LF

May 18, 1998 - The Aril Society International

Dedicated to what many consider to be the most spectacular group of the cultivated iris, these pages help distinguish the aril from the bearded and the aril from the arilbred. Monitoring extinctions is a snap compared to keeping up with iris hydridization where subsection ancestry will determine if a plant is oncobred; regeliabred, or, oncogeliabred. The system of classification adds "+" or "-" to indicate that the iris is more than half aril or less than half aril, more or less! Sources in the U.S. for obtaining aril and arilbred iris are provided, some images, a list of Winners of the C. G. White Medal, and information on How to Join. Site by the Aril Society International, Scott Jordan, president, Santa Fe, New Mexico. (****) -LF

May 15, 1998 - Karolinska Institute Library

The Swedish National Resource Library in Medicine has free access to the journals Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Infection and Immunity, Journal of Bacteriology, and the Journal of Virology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. The Diseases and Disorders Section accesses a resources for Animal Diseases page valuable for its leads to info concerning a wide range of diseases of creatures, from domestic and wild animals to arthropods. Find also an extensive set of Micro and Cell Bio resources under Biological Sciences, also covering Genetics, Biological Phenomena, Cell Physiology, and Immunity. Site by the Karolinska Institute Library, editor, Lotta Mathiesen, Stockholm, Sweden. (****) -LF

May 14, 1998 - Chemistry Education/ Worldwide Chemistry Resources

Two comprehensive sets of chem-links, serving kindergarteners through teachers and professional chemists are provided by the Hamilton Section of the Chemical Institute of Canada site dedicated to " facilitating communication and interaction among people with common interests in the chemical field." Essentially every field of chemistry is addressed, and students will find hypertexts, periodic tables, a chemistry dictionary, software, in short, a complete survival kit for the college years here at their fingertips. Bookmark a great library of agrochem, biochem, phytochem and more at this site by The Chemical Institute of Canada, Chair, Don Barclay, Webmaster, Kim Banfield, Hamilton, Ontario. (****) -LF

May 13, 1998 - Welcome to AgHort 100, Living with Plants Home Page

This Plants and People course has an agronomic slant and the homepage offers resources including Lecture Links, brief notes on the class, a list of the top twenty-five most economically important angiosperm families, possible careers in agronomy and horticulture, as well as a glossary linked to images. The image collection itself is the main prize, an excellent set of cultivated (flowers) and food crops, in an easy to use index requiring no search terms or detailed knowledge to find a plant. Each image bears genus, species, and family name, some information on the plant's use and principal regions of cultivation. Site by Richard E. Terry, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.(****) -LF

May 12, 1998 - Resource Biology FSTY 1002

Here is a useful model for teaching pages, these covering four main topics of an Australian Botany /Dendrology course . Flower Morphology has a longitudinal section diagram of the parts of a flower and examples of floral diagrams and floral formulae. Broadleaf Species, billed as a page to "test whether your lab and field notes are up to scratch" has images of various specimens as they appear on campus, with closeups of flowers, fruits, and other parts, on a page bearing a checklist of diagnostic characters to be filled in. Likewise eleven species of Eucalyptus and the genus Angophora (Myrtaceae) may be reviewed, while a fourth section is dedicated to The Conifers. Follow links to more about Australian forestry from this site by John Banks, Ann Gibson, and Clive Hilliker, Department of Forestry, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. (****) -LF

May 11, 1998 - SOAR Searchable Online Recipe Archive

Among its index of 38,368 recipes collected by food enthusiast and fifth year Electrical
Engineering/Computer Science student Jennifer Snider, are more than fifty categories in which to find ethnic dishes for the traditional end-of-the-course ethnobotanical potluck buffet. Recipes can be located by type of food (appetizer, snack, sandwich, stew, etc.), type of ingredients, or type of diet, and with so much selection at the fingertips, there's no reason to ever eat the same thing twice! Figuring out what to cook for any occasion has never been so easy thanks to the diligence at this site by Jennifer Snider with Elaine Chao, Alan Coopersmith, and J.C. Williams; University of California, Berkeley, California. (****) -LF

May 8 1998 - Welcome to the World of Lichenology

Botanists taking a liking to fungal-algal symbionts will find plenty of resources in this section of Clifford Smith's Hawaiian botany site devoted to lichenology. Find Links to Lichens and Lichenologists, the International Association of Lichenologists with its International Lichenological Newsletter and Endangered Lichens feature, and a dozen images of various lichens photographed by the author. Site by Clifford W. Smith, Department of Botany, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.(****) -LF

May 7 1998 - Home Page of Clifford Smith and the Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawaii (CPSU Hawaii)

This is a botany/conservation biology cool-site published by the Unit Leader of the University of Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit, concerned with Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR). The Unit provides resources (technology, methods, and information) for statewide resource managers in the battle against invasive weeds. Online articles include "The Impact and Spread of Rubus ellipticus in 'Ola'a Forest Tract Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park," and in Weeds of Hawaiian Native Ecosystems, "An Annotated Bibliography of the Genus Psidium, With Emphasis on P. cattleianum (Strawberry Guava) and P. guajava (common guajava), Forest Weeds in Hawaii. (A section on Biological Control is still under construction.). Site by Clifford W. Smith, Department of Botany, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.(****) -LF

May 6, 1998 - Curtis Clark

Former Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of Oklahoma Biological Station (May-Jul 1973; May-Jul 1974 ) and in the Department of Botany and Microbiology ( Sep 1972-May 1973) Curtis Clark, has gone on to pursue research programs for the phylogeny of Eschscholzia (Papaveraceae) and phylogeny of Encelia (Asteraceae). The highlights are published on the website bearing his name with images and California distribution maps of the two genera currently online. The paper "Vascular Plants of the Undeveloped Areas of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona" documents florisitic composition of part of a coastal sage scrub and adjacent ruderal and disturbed lands on campus following a 1989 summer wildfire which burned more than 80% of the area. Find also tutorials for publishing web pages, essays and diversions at this site by Curtis Clark, Biological Sciences Department, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California. (****) -LF

May 5, 1998 - Mosses and Liverworts in Wales

This site is the work of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) Area Ecologist for West Wales, as well the British Bryological Society Recorder for the vice-county of Cardiganshire, who also happens to love making web pages. With his own photo collection and firsthand knowledge of the land of his concern he has summarized the status of Mosses and Liverworts in Wales, from laws governing their conservation and collection, to habitat descriptions and species distribution. Basic Facts has a one page introduction to the Bryophytes outlining the differences between mosses and liverworts. Likewise the descriptions of bogs (raised and blanket) and fens gives an outstanding explanation of these wetlands and their distinctions through the eyes of an ecologist. Site by Alan Hale, Aberystwyth, Wales. (****) -LF

May 4, 1998 - The Ant: A Morphological Tour of the Super Organism

The author has chosen the "intellectually and aesthetically appealing" form of the Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) as a photographic subject for the scanning electron microscope, achieving both new heights of exposure for antdom, and a final project for Biological Structures (Bio 344). The impressive photo series is displayed within interesting descriptions of the organism's external anatomy, whose structures are labeled and provided with a scale. With good use of color and layout, the final result is a cool, never boring text useful for introducing ant morphology to levels all the way from Middle School to Invert Zoo. Get a good look at the ant's sting and discover that ants too have petioles at this site by Jason Libsch, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.(****) -LF

May 1, 1998 - Cultural Botany

Bota 250, a five credit course, introduces the structure of plants, their requirements and human uses of plants, to lead up to the development of gardens and world garden styles. Following a unit on leaders in world garden history, three units are dedicated to Asian Gardens, European Gardens, and American and Natural Gardens. The online course units provide illustrated readings and challenging assignments at the end of each. This is a perfect link for Plants and People, Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, and Ethnobotany resources, and as well is a course which would greatly interest and could be utilized by persons with a keen interest in gardens. Site layout design by Stephanie Carter; course content by Dave Martin, Centralia College, Centralia, Washington. (****) -LF