Tropicos -- the Missouri Botanical Garden's online database

March 20, 2009 10:54 AM

"All of the nomenclatural, bibliographic, and specimen data accumulated in MBG’s electronic databases during the past 25 years are publicly available here. This system has over one million scientific names and 3.5 million specimen records." (Description from website.) Searchable by scientific or common name, the database includes brief descriptions, images and references (with some links to full text in Botanicus), and specimen and distribution lists that are available in Google Maps and Earth. Quite a nice resource for anyone interested in botany.

Also, their devs have a (infrequently updated) blog, as does Botanicus.

posted by cog_nate (3 comments total)

That's awesome. The Botanical Garden is a pretty amazing place.
posted by Science! at 11:09 AM on March 20, 2009

I don't know much about botany, but I know nerd pr0n when I see it. Excellent, fellow nerdlings, excellent.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:19 AM on March 20, 2009

I've used Tropicos for years for various things, professional and personal. The developers are only an email away to try to help you figure stuff out. I heart MoBot.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 2:24 PM on March 20, 2009