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This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax (301) 504-1648.
----------
From: "ARS News Service" <isnv@ars-grin.gov>
To: "ARS News List" <ars-news@ars-grin.gov>
Subject: Better Online Info on Plant Names, Noxious Weeds
Date: Thu, Mar 1, 2001, 6:34 AM


STORY LEAD:
More and Better Online Info on Plant Names, Noxious Weeds
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
March 1, 2001
Hank Becker, (301) 504-1624, hbecker@ars.usda.gov
___________________________________________

Up-to-date scientific information on certain plants is now available on an
improved, user- friendly, multilingual web site developed by Agricultural
Research Service scientists.

The site, developed by botanist John H. Wiersema and colleagues at the ARS
Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., includes the
correct common and scientific names of economically important vascular
plants and information about their use.

The upgraded web site adds some important improvements to the Germplasm
Resources Information Network (GRIN) taxonomy area, including a new web page
devoted to enhancing and expanding the World Economic Plants, A Standard
Reference. That 749- page reference was published in 1999.

So far, the web pages devoted to economic plants and their uses--a subset of
GRIN taxonomy--comprise scientific information on 9,356 of the most
important plant species from 2,616 genera and 290 families. The economic
coverage includes plants or plant products traded, regulated, or otherwise
directly or indirectly important to international commerce.

Several search engines help users find information using various
criteria--such as genus, common name and economic use (such as food, fiber,
forage, timber, fuel, spice, genetic, medical, ornamental and social uses).

More than 75,000 literature citations are cross-referenced to the names of
economic plants alone. The researchers have also developed Spanish and
Portuguese versions of many of the web pages, with French and German
translations on the way.

Another new web page provides access to a specialized segment of the GRIN
database devoted to information on noxious weeds. Both taxonomy web pages
are part of the GRIN database, which includes over 62,000 botanical names of
mainly economic plants. They can be accessed from:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/tax

For more details, see the March issue of Agricultural Research online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar01/plant0301.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________

Scientific contact: John H. Wiersema, ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology
Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-9181, fax (301) 504-5810,
jwiersema@ars-grin.gov.
___________________________________________





 

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