Permaculture Information Web

[Heide Hermary <heide.hermary AT gaiacollege.ca>]

Hi all,
As part of our Certificate program in Organic Landscape Management we 
(Gaia College) developed an interactive plant database for our 
students.  As one of their assignments our students are required to 
thoroughly research 5 plants according to the following criteria, and 
enter the information in the database:
NOMENCLATURE: Botanical Name(s), Common Name(s), Family
DESCRIPTION: Type (woody or herbaceous perennial, annual, etc.), Size, 
Rate of Growth, Form, Trunk or Stem, Buds, Foliage, Flowers, Fruit. 
CULTIVARS
PROPAGATION METHOD(S)
NATIVE HABITAT
TOLERANCE TO CULTURAL CONDITIONS
RELATIONSHIPS (synergistic / antagonistic) - this includes companion 
plants, pollinators, animal and microbial predators (so-called pests and 
diseases) - and yes, some can be both antagonistic and synergistic at 
the same time.
VALUABE ATTRIBUTES (food, fiber, medicine, etc.)
REFERENCES

Students are required to upload lots of pictures and create links to 
on-line reference material, but they are also required to describe the 
plants (in plain text) for search purposes.

The goal was to eventually make our database available to the public - 
once we had it "perfected". I can see from the discussions that this 
planned database will surpass anything we could achieve with our limited 
technological capabilities and funds. I also think it would be desirable 
to cooperate and pool our energies on this venture for everybody's benefit.

If your database can accommodate our needs for identification features 
(including searches) I would switch our students - and the information 
we have collecged so far - over as soon as you are ready.

Do you think this would be possible?

Cheers, Heide Hermary
Gaia College
http://www.gaiacollege.ca