A website functioning as an online conifer encyclopedia takes a lot of time to develop. One can argue it will never be fully completed, as there will always be novel scientific discoveries, new cultivar introductions and unresolved questions. To have some sort of target to work towards, I have made several objectives which all have a fixed goal to work towards.
Beneath, you will find a list of objectives with explanation and their progress.
Objectives
- Images
- Species & hybrids
- Extinct conifers
- Cultivars
Objective progression
Taxonomy
Classifying conifers based on taxonomy. To complete a taxonomic classification, a database entry must be provided with the taxa:
ORDER > FAMILY > SUBFAMILY > GENUS > SUBGENUS > SECTION > SUBSECTION > SERIES > SPECIES.
This also functions as a way to filter conifers based on family and genus.
Author citations
Providing correct author citation to scientific names. The first person or group of people to publish a scientific name recieves the status of author. The author citation follows directly after the scientific name (in full or abbreviated form). A valid example would be:
Abies alba Mill.
– Mill. refers to the English botanist Philip Miller.
Etymology
Elucidating the etymology behind scientific names. Although scientific names often sound far fetched or even random, almost always there is a clear reason for it. A scientific name often refers to for instance a person, a characteristic or a region. An example would be:
Cunninghamia konishii
– Cunninghamia refers to the English botanist A. Cunningham.
– konishii refers to N. Konishi, who collected the type specimen.
Colloquial names
Providing database entries with common names. The term colloquial is used here, because there is more leniency for own imagination, in contrast to the scientific nomenclature. As not all conifers have English common names associated with them, some made up names are permitted here to fill in the gaps, but full freedom of naming would result in confusion. For this website, a new colloquial name is permitted if it prevents confusion.
Plant descriptions
Writing plant descriptions in an understandable way without too many difficult terms. Terms such as serrulate, abaxial, subopposite or pubescent should be explained or substituted to make it accessible to a broader audience. Plant descriptions are often very exact and precise, but the focus here lies on an accessible description that is easy to understand.
Characteristics
Characterizing certain specified traits to categorize and sort conifers. Traits such as size, colour or main feature will have to be specified. This enables the user to filter confers based on a range of characteristics and make it possible to navigate through the vast amount of database entries.
Distribution
Describing conifer distributions based on distribution data.
Map making
Providing conifer species with maps showing their distribution (and for subordinate / superordinate taxa). For example, Abies balsamea would need a map for its subordinate taxa; Abies balsamea var. balsamea and Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis and a map for its superordinate taxon Subsect. Laterales; Abies sibirica and Abies lasiocarpa.
TDWG codes
Determining TDWG codes based on conifer distributions. This makes it possible to list all conifers present within a predefined set of regions. The TDWG framework is designed to divide the world into botanical regions of four different scales. An interactible map will let the user explore the TDWG distributions and its different scales. By clicking on any distribution, the user can be directed to a page that lists conifers from said area.
Habitats
Finding specific information about the habitat of conifer species. For all species, their natural habitat, altitude and the associated conifers will be collected to further improve filters and promote interest in associated conifers.
Hardiness zones
Collecting USDA hardiness zone data for all conifers. With this data, the user can filter conifers based on frost tolerance. This can be particularly useful when planting conifers, as many conifers only tolerate a little frost.
Species continuity
Assessing species continuity based on IUCN Red List data. To assess species continuity, data about population trend, threats and number of mature individuals will be used. The IUCN has its own threat classification, but for the sake of this website’s scope, a threat reclassification has been designed for conifers. This reclassification lets users more easily filter conifers based on threats.
IUCN status
Looking up IUCN statusses for conifers as listed by the IUCN Red List. By doing so, conifers can be filtered based on IUCN status and conifers can recieve a tag of “Threatened” when they have an IUCN status of either VU, EN or CR. This gives the user more ways of filtering conifers.