Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/Resources

The following is a repository of resources to aid participants. Always use reliable sources in writing articles, and remember to cite them. Wikipedia policies and the Manual of Style should be consulted when in doubt.

Article structure

 * See also: Plant article template

Use the format of any one of our featured articles for inspiration on how to write a good plant-related article.

Infoboxes

 * Taxobox – see documentation at Taxobox usage
 * Automatic taxobox – see documentation at WP:PLANTS/Automatic taxobox and Template:Automatic taxobox
 * Speciesbox – see documentation at WP:PLANTS/Automatic taxobox and Template:Speciesbox
 * Infraspeciesbox – see documentation at Template:Infraspeciesbox
 * Infobox cultivar for cultivars, hybrid or otherwise; see this template's instructions for use in articles
 * Infobox scientist for articles on botanists

External links and citation templates

 * Taxonbar bar at the bottom of taxon pages, displays shorthand links to biological and taxonomic databases based on the taxon's corresponding Wikidata entry
 * Generic citation templates including website, book, journal, thesis & dissertation, conferences reports, encyclopedia, and more
 * Plants (see also Category:Botany external link templates)
 * APNI Australian Plant Names Index
 * Cite WF World Ferns
 * Cite POWO Plants of the World Online (POWO)
 * eFloras Collection of online floras
 * Flora of Australia Online
 * FloraBase Western Australia's FloraBase
 * Cite GrassBase GrassBase, The Online World Grass Flora
 * GRIN Germplasm Resources Information Network, species articles
 * GRIN genus Germplasm Resources Information Network, genus articles
 * GISD Global Invasive Species Database
 * IPNI International Plant Names Index
 * IPNI author
 * WCSP World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP)
 * PLANTS USDA Plants
 * ThePlantList The Plant List


 * General (see also Category:Biology external link templates)
 * Catalogue of Life Catalogue of Life species
 * EOL Encyclopedia of Life
 * ITIS Integrated Taxonomic Information System
 * NCBI taxid National Center for Biotechnology Information

Other

 * WikiProject Plants for use on talk pages for project assessment
 * Botanist for use in botanist-related articles where the person has authored plant names
 * expert needed for use in plants articles needing expert attention
 * Missing species for finding information about plant articles
 * Plant common name to flag a disambiguating article about a common name shared by two or more plants
 * User WikiProject Plants to identify editors who are members of WikiProject Plants
 * InvitePlants for invitation to join this WikiProject
 * Collab-plant to update current collaboration

Wiki Resources

 * List of botanists by author abbreviation
 * WikiProject Resource Exchange
 * Botany external link templates
 * List of herbaria

Classification
For angiosperm taxoboxes, we generally prefer APG IV, although exceptions may be made if more recent information is available.


 * Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003). An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 141, 399–436. available here : Available online.  Out of date for some groups; see APG III or next reference for more up-to-date information based on research since 2003.
 * Angiosperm Phylogeny Website : incorporates the latest taxonomic research; continuously updated.
 * The TROPICOS database is searchable by species, and where this is available, will give the accepted classification, and the degree to which it is accepted. Also lists authors, synonyms and homonyms. Far from complete.
 * Vascular Plant Families – a systematic and alphabetical index of the non-flowering and the flowering plant families with the Cronquist system and the phylogenetic system of Judd et al. (2002) (i.e. APG)
 * USDA/NRCS PLANTS Database – Not complete, but nice. Resource for some PD images, although not all are PD. Common names listed may not be widely used, or widely used only in the USA. Not an especially good source for taxonomy (better is GRIN, below, and some of the others here).
 * L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. https://www.delta-intkey.com/ – Unique resource, updated to about 1998 (note that especially the lists of genera are outdated) – includes classifications of Cronquist; Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford and Yeo; and APG (i.e. APG I, of 1998)
 * International Plant Names Index (IPNI)
 * IPNI, authors search Note that the author database is separate from the plant name databases: the author database is authoritative. The plant name databases are "as is" and should be used as a search aid (invaluable as such) rather than as any kind of authority.
 * Forestry Images a lot of images of plants released under creative commons 3.0.
 * USDA GRIN Taxonomy for Plants
 * Gymnosperm Database – very good coverage of gymnosperms (Taxonomy page)
 * ILDIS (International Legume Database & Information Service) A database of legume taxonomy, includes synonyms and accepted names, common names and detailed bibliographies for many species.
 * Likewise, the following sites can help find taxonomic authors and abbreviations:


 * Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)
 * Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Not an especially good source for taxonomy (better is GRIN, above, and some of the others here).
 * Wikispecies
 * ICNafp Shenzhen Code
 * IAPT Proposals and Disposals – Check on the status and history of a certain taxon name, e.g. when it was proposed for conservation or rejection, when the issue was resolved, etc.
 * Plantarium Database – a systematic index of the non-flowering and the flowering plant of Eurasia (mostly ex-USSR), more than 7700 illustrated taxa (in Latin and Russian). For English use Google Translator.
 * International Fossil Plants Name Index
 * iNaturalist, a crowdsourced database of observations of plants and animals. Contains some freely licensed photos but also copyrighted works.

Pteridophyte classification
Wikipedia articles generally follow the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG) system for ferns and lycophytes. , this is the 2016 PPG I system, supported by a very large number of pteridophyte researchers.
 * The orginal paper can be used down to genera (see ), although there have been some changes since that appear to have good support.
 * The only database that uses PPG and goes down to species appears to be World Ferns. It's regularly updated and the author has responded well to queries.
 * Unfortunately, Kew has decided to use the 2019 GLOVAP system for ferns. This is an extreme lumping system; for example the whole of PPG's subfamily Grammitidoideae with 33 genera and some 900 species is sunk into one huge genus Grammitis. Hence Plants of the World Online should not be used for lists of species, taxoboxes or article titles for ferns and lycophytes, although its position must, of course, be mentioned in the text. For a discussion of the "lumping" approach, see, and sources referenced there.

Non-paywalled journals
See the caveats on primary sources at WP:PRIMARY (although these journals sometimes run review articles, which are secondary sources, or an article starts by summarizing previous research).


 * Issues of American Journal of Botany older than about a year are not paywalled
 * PubMed Central is a large repository of non-paywalled articles which covers some botanical subjects


 * All issues of the New Zealand Journal of Botany are available for free


 * All issues of the New Zealand Journal of Ecology are available for free

Australia

 * Atlas of Living Australia
 * Electronic Flora of South Australia (eFloraSA)
 * Flora of Tasmania online (under development)
 * Western Australian flora (FloraBase)
 * What’s Its Name? (a concise database of plant names & name changes for Australia)
 * Western Australian flora (FloraBase)
 * What’s Its Name? (a concise database of plant names & name changes for Australia)

Brazil

 * Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil (select English or Portuguese version)

British Isles

 * Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora

Canada

 * Flora of North America (eFloras.org)
 * Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Chile

 * Flora of Chile (eFloras.org)

China

 * Flora of China (eFloras.org) (online taxon pages)
 * Flora of China (flora.huh.harvard.edu) Complete Family List (with PDFs for each family or tribes of large families)

Ecuador

 * Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador
 * Trees and shrubs of the Andes of Ecuador (eFloras.org)

Europe

 * Flora Europaea (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)
 * Interactive Flora of NW Europe
 * Interactive Flora of NW Europe

Madagascar

 * Madagascar Catalogue (eFloras.org)

Marquesas Islands

 * Flora of the Marquesas Islands (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history)

Nepal

 * Flora of Nepal
 * Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal (eFloras.org)

New Caledonia

 * Endémía: Flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie (in French)

Nicaragua

 * Flora de Nicaragua (TROPICOS) (in Spanish)

Pacific islands

 * Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk Lists many/most invasive non-natives including where they are found (includes Indian ocean islands but I don't think continental Australia, Japan, Korea, etc.)

Pakistan

 * Flora of Pakistan (eFloras.org)

Papua New Guinea

 * Plants of Papua New Guinea

Peru

 * TROPICOS-Peru Checklist

United States

 * Flora of Missouri (eFloras.org) – this is a species list
 * Flora of North America (eFloras.org) – includes discussions of classifications, habitat, etc. Only covers some plant families – see the publication schedule
 * Flora of the Southeastern United States by Alan S. Weakley
 * Smithsonian herbarium archive, when you click on or hover over individual images, look at the header; the ones with "Usage Statement:CC0" at the bottom of the header are public domain, as Creative Commons zero means no rights reserved. As many other herbarium databases are copyrighted, this means the Smithsonian herbarium archive is a good source if you need to find an herbarium sample for uploading to Wikimedia Commons. (In February 2020, the Smithsonian placed 2.8 million images into CC0.)
 * Herbarium databases vary in their licensing from public domain to non-commercial-only. Non-commercial-only images are generally unacceptable for Wikipedia. A listing of the copyright licenses for various herbaria can be found here and here.
 * Wild Flowers Worth Knowing. Don't rely on this for taxonomy (such as the scientific name of each species), but much of the historical and descriptive information is still applicable.
 * Fire Effects Information System for forest understory plants. Goes beyond responses to fire to also cover ecology, habitats, etc.
 * Sylvics Manual for trees.
 * Wildland Shrubs of the United States and its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions, General Technical Report IITF-WB-1, Edited by John K. Francis
 * Flora of the Hawaiian Islands (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history)
 * Flora of the Hawaiian Islands (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history)

Zimbabwe

 * Flora of Zimbabwe

Glossaries

 * Categorical Glossary for the Flora of North America Project – searchable online glossary


 * Flora Mesoamericana English-Spanish Glossary – useful when translating Spanish botanical sources

To do

 * Plant articles with maintenance and cleanup category listings
 * Plant articles needing attention (or expert attention)
 * Plant articles needing images


 * Wiki loves iNaturalist Experimental tool for locating photos of taxa in iNaturalist and determining their licensing status; can be used to upload suitable images to Commons.
 * ImageChecker tool can be used to locate plant articles tagged as needing images that may already have them.
 * Unidentified plant images on Commons
 * Missing/Requested encyclopedic articles:
 * WP Plants: Article requests
 * Missing topics about Botany
 * Hotlist of Plants
 * Botanists
 * WikiProject Women in Red (Botany)
 * Missing taxobox (includes all taxa)
 * Cultivar articles needing an infobox
 * New article announcements, bot-assisted
 * Import donated texts per GLAM/ARKive
 * Translate articles improved by GLAM/ARKive into other langugaes
 * Category:Plant redirects with possibilities: (mostly) accepted species redirecting to genus articles
 * Category:Flora without expected TNC conservation status: plants that do not currently have a conservation status in the article

Stubs
You can always expand one (or more) of these stubs.


 * Plant-stub –
 * Asterid-stub –
 * Apiales-stub –
 * Apiaceae-stub –
 * Araliaceae-stub –
 * Asterales-stub –
 * Asteraceae-stub –
 * Cynareae-stub –
 * Cichorioideae-stub –
 * Cichorieae-stub –
 * Asteroideae-stub –
 * Astereae-stub –
 * Eupatorieae-stub –
 * Gnaphalieae-stub –
 * Heliantheae-stub –
 * Senecioneae-stub –
 * Dipsacales-stub –
 * Ericales-stub –
 * Ericaceae-stub –
 * Lecythidaceae-stub –
 * Sapotaceae-stub –
 * Theaceae-stub –
 * Gentianales-stub –
 * Rubiaceae-stub –
 * Ilex-stub –
 * Lamiales-stub –
 * Acanthaceae-stub –
 * Gesneriaceae-stub –
 * Lamiaceae-stub –
 * Lentibulariaceae-stub –
 * Scrophulariaceae-stub –
 * Verbenaceae-stub –
 * Solanales-stub –
 * potato-stub –
 * Bryophyte-stub –
 * Caryophyllales-stub –
 * Aizoaceae-stub –
 * Amaranthaceae-stub –
 * Cactus-stub –
 * Droseraceae-stub –
 * Nepenthes-stub –
 * Polygonaceae-stub –
 * Cycad-stub –
 * Fern-stub –
 * Laurales-stub –
 * Lycophyte-stub –
 * Magnoliales-stub –
 * Annonaceae-stub –
 * Monocot-stub –
 * Araceae-stub –
 * Anthurium-stub –
 * Asparagales-stub –
 * Commelinales-stub –
 * Orchid-stub –
 * Cypripedioideae-stub –
 * Epidendroideae-stub –
 * Bulbophyllum-stub –
 * Dendrobium-stub –
 * Orchidoideae-stub –
 * Palm-stub –
 * Corypheae-stub –
 * Pandanales-stub –
 * Poales-stub –
 * Bromeliad-stub –
 * Bromelioideae-stub –
 * Aechmea-stub –
 * Cryptanthus-stub –
 * Neoregelia-stub –
 * Pitcairnioideae-stub –
 * Navia-stub –
 * Pitcairnia-stub –
 * Puya-stub –
 * Tillandsioideae-stub –
 * Guzmania-stub –
 * Tillandsia-stub –
 * Vriesea-stub –
 * Cyperaceae-stub –
 * Carex-stub –
 * Poaceae-stub –
 * Bamboo-stub –
 * Chloridoideae-stub –
 * Panicoideae-stub –
 * Pooideae-stub –
 * Grass-stub –
 * Zingiberales-stub –
 * Piperales-stub –
 * Proteaceae-stub –
 * Banksia-stub –
 * Ranunculales-stub –
 * Rosid-stub –
 * Brassicales-stub –
 * Celastraceae-stub –
 * Cucurbitales-stub –
 * Fagales-stub –
 * Legume-stub –
 * Caesalpinioideae-stub –
 * Fabaceae-tree-stub –
 * Faboideae-stub –
 * Astragalus-stub –
 * Dalbergia-stub –
 * Lupinus-stub –
 * Mimosoideae-stub –
 * Acacia-stub –
 * Inga-stub –
 * Malpighiales-stub –
 * Calophyllaceae-stub –
 * Clusiaceae-stub –
 * Euphorbiaceae-stub –
 * euphorbia-stub –
 * Malpighiaceae-stub –
 * Passifloraceae-stub –
 * Phyllanthaceae-stub –
 * Salicaceae-stub –
 * Violaceae-stub –
 * Malvales-stub –
 * Dipterocarpaceae-stub –
 * Myrtales-stub –
 * Melastomataceae-stub –
 * Myrtaceae-stub –
 * Oxalidales-stub –
 * Polygalaceae-stub –
 * Rosales-stub –
 * Moraceae-stub –
 * Rhamnaceae-stub –
 * Ulmaceae-stub –
 * Sapindales-stub –
 * Anacardiaceae-stub –
 * Meliaceae-stub –
 * Rutaceae-stub –
 * Santalales-stub –
 * Saxifragales-stub –
 * Crassulaceae-stub –
 * Saxifragaceae-stub –


 * Algae-stub –
 * Chlorophyceae-stub –


 * Fruit-stub –
 * Wine-grape-stub –
 * Tree-stub –
 * Conifer-stub –
 * Fabaceae-tree-stub –
 * Fruit-tree-stub –
 * Vegetable-stub –


 * Botany-stub –
 * Plant-disease-stub –
 * Virus-plant-disease-stub –
 * Horticulture-stub –
 * Agri-stub –
 * Botanist-stub –