July 1, 2008 (Vol. 28, No. 13)
URL:
http://www.cpbr.gov.au/cpbr/herbarium/index.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Broad info on Australian plants
Weak Points: Lack of molecular information
Summary:
The Centre for Plant Diversity Research hosts the Australian National Herbarium site, and it’s a decided joy for plant lovers of all types. The opening page gives a quick glimpse of the offerings of the site, which is tightly and hierarchically organized. That’s important because the content could overwhelm the pages. A bar at the top of the page provides links to numerous related collections including those from the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, the Australian Plant Image Index, the Australian Biological Resources Study, and more. These are just the tip of the iceberg, though. Other highlights include a description of research activities, information on specimen requests, a collection of databases (including one for plant images that has many user-specified criteria), and a slug of information about specimens. I didn’t see any molecular information, which is a shortcoming, but perhaps that will be updated in the future.
