What botanical descriptions are required for the site?

What are botanical descriptions for?

Plant identification guide on "Plantarium" allows you to limit the circle of plants similar to the species you are looking for, but only in rare cases can give an exact definition. In any case, the specimen must be checked against a botanical description that details the characteristics of the individual parts of the plant, the ecology and distribution of the species.

The project participants try to find and provide links to pages containing such descriptions. In cases where information of the required quality cannot be found in external web-sources, we search for and place botanical descriptions on the pages of the "Plantarium".

What should be the botanical description?

Botanical description is a narrative text that describes in detail the features of the stems, leaves, inflorescences, flowers, fruits, cones and other organs of the plant, as well as the characteristic habitats and distribution of the species.

Do not confuse botanical descriptions with identification keys! The latter indicate only some of the characters that are important for distinguishing species within the genus. Text of identification key cannot provide a complete picture of the appearance of the plant, as well as its ecology and distribution.

Where botanical descriptions may be found?

The best botanical descriptions are contained in the "Flora of the USSR" and in various regional "floras" published in the USSR. Quite a few of these publications are contained in digitized form in A. Shipunov's library (see also its mirror).

In what format are descriptions required?

It is best if the description is in the form of text. In this case, it can be immediately placed on the site in the "Botanical description" section of the corresponding taxon (this can be done by any project participant in an authorized mode). After being reviewed by a moderator, the text will be published on the view description page.

If there is no description in the form of text, it can be scanned (with a resolution of at least 300 dpi) or photographed (with the highest possible resolution). The text obtained in this way can be recognized and placed on the site (as described above) or sent to the project administrator (the link to the form for sending a letter with an attachment is on the page of the taxon whose description is being searched for).

If you have a variant of the botanical description in the format DjVu, you can take the text from there. To do this, the desired fragment of the page must be selected and saved as an image file, and then recognized using a specialized program in order to turn it into text.

When posting a botanical description on the site or sending it to a moderator, please do not forget to indicate the title of the book, volume and year of publication.

Example of botanical description

Annual; caespitose. Butt sheaths herbaceous. Culms erect, or geniculately ascending, or decumbent; 3—30 cm long; 2—4-noded. Culm-internodes terete; smooth. Lateral branches lacking, or sparse. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths keeled; smooth. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 2—5 mm long; obtuse. Leaf-blades flat, or conduplicate; 1—14 cm long; 1—5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth; glabrous. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous. Leaf-blade apex obtuse, or abruptly acute; hooded.

Inflorescence a panicle. Panicle open; pyramidal, or ovate; 1—12 cm long. Primary panicle branches spreading; 1—2-nate. Panicle branches smooth. Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels 0.3—4 mm long.

Spikelets comprising 3—10 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets oblong, or ovate; laterally compressed; 3—10 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes obscured by lemmas; smooth. Floret callus glabrous, or pubescent.

Glumes persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume lanceolate, or ovate; 1.5—3 mm long; 0.7—0.8 length of upper glume; membranous; 1-keeled; 1-veined. Lower glume lateral veins absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume elliptic, or oblong; 2—4 mm long; 0.9—1 length of adjacent fertile lemma; membranous; 1-keeled; 3-veined. Upper glume apex acute.

Fertile lemma ovate; oblong in profile; 2.5—4 mm long; membranous; much thinner above; much thinner on margins; keeled; 5-veined. Lemma lateral veins stopping well short of apex. Lemma surface glabrous, or pubescent; hairy below; hairy on veins. Lemma apex acute. Palea 0.9 length of lemma. Palea keels eciliate, or ciliolate. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

Lodicules 2; membranous. Anthers 3; 0.7—1.3 mm long.

Source: The Online World Grass Flora