Online Botanical Resources

Botany
Written By Patricia Fox

Websites that I found useful in my Botany career:

1.    USDA PLANTS database can be found here. This site has many useful applications. Among other things, the plant profiles contain information on the taxonomy of the plant, the rarity status, the wetland indicator status ranking, and the nativity of the plant species. Many of the plant profiles also include images, which are useful when identifying wild plants.

2.    USDA PLANTS fact sheets and plant guides can be found on the USDA plants database website, too. I’m highlighting the plant fact sheets and plant guides pages because they contain a wealth of information on the ethnobotany, uses, management, propagation, and growth habits of the featured plant species. An example of one of the USDA PLANTS database plant guides is the scarlet beebalm (Monarda didyma L.) found here.

3.    Michigan Flora site can be found on the website of the Herbarium of the University of Michigan. This is one of my favorite botanical keys in book form, and it is also available digitally here.

4.    Index Herbariorum. The index Herbariorum can be found here. On this site, you will find a searchable index of the world’s herbaria and their staff.

5.    iDigBio, Integrated Digitized Biocollections. This site can be found here. iDigBio is a national project that aims to digitize the U.S. biological collections and make the specimen collection data and images available for education and research.

6.    GBIF, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. GBIF is a global project that aims to provide free, open access data about our Earth’s biodiversity. You can find that site here.

7.    NatureServe Explorer. You can find this site here. You can use this site to look up information on plant species. I also use this site to look up information on different types of ecosystems.

8.    iNaturalist. You can find the iNaturalist site here. This site is an online social network where you can get assistance identifying plants (and animals). As you upload to share your images, you are also recording your observations, which contributes to tracking of your local biodiversity.

9.    Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The University of Texas at Austin. Native Plants of North America. You can find this site here. If you are looking for information on native plants that you’d like to grow in your home landscape, I feel that this site offers a wealth of knowledge. On this site, they offer images of the plants, information on bloom times, benefits the plants have for wildlife or medicinal uses, and much more.

10.  Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder. You can locate this site here. This is another site that is good for looking up information about plants that you may want to grow in your home landscape. This site also offers horticultural information, and it is a very good source for characteristics and needs of the plants you’re interested in using in your home flower beds.

If you know of any good botanical websites that you feel should be included on this list, please reach out to me with your suggestions on our contact page. I’d love to hear from you!

Additionally, if you’d like to download a PDF file of this resource, you can access the PDF file here.

Patricia Fox

I began my professional career as part of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Botany Department. I started there as an intern during my undergraduate degree, I continued on as I pursued my MS in Biology, and I stayed on becoming the Botany Department Collections Manager. Working extensively with the Museum’s Natural Areas program, I fell in love with Ohio’s natural ecosystem’s and local flora.

In 2020, the pandemic changed my career path, but also allowed me to pursue my interest in growing food and nurturing plants. I enrolled in the Sustainable Agriculture program at our local community college and participated in an internship program to gain hands-on experience in crop production using Sustainable Agriculture practices.

While I no longer work for the Museum, my hope is to combine the wealth of knowledge that I gained at the Museum and my love for science with the spirit of the sustainable agriculture movement to become a resource that has a lasting positive impact on our environment and future.