Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's (TWC) Native Plant Information Network (NPIN) is the largest clearinghouse of native plant information in North America. NPIN is derived from two decades of research on the native flora of North America combined with a series of national surveys sent to Landscapers, Seed Suppliers, Nurseries, and Organizations. NPIN now features linkage between information available in the NPIN and the Invasive Species databases. Users can develop matching lists of appropriate substitute native plants based on the ecological and morphological characteristics of those that are invasive.
TWC recently acquired a major collection of photographic slides of botanical specimens. The slide collection represents over twenty years of regional native plant photography by Sally and Andy Wasowski, well-known authors of several native plant landscaping books. The slide collection includes approximately 12,500 images of botanical specimens occurring in natural and landscaped settings from every region of the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii with special emphasis on the American southwest. The acquisition presents TWC with a unique opportunity to expand and enhance its online native plant image gallery, the most widely used feature of the NPIN.
Well-designed, searchable, and easily accessible plant image galleries are valuable resources. Plant image galleries assist researchers in the biological sciences, professionals in land management, educators, and landscaping and horticulture professionals, as well as amateur naturalists and the general public. As the author of one of the largest plant image galleries in North America (16,993 images, 183 families, 4,448 taxa) receiving over 2 million requests from over 150,000 unique web visitors, TWC has established its online image collection as an invaluable resource and is uniquely positioned to enhance its offering to the scientific and other communities by the addition of the Wasowski photo collection.
CSWGCIN staff worked with TWC to convert the original NPIN database to MySQL to improve speed and efficiency of the database and associated web applications. A total of 12,301 35mm images representing 1571 species were accessioned into the image database. Each of the original 35 MM slides was assigned a unique accession number to link the physical image with its database record. Taxonomy and nomenclature was verified against the USDA Plants database to correct typographical errors and update nomenclature. In addition to the taxonomic identity, any pertinent metadata that could be retrieved from the original slides were recorded including photographer identity, date image was taken, geographic information (if available), and image orientation.
