This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(May 2024) |
Available in | English |
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Owner | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
URL | Plants of the World Online |
Commercial | No |
Launched | March 2017 |
Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by 2020". [1] This was Kew's answer to the "2020 target 1" of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): "an online flora for all known plants." [2]
The initial focus was on tropical African Floras, particularly Flora Zambesiaca, Flora of West Tropical Africa and Flora of Tropical East Africa. [3]
The database uses the same taxonomical source as Kew's World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, which is the International Plant Names Index, [3] and the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP). [4]
The database contains information of the world's flora that was gathered in the past 250 years of botanical research. It aims to make data available from projects that no longer have an online presence or were never externally available. POWO has information on taxonomy, identification, distribution, traits, threat status and use of plants worldwide. It also contains many images. [5]
As of September 2024 [update] , POWO contained 1,433,000 global plant names, 531,800 detailed descriptions, and 400,900 images. [6]
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 staff. Its board of trustees is chaired by Dame Amelia Fawcett.
Campanula rotundifolia, the common harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. In Scotland, it is often known simply as bluebell. It is the floral emblem of Sweden where it is known as small bluebell. It produces its violet-blue, bell-shaped flowers in late summer and autumn.
Spathiostemon is a genus of trees in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is native to the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Wallacea and Southeast Asia. The trees grow between 10 and 20m tall, often in secondary forest. The wood is sometimes used.
Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, edited with Karl A. E. von Prantl.
Kyllinga is genus of flowering plants in the sedge family known commonly as spikesedges. They are native to tropical and warm temperate areas of the world, especially tropical Africa. These sedges vary in morphology, growing to heights from 2.5 centimeters to a meter and sometimes lacking rhizomes. They are closely related to Cyperus species and sometimes treated as part of a more broadly circumscribed Cyperus.
Barleria prionitis is a shrub in the family Acanthaceae, native to Island and Mainland Southeast Asia, China, the Indian Subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa. It is widely spread as an ornamental and weed, occurring in naturalised populations around the world. It used not only as an ornamental but also as a hedge and extensively as a component of folk medicines. As a weed it is regarded as problematic in many areas.
Fimbristylis polytrichoides is a species of fimbry known by the common name rusty sedge, native to east Africa, Madagascar, China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia. The plant is common along the coast line and estuaries of Australia. The flowers are a distinctive rusty brown color appearing on a single spikelet from May to July.
The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant species over time, and was produced in response to Target 1 of the 2002–2010 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, to produce "An online flora of all known plants". It has not been updated since 2013, and has been superseded by World Flora Online.
The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plant families." Maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, it was available online, allowing searches for the names of families, genera and species, as well as the ability to create checklists.
Rafaël Herman Anna Govaerts is a Belgian botanist. He is particularly noted for his work on plant taxonomy.
Burmannia is a genus of flowering plants long thought of as related to orchids, although more recent studies suggest closer affinities with either the Dioscoreales or the Melanthiales. The plants are herbs, partially autotrophic (photosynthetic) but also partially parasitic on soil fungi.
Cyperus pulchellus is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to northern Australia, tropical Africa, northwest Madagascar and Southeast Asia.
World Flora Online is an Internet-based compendium of the world's plant species.
Elaeocarpus thorelii is a tree in the family Elaeocarpaceae, endemic to Cambodia, and used for its wood.
Elaeocarpus stipularis is a tree in the Elaeocarpaceae family. It is found from the Aru Islands, eastern Indonesia, to Philippines, and through Mainland Southeast Asia to Odisha, India. It has edible fruit, its wood is used and some medical uses are ascribed to it.
Gluta cambodiana is a shrub/small tree in the family Anacardiaceae. It occurs in parts of Mainland Southeast Asia. Its wood is used for pickets and fuel.
Neonauclea sessilifolia is a tree species in the Rubiaceae family. It is found in Taiwan, and then from Yunnan, Zhōngguó/China, to Southeast Asia and northeastern India.