Plant Taxonomy Database from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)

As part of its overall species activities, WCMC maintains
nomenclatural, distribution and conservation status information on
82,500 species, subspecies and varieties of vascular plants worldwide
(over 1/4 of the described higher plants). This taxon- based
information is linked to 145,000 distribution records and 17,000 data
source records.

WCMC stores these data in a series of database files managed by
BG-BASE, a variable-length field relational database application built
using Advanced Revelation.BG-BASE was originally designed to manage
information on the collections (living, herbarium, slides, library,
etc.) maintained by botanic gardens and arboreta. As a result, it is
both taxon-based and specimen-based in its design.

Since its inception in 1985, BG-BASE has been installed in 53
institutions around the world, including botanic gardens, arboreta,
zoos, universities, horticultural societies, and conservation
organizations. Handling living collections, propagation,
micropropagation, membership, development, education, herbarium,
library, facilities, images, mapping, labelling, and calendar
functions, it has become a large application, with some 3,000 data
fields spread across nearly 150 files. Its variable-length
architecture allows it to store up to 64 Kb of data per field or
record as well as multiple values within a field when desirable.
BG-BASE maintains ca 50 indexes simultaneously to facilitate data
retrieval and to establish relationships between elements in different
files. Although character-based, it provides mouse support, pull-down
menus, and popup select lists, and it can be queries either by
Advanced Revelation's native query language or by SQL. Further
information about BG-BASE can be obtained from its designer, Kerry S.
Walter at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh ([e-mail]).

Currently, WCMC maintains the largest combination of records of plant
names, distributions, and data sources of any BG-BASE site (or of any
other plant conservation organization anywhere).

LANGUAGE:
English

STATISTICAL INFORMATION:

ACCESS AND DISTRIBUTION:

WCMC makes information available through published media, through
provision of datasets, and through the provision of either standard or
customised reports. WCMC is committed to the principle of the free
exchange of data with other institutions and users. In so far as is
practical, it places its data in the public domain and encourages
their wide distribution. However, costs may be incurred in accessing
and distributing datasets, and where analysis and assessment provide
an added-value service. Such costs are passed on to the user.