Connecting to IPNI - a new level of detail...

Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:05 pm

For the true cactus geeks among us!

Are you familiar with the International Plant Names Index? (AKA IPNI)

This is a tremendous resource for referencing who came up with the names and which publication they used.

I've wanted to link to them for some time and finally went ahead and did so yesterday. When you are looking at a specific taxon on CactiGuide.com now, you will see this line under the synonyms:

To view publication details for this taxon and related synonyms Click Here.

Click it and see what you get!

The IPNI uses both the Index Kewensis and the Gray Index which have a ton of duplication. So the challenge was getting all the records without the dups. With a little finagling, however, I came up with the existing code.

Finally, this also works with the Custom Nomenclature system and if you are viewing and alternate taxonomy such as the NCL, you will find the name data that way too.

Hope this proves useful to some of you!

Daiv

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:39 pm

Excellent! I use IPNI almost every day. Someone on Cacti_Etc just made reference to Echinomastus arizonicus today and I was able instantly to look it up, for example.

peterb

Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:06 pm

Peter,
To that point, the new feature here on CactiGuide.com is not a replacement for the IPNI. In fact, Echinomastus arizonicus isn't even listed here on the site.

Aside from convenience of the data being on hand while you browse this site, there is another advantage.

Namely, you can compare a history of synonyms, which are mostly in chronological order here on the guide. This feature does not exist anywhere else. For example take a look at the synonym list for:

http://www.cactiguide.com/ipni_name_dat ... ue_key=318

You can get a good feel for the flow of names over the years starting with Salm-Dyck in 1845 up through A.E. Hoffman in 1989.

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:18 pm

wow, that really is something! I find it frustrating that synonyms are merely provided in list form in many resources, with no history. This is a great feature, Daiv.

side note: I am now intensely curious about "Echinomastus arizonicus," as it turns out the location is Yuma County, AZ. Not aware of any Echinomastus from Yuma County. What an enigma this group of plants is!

peterb

Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:29 pm

peterb wrote: side note: I am now intensely curious about "Echinomastus arizonicus," as it turns out the location is Yuma County, AZ. Not aware of any Echinomastus from Yuma County. What an enigma this group of plants is!

peterb

I'm curious about this too. I saw an asterisk on the name on the IPNI database, but no indication of what that meant.