Rangeland Ecology & Management

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BLUE COLLAR PLANTS REVISITED
Author
Bernau, Chris
Tolleson, Doug
Smith, Sue
Schalau, Jeff
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2014
Body

In 2010 we reported on the preliminary launch of "Blue Collar plants", a website and herbarium designed to assist the rangeland professional and casual observer with plant identification for specimens that may not be in the standard “plant mount perfect” condition.  Traditional plant ID books and herbarium collections tend to focus on plants that are in pristine condition, full flowered with no blemishes.  However, rangeland conditions vary and plant growth patterns may change with soil type, temperature, precipitation, herbivory, and time of year.  Thus there was a need to represent those varying conditions.  The website provides common terms instead of botanical terms, and specimens from a variety of stressed situations provide users an alternative to the common field guides.  Online searches allow users a variety of searchable fields.  If the data field information is known, it may be entered and used to search the database for a match. Once the results are returned, a series of thumbnail pictures are displayed to help narrow the search. Once a thumbnail is selected a variety of photos of that species are presented and allow the user to match the plant they saw in the field with the pictures.  Along with the photos is a more detailed description of the characteristics of the particular species. Our goal is to provide a variety of pictures or actual collected specimens in different stages of growth and stress to broaden the user's chances to properly identify range plants.  At its launch in 2010 the Blue Collar Plants website had 75 plants and over a hundred photos.  Since that inception the website has grown in popularity, with 14,000 visitors over the past year.  Today the website continues to expand and is currently updated to Version 3.1, has 481 plants listed, and over 2000 photos.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Orlando, FL