Online database will provide insights into global warming

Want to see global warming in action? Just visit your local botanic garden. Some plants are now thriving in places where centuries ago they froze.

"For the first time in recorded history, we're starting to see some measurable changes in the environment and the climate around us," said Boyce Tankersley, the director of living plant documentation at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. "Plants respond to those changes."

The Chicago Botanic Garden is relatively young - it opened in 1972 - but other gardens around the world, particularly in Britain, have "immaculately kept" records that go back centuries, Tankersley said. Comparing those records with current ones can offer "exciting insights into climate change," he said.

Botanists' records from the mid-19th century, for example, note instances of plants from warmer climates that could not grow in the cold English weather.

"If you follow the progress over time," Tankersley said, "then you see in the records, say in the 1960s, '70s, '90s, plants starting to [thrive] that were historically planted and froze out."

Comparing such records is not a simple task, however, when the information sits in separate collections at different gardens.

But historical records and a wealth of other plant information once split among many gardens will soon be available through PlantCollections, a free online database anyone can search. Tankersley, the project administrator, said the database should be up and running this spring.

The database will make it easier for gardens to coordinate their plant conservation efforts, said Pam Allenstein of the American Public Gardens Association. Curators will be able to learn which rare and endangered plants are growing at other gardens and exchange information on propagating those species, with the goal of building up wild populations.

"Horticulturists are involved who know how to care for these plants in cultivation," she said. "That's key for reintroducing plants into the wild."

The database includes information from living plant collections, seed banks, DNA databases and herbaria (collections of dried and pressed plants). Ecologists can use it to find out where specific plants were collected in the wild, while home gardeners can get information about the best conditions to grow a particular type of flower.

"In the past, efforts like this have focused just on staff that work in botanic gardens. They've focused on what the curators wanted," Tankersley said. "We've expanded that."

PlantCollections is a collaboration between the Chicago Botanic Garden, the American Public Gardens Association and several other institutions. The database combines the records of 16 North American botanic gardens, the Beijing Botanic Garden and the National Trust, a British conservation organization that manages more than 500 "significant gardens," said Tankersley.

The project won a $666,000 grant in 2005 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. Several partners are applying for additional funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tankersley said, and an anonymous donor gave a grant to expand the project to include more botanic gardens overseas.

Data is stored in Google Base, a free online data depository. This removes the burden of maintaining computer infrastructure from any one garden.

"No one institution would have necessarily had the resources to organize such a project," Allenstein said. "It really does take this community approach to make it happen."

Preserving the records and allowing the public to access them is also an investment in future research, Allenstein said. The new insights into global warming Tankersley mentioned are just one example.

"Could we have guessed 10 years ago that that would be a use for these plant records? I'll bet not," Allenstein said. "I think it underscores the importance of saving these records, that this is an important piece of what public gardens can do with plant collections, to maintain these records and make them available."

The PlantCollections database contains 161 searchable data fields. Search results can be downloaded as spreadsheets or as maps of where plants were collected or are growing.

Here is some of the information you can find in PlantCollections:

Climate data
- Temperature highs and lows, snowfall, rainfall, and climate zone for each garden

Geographic and environmental data
- Where plants have been collected in the wild.
- Elevation and a general description of the environment.
- What institution collected the plant, where copies went, and which other plants were collected nearby.

Conservation
- Which plants are rare and endangered.
- Which gardens have examples of rare plants.

Information for gardeners
- "One of the questions we're frequently asked is 'Where can I get one?'" Tankersley said. "We're for the first time sharing with folks where they can get these plants commercially."
- Gardeners also can learn what techniques work best to get seeds to germinate or cuttings to root.

Ornamental characteristics
- Users can search for plants by a range of attributes, including flower color, foliage color, fruit color, height and resistance to pest and diseases.

Images
- Users can download images from the scientific image database Morphbank at Florida State University, a PlantCollections partner.