Botany Buddy

This post isn’t filled with garden, horticulture, or botany related info and tips, but it is related to websites on these topics.  I am kind of new to the blogging thing, and the whole blog, tweet, push to Facebook and spread the love routine can get a little cumbersome to me.   After all my real job is to write and create our next products not blog.  However,  blogging let’s me make the connections I used to make when I was doing one on one retail, and design/build work.  I still need that connection and hope I provide something to those I interact with and don’t just turn into a hermit preaching from the side of a mountain.

Keeping up with all this stuff and the people I need and want to can be difficult.  In the old days it was my DayRunner and legal pad that kept me focused and connected.  Today it is my Google Reader and Opera Browser that fill these needs.  The reader lets me know what you are doing and the speed dial on Opera allows me to make sure I make my rounds through the neighborhoods.  The system allows me to catch and follow other blogs without having to track them down.  It saves me time getting the information passed where I want it to go, and it allows me to weed the out junk.  I am sure some of you savvy folks have even better systems, but for me this was a big step from the legal pad and a list of bookmarks in my browser.

This process has taken me from needing all day to keep up to making my rounds a couple times a day.  It has allowed me to get back to the work that I need to do. Now that I am back to research and writing I have a new techno-overload to deal with.  I put a lot of work and research into every plant we profile.  I have the standard books. I have a few international and nations resources I always verify with, but I like my references to be four and five sources deep, even for the most minute details.  This means I Google…..and Google and Google and Google until I get Googly eyed.  My strategy is start with the plant name then go to regional, local and family specific sources beyond the gold standards to the trail blazes and make sure it all “Jives”.

The thing that makes Google great for this is the simplicity, but that is also what makes it so bad. Everyone knows that Google is managed by keywords and hits.  This is especially true of marketers and people who are out to make a buck instead of feed the head.  Wikipedia, a certain popular garden site, some crappy thing called FLOWERS, and several other sites have really capitalized on this.  They have basically gone out and scraped the USDA and created entries for every plant in their data base and posted the name with absolutely no useful knowledge about them.  In some cases they even ask you to give them the info.  Then they set up a “robot” to hit their site over and over until it rises to the top.

This makes their sites easy to find, but all you find when you get there is the name of the plant, the USDA code, fields for info about the plant that are empty, and a tons of adds most that aren’t even for garden products.  The worst part is that since these sites are often wrong right down to the names, the bad information just gets perpetuated.  To find real knowledge you have to go four and five pages deep, track down specific groups and develop your own system of bookmarking that isn’t far removed from using a legal pad. This begs my question…Where’s my Google Blocker?  Why can’t I block certain sites from coming up when I do a search.   Google doesn’t make any money off the search.  They only make money on the pay per click adds which these sites aren’t using or paying for anyway.  Better yet, why don’t they let searchers rate the sites in addition to the ranking Google gives them that is based on the keyword search.

There is some fabulous research and writing out there, and there are some great sites, but they are buried so far under the compost pile that for good botanical info you have to dig a trench for potatoes not just sow some seeds.  I don’t need to list the bad ones…Google already does that and you can’t miss them with a simple botanical name search.  As for Wikipedia, while there is some great content and photos there, the canned format is loaded with improper names and taxonomic code from their initial data import.  As a result when peopel add great photos and info they are often adding it to already incorrect data.  Even worse, people are now recycling Wikipedia (because it’s free), just like Wikipedia recycled the incorrect plant names at USDA and exasperating these problems.

I could do a whole blog on some great University sites, especially in the US, and that is where the best info for the states is, but for now I am going to give you a few that aren’t tied to schools.  These or other private individuals and collaborations that are doing the wikithing, but doing it right.  These people trying to sell their input and knowledge or even just giving it away because they see the need.  They truly want to educate and not  sell you a bunch of junk you don’t need.  In the meantime if you know of a Google blocker…..PLEASE let me know.

TrekNature This is a combo Flickr meets Wiki but is saturated with educators, researchers, and photographers.

CactiGuide.Com This is a little more primitive, but very comprehensive.  The nomenclature needs some verification but is easily tracked down.

Mushroom Observer This is one of my new favorite hangouts and some of the most comprehensive and accurate info out there.

World Wide Wattle One of the largest Genus out there does deserve it’s own site and these guys prove why.

Like I said these are just a few but they are setting a great model.  They are ones that you have to dig deep to find, but should be right at the top.

It’s an age old question that can apply to many things.  Names are something we take for granted, but in reality they are the fundamental basis of all communications.  When we think of names we think of what we call one another, our pets, our children and our places.  In reality though ever word in every language is in essence a name.  Even a verb is the name for an action that takes many words to explain, that is why they all have definitions.  Imagine trying to give someone directions without a name for the action of “turn”.  Most importantly though, we use names to explain relations.  First names, last names, family trees, nationalities, and the names for the relations between these things are what derive and keep order in our world.  Even further they are the signposts to how we navigate and determine our possible impact on and place in the world. Names of course vary among languages and regions.   Different words (names) are used to describe the same thing in different languages and locations.  In the end, regardless of differences in language, the objects and actions being described by their name can be recognized for what they are and the variations in language can be translated.

The scenario where this doesn’t work is in living beings.  Verbs can vary in how they are performed, but that can be described with adverbs.  Physical objects like rocks or furniture can vary in visible traits or molecular makeup, but that variations are qualified with adjectives to help further describe the object.  Even these can easily be recognized visually and translated between languages and cultures because the “name” is essentially the same.

Where absolute accuracy is essential and qualifying additives cannot do justice to a name is when it comes to living beings.  When it comes to people, accuracy doesn’t seem to be such a problem because we are all unique and have a free will.  We will always act individually even within a community and the genetic heritage of our name has limited capabilities in determining or predicting how we will act.  People can even share the same names, but be easily qualified with adjectives or descriptors because every human is distinct.  With people and even domesticated animals, the genetic code may vary slightly within our species, but our wills, personalities, relationships and souls make us all easily discernible from one another.

With other less discernible species such as grasses, lichens, trees, fish, birds and non-domesticated animals the species may be discernible as a whole but the identity of individuals within the species is much less clear.  More importantly the collective impact or necessity of the species has an even greater effect on the world and nature as a whole.  Names of these species describe a collective whose members act on a collective instinct (or possibly conscience) instead of individual free wills.  In the end these names represents more than the one.  They give insight and understanding into the collective nature and cultural background of the species as a whole.

To answer the the title question:  Everything about and everything something and what it impacts is in a name.  A good name captures both the essence and esse of what it describes.  It captures the traits of what makes the thing being described unique (essence) as well as the intrinsic presence that makes it identifiable for what it is (esse).   Where meaning gets lost is when variation occurs in the naming itself rather than the translation of the names.  In the plant world people work in both common and botanical names.  The botanical name is a Latin based name that is used not only to identify the plant, but also gives insight into the breeding and heritage that led to it’s creation.  It is is written in Latin to provide a universal language whose meaning will not be lost in translation world-wide.  This allows us to see what the species is, where it has come from genetically, and what it might do in nature or the situation we put it in.

Common names are regional and based on local peoples’ experiences with the plant rather than the culture and cultivation of the plant itself.  Common names are extremely descriptive, but subjective and should never be used when striving for accuracy of any kind. There is much debate about what people like to use, and whether the botanical name is important if you are not a professional horticulturist or botanist.  However, you really can’t know the plant well enough to responsibly plant in nature or a landscape without the information provided by an accurate botanical name.  Common names may tell what a plant has done, but cannot give sure insight of what it is capable of doing.  Accurate and exact botanical naming of all species (not just plants) is crucial the the protection of nature itself as well as understanding it.  Nothing has been more influential to the spread of invasive species and disease than improper naming that occurs in the commercialization of plants and the mis-education that improper naming provides.

Over the last fifteen years, with the rise of genetic testing, efforts have been underway world-wide to cleanup this mess, and bring order to this problem. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is one of the efforts that has been working across borders and oceans to make this happen.  The ITIS is a collaborative effort of governments and  academic systems, that crosses borders and oceans, but is greatly limited by the inertia and limited funding of the respective institutions.  There are others that specialized even more into areas such as fungi, cacti, wattles, and regional ecosystems.  These groups have a passion and sense of urgency but don’t have cooperative and interconnected systems to make some of this possible.  This problem isn’t limited to the plant kingdom, it is pervasive in the animal kingdom as well, and both do relate to one another.

Most of the early misnaming has been created by the limitation of communications.  Most botanical naming was done long before the Internet was ever created and the commerce of species became a worldwide phenomenon long before there was a world-wide-web.  As a result duplicate species are being sold and shipped with different names throughout the world.  Even more damaging, multiple species are being distributed throughout the world with the same name, and this is where the greatest danger lyes.  People are shipping and using plants all over the world for uses they are not suited for or with potential impacts that they are totally unaware of.   What is in the name they are buying or selling is actually of another name.  The greatest responsibility  lyes in the breeders and distributors of these species to accurately identify what they are selling, and to accurately identify what they are breeding them from.  Unfortunately, until the system is completely cleaned up and connected this cannot be done.

Commercialization has not only led to the spread of misnamed species, but people are breeding new species and varieties from already misnamed species at rates ten times faster than the original species were discovered.  When we started Botany Buddy it was created to help communicate and educate between the “classes” (for lack of a better name) of gardeners.   The tools we are creating are meant to bring the same language to educators, botanists, growers, purveyors and gardeners in a way that is easily accessed and understood by all.  Our original iPhone app was created to educate, communicate, and identify information to the user and for the users to be able to communicate it to each other.  In the end it has communicated just as much to us.  With users in over twenty counties and on every continent we have communicated with botanists all over the world to help us design our new database and systems.

Just this week we finished proofing the final taxonomic database for the upcoming web based app.  With about 60,000 species ACCURATELY represented we can now add data, photos, and even more species to the database and know that we can truly represent the species’ family heritage.  When we started this our intent was to add a thousand or so trees at a time, and just build on the library we had in the original app every so often.  In the end we realized we needed to add the ones we have now into nature’s library and to create our own Dewey Decimal System to manage it the information in it.  As a result our final product will be a tool that has literally “thousands times” more information than our initial release and will be formatted to grow at any given moment and with more accuracy than any other resource I have found in existence.  This capability would be totally impossible if it were not for a name.

Personally I like to be a little incognito in my gardening circles.  Those who “know” me know not just my name, but my botanical name as well.  I would venture to say those who read this blog regularly are probably getting to know me on that level to some extent.  The other day I was at garden center and watched someone selling an ornamental grass.  This person did not know my botanical name.   The customer asked if the plant would spread by seed.  The sales person said, “No this is Kirk Alexander Maiden Grass and is a hybrid that was cultivated by a local designer years ago.”  I pointed across the highway to about a 1/4 mile long stretch of maiden grass growing in a ditch, and said, “That may be Kirk Alexander in the pot, but those are his parents over there and they didn’t arrive until after Kirk did.”  Needless to say they looked at me like I was nuts, but that is what is in a name. If we know where we come from we know where we might go.

People are all hybrids and we may be determined not to become our parents, but it in the end both the best and the worst of them tends to come out in us.  Obviously I get my verbosity from my father.  He always used to say “the mind cannot absorb more than the seat can endure”, so I will wrap this up.  This trait about me you could definitely predict if I had a botanical name.  Our naming task has taken far longer, more mental energy, and more patience and determination than almost anything I have ever done.  It is and has to be the foundation of everything we do going forward to really be a great reference.  I like superlatives, and this may be the most important and responsible work I have done in the last thirty years and hope will help the world for hundreds of years to come.  That is what is in a name.

The new year is well underway, and I managed not to get out that “New Year’s Blog”, just like I didn’t get out that Christmas Letter.  I have never been one to make resolutions, because I always viewed the making of the proclamation as valuable energy that could be used actually performing the task.  I have a saying about landscape designs that applies to this as well, “If it doesn’t get changed, it didn’t do it’s job.” The important part of these rituals isn’t their name, but rather that they actually communicate what is intended, mark the passage of time and celebrate our accomplishments and relationships along the way.

When it comes to resolutions I have made plenty in the last year, whether I have verbalized them or not.  2009 started with nothing to be resolute about.  Our entire local economy was collapsing far faster than the national one, and the entire Landscape industry here continues to contract to literally 1/3 the size it was when I moved here.  As for myself,  I had long since moved out of traditional landscaping and into more of a consulting role for an entire industry that is now almost completely gone (resort development).  That left the only resolutions possible to be finding a new way forward not just for myself and my family, but also my industry and the people I had worked with along the way.  Call it what you will.  I viewed this not as a resolution, but rather a journey and I had no clue looking forward where it would lead.

As the year started I continued to pull together what little work I could for friends and old connections to get by.  I also started to look for something completely different; all the time not wanting to give up what I had done for the last 25 plus years.  The greatest thing of all about gardening of is sharing and whatever I decided to do sharing had to be an important part of it.  Whether it is the ideas, the knowledge, experiences, or reflections, it is sharing with nature and one another that makes what we do so great.  What matters is not the resolution to grow that plant this year, but rather that you tried and you learned whether it lives or if it dies.

In the end, after months of reflection I realized what was most important to me.  It was not all the accomplishments I would achieve for others (often for the sake of myself), but the journey and sharing of experience and knowledge with the friends I would make along the way.  I would find a new path to take, and it was an old friend who showed me the way.  Botany Buddy is just what I was looking for, a journey about sharing.  While we have some lofty goals, they are really just markers along the trail of our journey to create something that will never cease to evolve or to be discovered.  If we accomplish what we want it will be like a great garden of knowledge and a well used plan.

When it started out, it was a resolution: to create an app.  Or course it didn’t take long to realize we wanted more than that.  We wanted something that we could continue to grow, to help others grow and to help people share their with each other.  Like most journeys some legs seem to take forever, and as we are finishing the database for Botany Buddy Online it has taken us places we never dreamed we would go.  We never dreamed it would take us over four weeks just to finalize the nomenclature.  Nor did we know we would be sifting through 90,000 names commonly in use only to find the 50,000 species that are actually valid.  The point is we learned along the way and get to share that with our new friends.

As the new year has arrived (I am now accepting it as official since it is above freezing today), we are well into our next leg of the journey.  Now the names are in place we can populate the data and images to their proper places.  As we go down this trail, we get to make even more new friends, share with them and our collective experiences along the way.  It is kind of like a resolution, or “a plan”, in that it is thorough, organized and fits neatly into a spreadsheet.  We know what we need to get where we are going, and we know what it will look like when we come to the next marker along the trail.  Now all we have to do is muddy up the plan and spill some coffee on it so that we can share it with all of you.

As I get back into the the blog these next few weeks, forgive me if I obsess about the mundane details of our next release.  In the end I am sure you will appreciate them just like the perfectly placed specimen you find tucked in the garden that was nowhere to be found in the original plan.  I am a designer and a gardener at heart, and I really don’t know how to work any other way.  The plan has to get dirty, marked up, changed, and wrinkled if we are going to create the living garden of knowledge we are trying to achieve.