After nearly a month of full time development, and thanks to the
25 members who helped brainstorm and test the feature I am pleased to announce the launch of our shiny new plant database!
This all-encompassing database contains many features, and more will be added over time.
All plants have main data attributes (habit, height, bloom color, etc). Plants in specific genera have their own data attributes specific to them (for example, daylilies have "ploidy", "branching", etc.).
Additionally, various genera have moderators over them.
Plant entries also contain a gallery of photos, and those photos are marked by what kind of photo it is ("Entire plant", "Bloom", "Seed pod", etc). Members get an acorn for every image type they submit to each plant.
Members can discuss the photos by posting comments under them.
Plant entries themselves can also contain comments, where you can write your own experiences with the plant. Members get an acorn for each useful comment they post.
Also, if you find an error on a plant, or if a plant is missing information, you don't have to submit a report to a moderator! You just click on "Edit" next to the data, and fill out whatever changes to the plant you deem appropriate. Your saved changes will then be reviewed by a moderator, and if the changes are accepted the plant is updated (and you are given an acorn for the data update!)
You can give a thumbs-up to most things in the database, and the database will use those thumbs to promote those most-thumbed things to the top of the page. For example, the image with the most thumbs is the one that is used as the thumbnail when browsing. The common name with the most thumbs is what is the primary common name.
All members have access to the moderator's queue where they can peek at what's under consideration. You can also give a thumbs-up to items in the moderation queue, which will signal to the moderators that you think it's worth approving.
The database is already populated with most plants that are commonly cultivated. The owners of several databases at Cubits.org have moved all the entries from their databases over here, including Roses, Daylilies, Clematis, Sedum, Sempervivum, and Jovibarba. The Irises cubit did not move their data over, but they did graciously allow us to make copies of it. The remainder of plant names came from the main Cubits.org/plants database.
If you had previously contributed to these various databases, your contributions were brought over, and you were given acorns for the contributions!
All this is just the beginning. I am currently working on developing advanced searching tools that will take advantage of the richness of data that is already being built into the database. We are not at the end of development, we are actually at the beginning.
There are many more features in the database, so I invite you to start exploring it by clicking on the Plants tab on the top of the screen.
